Dressage Show November 22.

We were lucky with the weather for our IDA show on Saturday. The sun shone and the temperatures were very tolerable. The dressage team led by Bridget Newman (who is doing a practicum this semester) and Dressage Show Chair Claire Pollard put on a fabulous show. The team worked together to prepare the horses, set the ring, and help one another with their tests. Bridget served as show secretary and show manager collecting entries, putting the program together and organizing all the details such as shipping horses from the lesson barn, picking up pizza for lunch and organizing parade riders. Claire recruited students from the hunter seat and western teams to hold horses, work the gate and run tests to the scorer. We received many compliments on the show from the visiting schools.

Competitively the highlights of our day were Bridget breaking a string of 4^th places at first level to plance 2^nd in First Level Test 2 with a score of 68.784%. Claire placed 3^rd in Training Level Test 2 with a score of 72.143% which just goes to show the quality of the rides in her division. Elizabethe Weeks earned 3^rd place in Training Level Test 1 with a score of 67.5% and Geneva Masak was 4^th in the same division with 66.458%. At Introductory Level Test B Sarah Lishen was 4^th with 62.813% and Nina Jurac riding for the team for the first time placed 6^th with 60.983%

In the Dressage Seat Equitation classes Bridget was 3^rd in first level. I training level Courtney Anderson was 2^nd, McCall DiMarco 3^rd and Natasha Worker 4^th. At the Intro level Sarah Lishen and Sarah Hartley were 2^nd in different classes and Nina Jurac was 4^th.

I was very pleased with the way the show ran as I had turned it completely over to the students. Individually we had some good scores. Team wise we tied with Longwood for 3^rd place the tie is broken by overall percentage where they beat us by just over 1 percentage point. Congratulations to Averett and NCSU for their 1^st and 2^nd placings. 

Show Manager and Show Secretary Bridget Newman riding Astaire in the First Level Dressage Seat Equitation Class

Horse Show Updates

Last weekend the Western Team traveled to West Virginia to compete in the Mountaineer Invitational finishing in second place overall. “We were the only southern team to compete,” said Coach Carla Wennberg. “I am very proud to have the opportunity to compete my team against teams we don’t have the chance to compete with until spring at the Semi-Finals Competition. This tournament gave us the opportunity to see where we are midseason and what we need to improve on.” Click here for results and more information on this competition.

At home this Saturday we hosted IHSA Hunter Seat. The show was well organized by the Equestrian Program students and staff with St. Andrews earning 2nd place and maintaining the Regional lead by 18 points. ECU coached by Alumna Alie McGraw took the Championship Ribbon and UNC - Wilmington coached by Alimnus Rob Jacobs was third. A good weekend for St. Andrews overall! Click here for more news on this show.

This weekend the IHSA Hunter Seat team travels to ECU and the Intercollegiate Dressage Association team hosts is first home show of the 2014/2015 season. The dressage show begins at 10:00 a.m. with First Level Test 2 and concludes around 4:00 after four divisions of tests and 6 classes of dressage seat equitation which is new for our IDA region this year.