Equestrian Club to compete in Semi-Nationals

After finishing as the top team in its region, the Ball State Western Equestrian Club will compete in the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association (IHSA) National Semi Finals this weekend.

Working with horses sets equestrian apart from other sports, said freshman Corinne Thinnes, who will represent the team in the intermediate division and compete as an individual in the walk-trot (beginner) division.

“It’s a pretty unique sport in the sense that you’re controlling a one-ton animal,” she said.

Coach Tammie Jones said trying to compete with horses can sometimes be a challenge.

“The football or the basketball … doesn’t have a mind of its own,” she said. “It goes directly where you shoot it, but that’s not always the case with horses.”

Five Ball State students – Thinnes, Morgan Koontz, Lexi Williams, Sydnee Kirby and Lauren Hunter – will travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to compete.

Kirby, a sophomore, will represent the team in the advanced division and compete as an individual in the novice division, said equestrian is more popular in Indiana than many classmates realize.

“It’s kind of like, ‘Oh, where do they keep the horses?’ and they have no idea,” she said. “A lot of schools around here — IU, Purdue, Ball State, Notre Dame — a lot of schools around here have [equestrian teams].”

The two Western-style events in IHSA competitions are reigning and horsemanship, sometimes referred to as rail. In the reigning event, riders take their horses through a pattern while executing moves like spins.

In both events, judges score the riders’ ability to subtly command the horse while also retaining proper riding posture.

To train for these events, equestrian club members practice at Stride by Stride Riding Center.

Students do not need experience showing or even riding horses to join the club. Hunter, a freshman that had no experience prior to joining the team, is representing Ball State in the walk-trot division at Semi Nationals.

Those inexperienced riders, Jones said, are also a necessity. In the team competition, riders are split into different divisions based on experience. After accumulating a certain number of points, riders are moved up to the next division.

“Every team has the experienced riders — those are easy to find,” Jones said. “Finding the riders who want to ride, who have no experience but want to ride, … those are gems for us. It’s super important for our format to make sure that we have a rider in every division.”

Williams said it can be easier for inexperienced club members to improve.

“That actually might be very beneficial because you don’t have bad habits,” she said.

She said she feels that way because had to eliminate the habits she picked up when she competed in barrel racing.

“From barrel racing, my legs were really, really in front of me, my shoulders were always [hunched forward],” she said. “But in horsemanship, it’s shoulders back, legs back. … It’d be kind of cool coming in with a clean slate and learning all of this stuff.”

Williams will represent Ball State in the novice division and compete as an individual in the intermediate division. On top of competing as a barrel racer, she also had experience riding in the English style of riding.

Thinnes said she also grew up riding English before developing a “self-taught” version of western riding when she started working at a western barn. She said she had to refine her technique when she joined the equestrian club.

“I did have quite a few bad habits that I had to break,” Thinnes said. “Riding English, your legs are a lot more bent because you need to be able to go into a two-point position to jump. You need to be able to lift yourself out of the saddle. For Western, you really want your legs to be extended and in a proper position.”

An added challenge in collegiate equestrian competitions is the host school provides all of the horses used in IHSA events, which are then assigned to participants in a random drawing before the competition. Thinnes said switching the horses keeps the focus on the rider’s ability to control an unfamiliar horse.

“It levels the playing field, so not one person can know every horse’s nitpicky tweaks that you need to do to ride that specific horse every week,” she said. “It really lets the judges know how well you can communicate with your horse.”

Kirby, however, said it can be frustrating working with different horses every week — especially because she was used to riding her own horse growing up.

“Considering I probably have the worst horse-drawing luck on the team, it’s not easy. I grew up with really well-trained, really high-caliber horses. … It’s two completely different worlds.”

Drawing random horses, Thinnes said, can also help build camaraderie among club members. Similar to a veteran baseball player telling the on-deck batter the tendencies of an opposing team’s pitcher, Thinnes said equestrian teammates will give each other tips on the horses they’ve drawn in the past.

“Some horses, they’ll flip their head or something if you’re holding the reins too tight,” she said. “Or if you’re cueing them to move in one direction, but you’re cueing them incorrectly, they might be a little jittery because they’re not sure what you’re asking.”

Kirby said another adjustment for longtime horseback riders is the switch to a team mentality.

“At first, it was just really different because I’m so used to doing everything on my own,” she said. “It kind of took me a while to get used to; there are people here to support me.”

Koontz will represent the Cardinals in the open reigning and open rail events. She has already qualified to compete at the IHSA National Championships as an individual, and Jones said she hopes the rest of the team can perform well enough to join her.

“It’s like every girl’s dream,” Jones said. “You get to ride your horse into the finals. They’ve just worked so hard, and I’m glad to see their success pay off.”

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