September 29, 2006
The Texas A&M equestrian team will have a new look and a new mission starting this season and beyond.
Gone are the days of 15 schools riding against each other in invitational-style competitions lasting as many as eight and nine hours in length. Gone are the days of choosing horses by the ?'luck of the draw?â„¢ and coaches guessing who has the best shot at scoring points for their teams in each division. Gone are the days of one discipline competing without the other over the course of a weekend. Also gone are the days of riders jumping on a horse they have never ridden before ?'cold?â„¢, i.e. with no warm-up time, and instantly competing.
After 17 years of successfully competing in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) as both a club and varsity team, Texas A&M has decided to head in a new direction. The Aggies have elected to solely compete in varsity-only styles of competition against athletic department sponsored NCAA equestrian teams starting this weekend.
?Each school had their own individual reasons to change from the IHSA to varsity,? A&M head coach Tana Rawson said. ?For us, now we can recruit a much larger number of riders that deserve to be recruited. Before this we were spending much of our time trying to find lower level riders (which were weighted as important as the top riders in the IHSA system) and only had a small number of spots for top-level girls. We?â„¢re excited that we can now bring in a larger number of girls that can compete at the highest level and give them the opportunity to earn scholarships.?
To open this new era in Texas A&M equestrian, the Aggies will face Stephen F. Austin in Nacogdoches. At this show, a rider from each school will face off with the pair riding the same horse for a judges?â„¢ score. The winner of the head-to-head match will earn one point for their school, much like the scoring method used in tennis. If at the conclusion of the team competition there is a tie, the raw judges scores will be added up to determine a winner. Each rider will also get five minutes to test out their draw before competing before the judge or judges.
?Another reason we elected to make the switch is that now every rider that competes counts for what we are trying to achieve at a competition,? Rawson said. ?Before we had to guess who would be our top scorer in each class and live or die with that choice. With this new format, that guessing game is eliminated and everybody counts equally. Putting two riders against each other on the exact same horse makes it a much more level playing field than trying to compare two girls on two completely different horses as well. We?â„¢re also excited that the show will be on a somewhat smaller scale with only two schools competing head-to-head against each other. It will be much easier for the public to understand what?â„¢s going on in the ring when they come and watch. They will now know who is getting what points immediately when before no one knew except each team?â„¢s coach until all the sections of a class were finished.?
The A&M season will conclude and climax in late April at the Varsity Equestrian National Championships (VENC). The Aggies had been competing at both the VENC and the IHSA National Championships for the last half-decade. The VENC is the forerunner for an eventual NCAA Championship in equestrian. A&M was the first-ever VENC overall team champion back in 2002.
This season will also unveil the first-ever Big 12 Invitational which will be hosted by A&M on March 31-April 1. The Big 12 Invitational will serve as the forerunner for an impending Big 12 Championship in equestrian. Currently one-third of the 12-member conference sponsors women?â„¢s equestrian and several other members are taking long looks at adding the sport as of late. The Big 12 currently holds conference championships for two sports that have as many, or less, schools than does women?â„¢s equestrian.
Against SFA this weekend, the Aggies will compete in four different styles of competition: English equitation on the flat, English equitation over fences, western horsemanship, and reining. Both A&M and SFA will enter four riders in each of the four divisions for a total of 16 chances to score points. Both an English and a western team winner will be declared as well as an overall team victor.
?Our goals for this year first and foremost is to get this format down with our team,? Rawson said. ?We are newbies at this format and there are now different things as coaches that we have be thinking about as far as strategies and horse usage. I?â„¢m definitely having to get used to changing my thought process as we travel to different places to compete too. The girls have many changes to get used to too. Ideally we want to bring back another national championship. That?â„¢s always there for us to shoot for. We are excited about the upcoming Big 12 Invitational and we would love to come away with that title as well. Our main goal at season?â„¢s end is to improve on our placings at nationals from a year ago which I think we can because of our added depth.?
Not only will A&M unveil a new competition format this weekend, it will begin to show off its largest and indisputably most powerful recruiting class in the program?â„¢s history. Twenty of the Aggies?â„¢ 58 riders are new to the team this season, with 18 of them being freshmen coming from 11 different states. A&M has added a wealth of English indoor medal qualifiers and youth and senior western world championship qualifiers, including a two-time youth world champion, Caroline Gunn (Greensburg, Ind.), who will begin her Aggie career this weekend.
?We were lucky that we were able to bring in such a large class not to mention a large class with so much talent,? Rawson said. ?Any time you infuse this much talent into a team that?â„¢s already established itself, it will make a huge impact. We?â„¢ve now also raised the bar for everybody else on our team too.?
On the English side, juniors Ashlie Soderstrom (Lake Oswego, Ore.) and Lindsey Lawrence (College Station), sophomore Ali Mueller (Long Beach, Miss.), and freshman Lindsay Smith (West Friendship, Md.) will compete in equitation on the flat. Freshman Brittney Dodson (Amarillo) will serve as the alternate. Senior Erica Palomo (St. Petersburg, Fla.), juniors Viviana Cordero (Sunland, Calif.) and Katie Henion (Austin), and freshman Kristi Waldal (Battle Ground, Wash.) will compete in equitation over fences while sophomore Christina Heine (Toledo, Ohio) will be the alternate rider.
On the western side, seniors Jordan Gardner (Lipan) and Christine Sceets (Baytown), sophomore Sibyl Parsons (Combine) and Gunn will compete in horsemanship with senior Jessica Lucia (Franklin) as the alternate rider. Fifth-year senior Sassie Broaddus (El Paso), sophomores Crissy Greebon (Richmond) and Amanda Ryan (Ramona, Calif.) and freshman Maggie Gratny (Leavenworth, Kan.) will be the Aggies?â„¢ reining riders while freshman Maddi Williams (Valley View) will be the alternate.
Saturday?â„¢s show will begin at 10 a.m. at the Walter C. Todd Agricultural Research Farm in Nacogdoches.