The Ball State University Equestrian Team's hunt seat group took third and second places the past weekend at a two-day Intercollegiate Horse Show Association competition in Marion.
Equestrian team president Dana Wessman said the team placed third Saturday and second to Purdue University by two points, despite having a team about one third the size of Purdue. The show was cosponsored by Ball State and Taylor University
"It's actually really exciting for us," she said. "It shows us that even though we are small, we can come together ... Everyone did great individually, which made the team do well."
Ball State's club is one of the smallest in its division which includes, among others, Purdue, Taylor, Indiana University, IUPUI and the University of Notre Dame, Wessman said. The equestrian team has about 25 members, she said, 12 from the hunt seat group and the rest from the western group. Hunt seat style equestrian is more formal than western, she said.
The group has been at Ball State for more than 20 years, she said. It was more popular on campus in the early 1990s when the team regularly competed in national competitions. Numbers dwindled in the following few years.
Wessman said she thought low membership was related to the cost of equestrian. The university doesn't give the club much financial support. The roster is slowly growing again, she said.
The hunt seat group's last competition is this weekend at Purdue.
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