Everyone Counts!

Back to back dressage shows require a lot of organization. Thankfully the Equestrian program has a knack of rising to the occasion.

Emotionally, this was a tough weekend. We have been working very hard to prepare this semester and have invested a lot in the success of this team. Saturday was frustrating with the placings being lower than I would have liked. Ironically, even though we placed fourth, we still earned five points (for second placed team) because Averett (who won) placed second with their second team and a mixed team comprised of riders from various schools including two of our riders, placed third. Riders receive the ribbons for that day, but each school can only earn points for one of its teams. The mixed teams receive no points as they are comprised of individual riders and do not count towards the end of year scores.

Sunday St. Andrews won, NCSU was second and Averett was third giving us a one point lead! Like I told my team - Everyone Counts!

 Very happy for Elizabethe Weeks who won the Introductory division both days and Abigail Skillman who attended the Ethics Symposium Thursday, Friday and Saturday and came back Sunday to place second at first level. Both these riders worked very hard last year to improve their riding and this weekend their efforts paid off.

Team Standings after 2 shows

St. Andrews 12

Averett 11
NCSU 9
Elon 6
UNC Charlotte 4
 

Saturday, October 26th

First Level Test 1

6^th Sarah Jones 60.0%

Training Level Test 2

5^th Emily Wright Thomasson 63.392%

Training Level Test 1

3^rd McCall DiMarco 62.916%
6^th Megan Pustarfi 61.458%

Introductory Level Test B

1^st Elizabethe Weeks 66.875%
3^rd Logan Teeter 63.750%
4^th Myleah Coleman 62.812%

Team Results

1^st  Averett Team B – 7pts.
2^nd Averett Team A
3^rd Mixed Team B (including Claire Pollard & Myleah Coleman for SAU)
4^th St. Andrews Team A – 5pts.
5^th NCSU Red Team – 4 pts.
6^th Mixed Team A (including Elizabethe Weeks for SAU)

Sunday, October 27th

First Level Test 1

2^nd Abigail Skillman 67.413%

Training Level Test

4^th Emily Wright Thomasson 65.535%

Training Level Test 1
2^nd Kristen Parker 67.916%
3^rd McCall DiMarco 65.416%
^4th Megan Pustarfi 63.750%
6^th Claire Pollard 62.291%

Introductory Level Test B

1^st Elizabethe Weeks 65.937%
3^rd Logan Teeter 63.750%

Team Results
1^st St. Andrews Team A 7 pts.
2^nd NCSU White Team 5 pts.
3^rd Averett Team A 4 pts.
4^th Averett Team B 3 pts.
5^th Elon 2 pts.
6^th Mixed Team A (including Elizabethe Weeks for SAU)

 

On The Road with St. Andrews Equestrian

Vol. 2. by Kirsten Farley

SAU’s IHSA Hunt Seat Team Goes to Duke/UNC

10/20/2013

Peggy McElveen (Equestrian Program Director)

Matt Arrigon (IHSA Show Team Coach)

The Team:

Tara Algieri, Regi Barasch, Kirsten Farley, Alexandra Fullerton, Samantha Garriques, Cami Glaff, Betina Gore, Julie Griffin, Jake Hobson, Kelsey Kocher, Janie Malott, Emily McBee, Nikki Napoleone, Kimi O’Keefe, Jessica Story, Emilee Wilson, Caitlyn Woychick, and Amy Wrozek

Up & at ‘Em

Zero dark thirty, formally known as 5:30 AM was the time of departure for the Sunday morning adventure to the show hosted by Duke/UNC Chapel Hill. This meant everyone was up at some time before then to meet the large charter bus on the other side of the PE building. Everyone stowed away their boots, helmet, and garment bags then clambered onto the bus with pillows, blankets, and headphones in tow. We all had about 5 minutes of excited energy keeping us awake to say hello and make jokes until we sat down and fell in a slumber for majority of the trip. The trip took about 2 hours, including a pit stop for a breakfast/bathroom break at McDonald’s, and then we finally arrived to the show grounds around 8:40 AM.

Show Time! Flat Classes  

Jake collected signatures for the liability release and the show began. Emilee Wilson, a junior transfer, was the first to ride. She was flatting for the Novice division and we all watched intently as she rode beautifully throughout the entire class. There was only one bobble that was quickly fixed before anyone could really see what happened. The riders lined up and we all were excited when we watched Emilee walk forward to receive the first blue ribbon of the day. The next two classes were for the Open flat, which, freshman Kelsey Kocher and junior Regi Barasch were in each one. Both of them were awarded 2^nd place after rather fabulous rides. The next flat class to follow was for the Intermediate division, which we had both Kimi O’Keefe, a freshman, and Keli Van Den ,Heuvel a senior, riding. Kimi drew the perfect steed, a lovely little black pony which she looked adorable on, and earned the second blue ribbon of the day. Keli earned a 5^th place ribbon on a horse that was a more challenging ride but she was pleased with how she handled  the ride. Cami Glaff was our next rider to flat for the Novice division, and she pulled out the third blue ribbon for St. Andrews with a perfect ride. Senior Tara Algieri started off earned a 4^th and freshman Amy Wrozek earned herself a 3^rd place ribbon for their Intermediate flat and Alexandra Fullerton, a senior, earned 2^nd for her Intermediate flat. Janie Malott, who was our very last rider of the very last class of the day, earned a key blue ribbon to help SAU win High-Point Champion Team of the day.

Samantha Garriques and Betina Gore were our only Beginner Walk Trot riders and earned a 4^th place and 5^th place ribbon respectively. Danielle Eads and Jake Hobson were our Advance Walk Trot riders. Danielle earned herself a 2^nd place ribbon and Jake earned another 1^st place ribbon. Julie Griffin, Jessica Story, and Kirsten Farley (myself) all rode for the Advance Walk Trot Canter classes throughout the day. Julie had a rather difficult horse that she had to work with and earned a 5^th place, Jessica, our point rider for WTC, earned a blue ribbon, and I also earned a blue ribbon.

Show Time! Over Fences

In the mix of all the flat classes were the over fences. We had Kelsey Kocher, Regi Barasch, Kimi O’Keefe, Nikki Napoleone, Alexandra Fullerton, Caitlyn Woychick, and Emily McBee jumping that day. The courses were straightforward, and each of them placed well. Some of them had more challenging rides than others, but that’s how the tides roll some days. Kelsey and Kimi both earned 3^rd place ribbons for their divisions, Regi, Caitlyn and Alexandra earned 5^th, Emily earned 6^th, and Nikki earned 2^nd.

Obey Rule #76

At the end, SAU was able to come ahead of ECU to take home the Champion ribbon. All of our riders got a feel for some very different horses than what we have at home. However, in the end we were all pleased with the outcome. We came out on top, and we did so while obeying the ever so well known rule “No excuses; play like a champion.”

After we were awarded the ribbon and thanked our hosts, we loaded back up onto the bus, this time very much awake. We stopped at Cracker Barrel, another huge thanks to Peggy for much appreciated dinner,  and then slowly made our way back to the bus. Going back to the bus was delayed by the gift shop that was in Cracker Barrel, especially when Matt found a jar of Instant Snow and then Peggy bought 3 of them. Just so all of you know 1 jar makes 2 gallons of Instant Snow…one can only imagine what those two will come up with as a prank…

Greensboro Horse Show

By Show Team Coach Kelsi Peterson

Freshman Amy Wrozek rode her own horse "Code Red" to a pair of seconds on Saturday and a pair of first places on Sunday in the 3'6"-4' jumpers, having a successful first horse show with the St. Andrews Show Team, as well as her first show with her horse since May.

Freshman Marissa Azua and St. Andrews' "Kilfinnae" brought home 2 second places and a third in the Walk/Trot/Canter division on Sunday, as well as a fourth place in the Intercollegiate class on Saturday.

Senior Keli Van Den Heuvel had some great rides learning the ropes on St. Andrews' "Cynasure", a new addition to the Equestrian program this year. She piloted him to several third and fourth place ribbons in the pre-adult hunters.

Freshman Grace Wadford rode St. Andrews' "Allegro" to a first, second, and 2 thirds in the pre-adult hunters, making her Champion in the division on Saturday.

Junior Rachaell Dockery also was in the irons on "Allegro", earning a second and a sixth place in the Intercollegiate classes on Saturday, and a second and third place in the Sedgefield hunter classes Sunday afternoon.

Rachaell was originally set to show another St. Andrews horse this weekend, but he came off the trailer with a minor injury. After talking with Dr. Kellam, we decided to be safe rather than sorry and to let him have some R&R for the weekend. Rachaell took the speed bump in stride, saying "each show is a learning experience; you just have to go with the flow and relax."

The teamwork among the SAU Equestrians never ceases to amaze me. The students are on top of everything I ask them to do, and are always jumping up to assist a teammate, from tag-teaming barn chores to sharing knowledge and resources to help the less experienced riders get to the show ring. I love watching them interact and work together to be effective, efficient, and well-rounded horse women.

St. Andrews wins first IHSA Hunter Seat Show of the Season…but it was so much better than that!

Matt Arrigon was at the barn at 3:00 a.m. with the stall cleaning crew to finish preparing for the show. Facility Manager Jeremy Sansbury prepared breakfast for his crew in the farm house which was very warmly received by the early morning workers.

At 5:30 a.m. there were 70 students at the barn to help the barn managers with morning chores which included finding the horses in their fields in the dark to bring them into the barn! “They were going at 100 miles/hour, it was amazing to see so many of them at that time of day working hard and enjoying it,” said Equestrian Program Director Peggy McElveen. “I brought breakfast for everyone and I think just about every student came up to me and thanked me for their meal. I was impressed with the energy level and enthusiasm of the students all day. It was a very hot day and every time I refilled the water coolers people would come running. The team alone went through 8 cases of water! In the heat of the day I saw Cami running full speed to the barn returning a few seconds later (still running) with Soldier who was needed immediately at the ring. These students were really impressive during a really long day in very hot weather.”

The pre-show preparations went very well but things came to a sudden halt when the EMT did not arrive for the start of the show at 10:00. The Highland Games over at the Blue Farm House also required EMT’s on site and there was a mix up as to who was supposed to go where.

The draw table for early shows in the season is usually a simple affair, but Peggy reasoned that shows later in the year would be cold so she asked for the now famous duck pond to be set up for the draw. “It was a menagerie of ducks,” said Matt during the wait for the show to start. In addition to the rubber ducks used for the draw, Peggy had bought some of her collection of ducks to decorate the pond. “The pond received a ton of compliments from students who had not seen it before,” said Liz Dulski who ran the draw table for the 32 classes of the show.

This year our IHSA region (zone 4, region 3) is doing a service project called “Kickin’ Cancer”. This project is the brain child of Emilee Wilson who transferred to St. Andrews this fall. Emiliee’s father was recently diagnosed with a very serious cancer and Emilee wanted to do something in his honor. She approached Peggy at the beginning of the year to ask if the Equestrian Program could do something to raise money for cancer research and Kickin’ Cancer was born.

At this first show of the season Emiliee had T-shirts and bracelets for sale. There was also an area for people to remember or honor someone they knew with cancer. “I was amazed by how many have had cancer in their families,” said Emiliee, “and I was shocked by the support this fundraiser received. I had 61 shirts to sell and they were gone in the first hour! I have a list of people who ordered shirts after we ran out.” Emiliee’s Dad was at the show, “He was moved to tears by the number of students who were walking around in their new shirts and the support shown by people from all of the schools in attendance.” A dollar from every entry fee will also be given to Kickin’ Cancer at every show in the region this year. A committee is being formed with a student representative from each of the 11 schools in the region to plan fundraisers for future shows. “The committee will also decide on which organizations will receive the money we raise at the end of the year, the American Cancer Society is one but we may select to support others,” said Emilee. “This service project really bought everyone in our region together today,” said Peggy. “Everyone was on board when we discussed the idea at the coach’s meeting and by the response the project received it is clear it will continue to have benefits for everyone involved for the rest of the year.”

At the end of the day four St. Andrews riders - Kimberley O’Keefe, Kelsey Kocher, Emily McBee and Cami Glaff - were tied for high point rider with 14 points apiece. They all answered the tie breaking question correctly, so Peggy called it a tie and gave the ribbon to Cami as it was her 21st birthday.

What a day! The hunter seat team earned their win but the real winners were everyone involved in the St. Andrews Equestrian program, students, staff and parents. We would also be remiss if we did not recognize our equine friends without whom none of this would be possible. Horses from dressage, therapeutic horsemanship and western participated along-side the hunter seat horses to offer more than 200 total rides. Thank you horses, you are the reason that we come together, make new friendships, learn to support one another through good times and tough times and provide us so much more every day.

Students from the TH program holding the TH horses and sporting the Kickin' Cancer T-shirts (2 darker blue shirts)

New Series "On the Road"

Social Media Intern, Kirsten Farley, will be sharing stories from St. Andrews team travel. This is her first post from the Carolina Starz "C" show in Camden, SC.

On the Road Blog

What: Carolina Starz “C” Show

Where: South Carolina Equine Park

People: Kelsi Peterson (trainer), Rob Jacobs (trainer and a rider), Kirsten Farley (rider), Rachaell Dockery (rider), Brianna Harrison (rider), Grace Wadford (rider), Taylor Westover (rider)

Horses: Charmander CF (Charlie), Indigo Night (Claire), Onyx, Scottish Honor (Scott), Cynasure (Sam)

The team left SAU Equestrian Center around 11:00 Friday morning

Arrival Day: We all arrived to the show grounds around 1 in the afternoon. We set up the stalls with 4 bags of shavings each, unpacked the trailer, tacked up, and hacked the horses around to burn some energy. All were behaved and happy to be at the show. After the horses were cleaned up, fed, and put away until night check, the group of us went out to dinner at Chili’s.

After dinner, we went on adventure to the local Wally World, formally known as Wal-Mart. We got to the show and realized we needed a hose, and Brianna needed a jack to change the tire that was getting low on her car. Within minutes the hose and jack were purchased. And we all proceeded out to the parking lot where Brianna was going to change her tire. First, was figuring out how to get the jack to come up. The lever/handle was being pumped, but nothing was happening… Finally, the jack began to rise up…but alas it was not giving enough lift to get the tire on the ground. Some random, kind stranger even offered his assistance, which we denied due to the fact that we knew how to change a tire, little did we know then what we know now. Hindsight being 20-20, about 10 minutes later we wished we had said yes to that man because we still weren’t able to get the car lifted to get the tire off. Another kind stranger offered to help us get the tire off. We accepted his offer, and in 15 minutes the tire was change.

Let the Show Begin

Show Day 1: Up bright and early, and by “bright and early” I mean before the sun came up. So actually it was pitch black out and if it wasn’t for the white polos and the white pad you would not have seen Onyx coming. Everyone schooled, and everyone was lovely. Ring 3, which actually started at 8:30 AM, Ring 1 and 2 started at 8:00 AM, was Kelsi’s first stop for Taylor and Scot in the Long Stirrup Equitation and Hunter. Taylor got a 4^th in the equitation over fences and a 6^th on the flat. For the hunter classes, Scot and Taylor got 2^nd in both of their courses, but did not flat that day. Ring 1 started with the Starz Hunter and Pre-Greens, which Rob was doing with Charlie.

Rob and Charlie got two 3^rds in both their hunter over fences and a 5^th in the hunter flat. As soon as Rob’s courses were finished Kelsi jumped over to the schooling ring to prep Grace, Rachaell, and myself for the Pre-Child/Pre-Adult Equitation and Hunter classes.

Grace and Ozzie received a 2^nd in their equitation course and 1^st on the equitation flat, a 4^th in their first hunter over fences, a 2^nd in their second hunter over fences, and a third in the hunter flat. Brianna and Sam went much later in the day for the Adult Equitation in Ring 1. She and Sam got 2^nd in both the equitation flat and course.

As for Rachaell and I, our day was not as great as everyone else’s. During my equitation course, which had been really lovely, Onyx spooked at a ribbon fluttering in the wind as we were heading toward our last 3 fences, the outside line around to the center single of a dead left turn. In the process of his spook, he tripped, and then proceeded to leap up into the air and buck. As I hung on with my legs and seat, as well as with my hands on one side of his neck, I decided that things wouldn’t get much better and hopped off gently onto the ground. The next time I went into the ring I focused on getting Onyx’s fried brain back on track. This meant that I broke things up for him by doing simple lead changes instead of flying lead changes. Thankfully, by doing this I was able to get Onyx refocused for the third course, but sadly by that point the judge had already written us off. However, at this point ribbons did not matter, all I cared about was going back in the ring and making Onyx work through his wild urge he got after that lovely spook, and that part was successful.

Rachaell and Claire and their own problems they had to work through. Rachaell was having a difficult time getting Claire to listen to her aids. Basically, Claire was running through Rachaell’s hands no matter how hard she told her to whoa. So instead of going back in the ring and creating a bigger fight with Claire, Rachaell decided it would be best to stop before things got worse and to just start fresh the next day.

After the show, when all horses had been fed and taken care of, the group ventured over to the Tack Room, the Mall of Tack Stores. For all of you St. Androids reading this, you get 10% off if you say you ride at SAU, just so you know in case you have an urge to make a trip down to Camden. Everyone bought something; I can sadly admit that I spent more than I should have, with the discount included. Once everyone had what they needed, Rachaell, Grace, Taylor and I ventured back to the show grounds to wrap Ozzie’s and Scott’s legs with Grace’s and Taylor’s new wraps. We also poulticed Ozzie’s legs, packed Ozzie’s and Claire’s feet, checked water buckets, and checked hay.

Once we finished taking care of the horses, showered, and some finished their naps, we all went to dinner. Where you might ask? Oh no place other than Chick Fil A! This may not be as exciting as it sounds, but when you are in Laurinburg, there is no Chick Fil A, so you have to get it when you can. And believe me it hit the spot.

Take Two

Show Day 2: The last day of our lovely adventure, was started much like our first day. Before the sun, in the pitch black we fed breakfast, tacked up, and took the horses down to the rings to school. Onyx was worked longer to make sure that he was not going to be wild again and Claire had a bit change to give Rachaell some more control. The schedule ran just like it did the day before with Rob and Taylor in first and then Grace, Rachaell, and I after them. Rob and Charlie earned a 2^nd and 3^rd in their hunter courses, and didn’t flat. Taylor rode Scott to a 2^nd in her equitation over fences and another 2^nd in her hunter course. Grace and Ozzie had another superb day with a 1^st in her equitation over fences and another 1^st in one of her hunter courses. She was Champion in the Pre-Adult equitation division Saturday (Day 1) and Reserve Champion in the Pre-Adult equitation division Sunday (Day 2). I managed to make a comeback with Onyx by getting a 6^th for my equitation course and another 6^th for a hunter course, much improved from a rather rough start to the weekend. Rachaell and Claire also got a 6^th for one of their hunter courses as well. Brianna and Sam were the last of the group to go again. Brianna and Sam got a 1^st and a 2^nd in the equitation over fences. Brianna finished the weekend with a Reserve Champion on Saturday and a Champion on Sunday.

Over all, everyone had a blast. It was a great first outing for the most part, with great weather, a great location, and we learned a lot from the experience. The biggest thing I believe we took away is that sometimes we have good days, other times we don’t, but you have to work through them either way because that is how this sport we love to do works.

 We returned to SAU’s Equestrian Facility by 2:30 in the afternoon and finished taking care of the horses and unpacking the trailer by 3:00. This meant all of us exhausted people could go back to our dorms shower and nap before having to start crunching out the homework for classes the next day.