Western Semi Finals - the Rest of the Story

Congratulations to the IHSA Western Team Zone Champions! Hard work and focus pays off! Below are the complete results from the weekend.

Putting on a horse show is a huge undertaking. Students are involved in every aspect to make it happen. Team members and therapeutic horsemanship students served as horse holders for the day. Rachel Samuel recruited several of her friends to help her with her event management internship. This crew worked tirelessly to organize all the behind the scenes activities. Including preparing bags of goodies for the competitors, overseeing thank you notes from award winners, setting tables for the Pig Pickin’, taking down tents on Sunday when the wind threatened to send them flying and being available to answer questions from visitors regarding any aspect of the show. Jake Hobson volunteered to be the DJ at the Pig Pickin’ keeping the tunes rolling until the last guest left. Other students worked to prepare art work to decorate the party palace for the Saturday night party.

Cami Glaff led a team of well-dressed students who worked as the prize presenters for each awards ceremony, escorting the winners to the awards tent to collect their prizes and write thank you notes. Dr. Kellam and students traveling to South Africa this summer sold gourmet coffee, popcorn and baked goods which helped keep everyone warm and served as a pick me up when energy ran low. They also ran an auction of donated items to help raise money for their trip offering bargains and another fun activity to the weekend. (This blogger purchased a very nice leaf blower at a great price after a bidding contest with another bidder.) I suspect I am missing some jobs covered by students and once again I apologize for the unintentional omission.

Parents also play a huge role in these horse shows. First, we have to thank Holly Hayden for spending her weekend with us as head scorer, crunching scores from two judges to determine the winner. Lots of parents were in attendance to support their children. We love to have them with us. Carla said, “This weekend, I got to know some parents that I had not previously spent much time with, I loved that part of the show.” Mrs Schmieding mother of Ali Clynes, arrived early Sunday with breakfast biscuits for everyone and then set up an amazing lunch table with South Carolina barbeque for the entire St. Andrews crew to munch on.

Thank you to everyone who supported the Equestrian Program this weekend. The show was a great example of southern hospitality and team work and a huge congratulations to all the riders and coaches Wennberg and Agaliotis!

Zone Champions

St. Andrews University

Reserve Champions

Clemson University

Individual Nationals Qualifiers

Intermediate Horsemanship Finals

3^rd Erin Hudson

Beginning Horsemanship

2^nd Vicki Wiese

Open Horsemanship

1^st Michelle Hustad

Team Results

Team Reining

5^th Michelle Hustad (7^th in Individual Division)

Team Advanced Horsemanship

1st Mark Mowbray

Team Intermediate Horsemanship

2^nd Dugan McDermott

Team Beginner Horsemanship

2^nd Austin Trockenbrot

Team Novice Horsemanship

1^st Logan Teeter

Team Open Horsemanship

1^st Michelle Hustad