My October is going to be a very horse filled month. It’ll be filled with model and real horses and it’s an awesome feeling. The past Sunday was a real horse filled one. Sunday was the first IHSA show for The Penn State Harrisburg Huntseat team. The team had an awesome first show.
IHSA is short for Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association. It ‘provides collegiate riders of all skills the opportunity to compete individually and as teams in equestrian competition. It was founded on the principle that any college student should be able to participate in horse shows regardless of his or her riding ability or financial status.’ Which makes the organization pretty awesome because teams need riders of all levels.
I went along to take pictures, and opted out of showing. I wanted to see how everything worked, plus I didn’t feel ready! When you join IHSA, you have to take a placement test. Prior to taking the placement, I felt that Walk/Trot would be better for me. After taking the placement, I was bumped up to Walk/Trot/Canter because of having too many hours of instruction. So hopefully I’m ready for the next show in a couple of weeks, which the thought that I’ll be doing actual horse shows is still surreal and just a bit nerve-wracking.
Sunday’ show was at Grier School. There were other teams there such as Penn State University Park, Millerville, and Susquehanna University. Just to name a few.
The cool thing about IHSA is you don’t know who you are going to ride until the day of the show. It’s random and the first time you ride your mount is when you are about to show. So watching the horses warm up is important because it tells you how your horse moves. It isn’t that one horse is smooth and the next horse is a wild bronc. None of the horses are poorly trained or dangerous. Some just have their own quirks.
Each horse had its name on its saddle pad, which made finding your horse a little bit easier. There weren’t any tack requirements because it’s judged on equitation, so some horses had boots, others had martingales, and some went without anything.
Two team members competed over fences.
The rest of the team competed in flat classes.
It was fun to watch and learn how the shows worked. At the end of the day, the team posed for a photo with our coach and advisor.
Kristian Beverly 