COURTESY YALE EQUESTRIAN TEAM After years of competing on the national level as a club sport, the equestrian team has submitted a proposal to become varsity.

Equestrian hopes to make the jump to varsity

Despite years of experience and a solid core of returning riders to the 1999 Ivy League Championships, the Yale equestrian team was forced to settle for a fourth place finish behind Dartmouth, Brown, and Cornell. As a club sport, the Elis lack the funding, coaching, and facilities that their League foes, all of which have been recently granted varsity status, currently enjoy. In an attempt to remain competitive both within the league and the National Intercollegiate Horse Show Association, the equestrians will submit a lengthy proposal to the administration this week in the hopes of becoming the first club sport in over a decade to make the jump to the varsity level.

Like most club sports, the equestrian team receives modest funds and facility space, but little other University support. "Club sports are, by their very nature, student organized and driven," Associate Director of Sports and Recreational Athletics Larry Matthews said. "They are expected to take care of the major part of the organization on their own." Yet unlike many club sports, equestrian requires expensive training with animals. "Because we're working with horses, our situation is very different," Captain Elizabeth Livingston, BR '01, said. "We have a different set of needs and expenses."

The $600 budget the University does provide is woefully inadequate, according to team president Leah Sartorius, ES '02. "The average team member has to contribute at least $1,000 annually just to stay on the team and cover the costs of practices and appearing in competitions," she said. Sartorius, who points out that over 80 Yalies expressed interest in the equestrian team at the Freshmen Bazaar in late August, was disappointed to see that number dwindle as people discovered they could not afford to participate. "The high expense is why I'm not participating this year," Jessica Bertout, TD '02, who competed last year, said. "Most of the money I was earning while I was on the team was going to riding. I simply can't earn enough to afford to continue."

Sartorius agreed. "We really can't be viable in the future without greater support from the University," she said. "It is simply not within our individual budgets."

The high cost of adding another program at the varsity level might serve as a potential barrier to the equestrian team's proposal. "The varsity athletics budget is already over $17 million annually," Penelope Laurans, the associate dean and assistant to the president, said. "That is much higher than the athletic budget at many schools." But Laurans, who serves as a member of the faculty committee on athletics, which convenes regularly to discuss such topics as the possible expansion of the number of varsity teams, stressed that the issues involved in such a change went far beyond funding. "The issues involved are just tremendous," she said. "There are numerous questions that need to be considered in the context of the University's and the Athletic Department's priorities and needs." Matthews noted the complex process through which such a proposal might be considered. Key issues such as the club's history, its competitive success, its chief opponents, and its facilities all play an important role in determining the viability of such a proposal. "This is a major University decision," Matthews said. "Once we make the decision to commit, we do so for a lengthy period of time. It is a decision we want to make sure we get right."

The team must also fight against the public's preconceived notion of equestrian as an elitist sport. "Who participates in it?" posed Laurans, thinking through just one of the many hypothetical questions the committee might consider. "Is it an emerging sport? Is it available to a wide range of people or not?" Such accusations are "frustrating" to Livingston because "a lot of the team members have worked all their lives to pay for riding." Saritorius added, "Riding can be a life sport, one for which there is a great deal of community interest." As evidence, Saritorius points to the NCAA's recent labeling of equestrian as an "emerging women's sport," meaning that if within five years 40 varsity teams are established, the NCAA will make equestrian a championship sport.

At the core of the team's difficulty, and the rising cost of participation, is the decaying Yale Polo and Equestrian Center (YPEC), the University's riding and animal storage facility, which according to many team members, is simply unusable. "It really can't accommodate us," Sartorius said. "We are not able to practice jumps or really prepare, and we've been forced to ride at local barns, paying out of our pockets for lessons." Admittedly, the 80-year old barn is not ideal, agreed Matthews. "It's an old facility, functional for us to run our current polo and equestrian teams, but perhaps lacking in certain areas," he said. But according to the club's proposal, the cost of what would be an expensive renovation could be worth the University's investment. "With a new facility, the team and the University would be in a good position to receive horse donations," explained Livingston. According to the proposal, a refurbished YPEC would become a revenue source by boarding private horses and employing a private trainer to establish a public lesson program. In addition, the University could become more involved in the "Leg Up" program—currently independently run and funded by one of the Yale-employed trainers—that provides opportunities for children in the juvenile justice system to work with and ride horses.

Unfortunately for Yale's riders, it does not look likely that the Athletics Department will siphon off a portion of its budget to pay for such a renovation."I try to be an advocate for all the clubs, but I do not support taking funds from one varsity team and using it to help elevate a club team to the varsity level," Matthews said. "We need to use our current funds to support the programs we have." Nevertheless, the petitioners move forward. "It's going to take some convincing," Sartorius admitted. "But without a change, we really don't have any hope of being able to compete effectively in the future."

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