Equestrian expands and garners success

After nearly doubling in size, equestrian grows out of Yale's riding facilities and vaults to third place in the INHA

By Aaron Lichtig

COURTESY DANA LEVINE Dana Levine, CC '99, and teammates have overcome adversity.

You have to take the bad with the good. The Yale equestrian team may finally have enough riders to advance to championship competition, but they are currently without a home stable. Inadequate conditions at the Yale Polo and Equestrian Center forced the team to switch venues, but it seems this change has brought success. Three riders have already qualified for the regional tournament: team captain Nami Soejima, SY '99, business manager Sarah Catapano-Friedman, SY '01, and Elizabeth Livingston, BR '01, all have accumulated enough points to advance to regional competition.

The equestrian team at Yale is a club sport, which means that the team receives no coaching and little money from the athletic department. The team has, in previous years, used Yale's barn, but this semester, the squad decided to move elsewhere. "The team expanded from 12 to 21 members and we were dissatisfied with the facility," Soejima said. "There were not enough horses, the facility is old, and no renovations were in sight. We'd still like to move back, and we're trying to do some fundraising to renovate." The riders now travel to Sommersett Farms in Bethany, Conn., and pay a fee for lessons instead of having team practices.

The new facility is working well for the team. "They have a lot more horses and their horses are trained for jumping," Soejima said. Some teams in their competitive zone, however, have varsity status, which gives them access to well-maintained university barns. These teams also have coaches who work exclusively with team members. "There are some teams which have good coaching and facilities because they are varsity," team member Elizabeth Carothers, BK '01, said.

The team competes in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) Zone Three Region One, which encompasses colleges and universities in Connecticut and on Long Island. Each of the 12 member schools competes in every show, which is held at a different member school. The member school provides the horses for all riders, so team members have never seen the horses they ride in competition. Each competitor rides in a class according to her individual level of experience and talent. Riders start in the walk and trot division and advance to the walk/trot/canter division, the novice and intermediate divisions, and finally the open division, which is reserved for the most experienced riders. The IHSA consists of 260 colleges nationwide.

There are two types of riding at each equestrian competition: the fences, wherein riders jump the horses over gates, and the flat, in which horses walk, trot, and canter in front of the judges. There are usually 10 or 11 riders in each class for each competition. Riders are given seven points for a first place finish, five for second, and three for third. If they earn 35 points in their class, they go on to regionals and advance to the next class.

Team members have a wide range of experience with horses. Some competed in high school or owned their own horses growing up. Three of the squad's freshmen, Elizabeth Sheehan, CC '02, Danica Novgorodoff, SY '02, and Margot Sanger-Katz, BR '02 compete in the open division, which is the highest possible competition level.

So far this year, the team has participated in shows at St. Josephs, Hofstra, SUNY-Stony Brook, and Molloy. The Elis have finished third in the past three and stand third in the division standings. The top two teams are perennial powers Fairfield and SUNY-Stony Brook. "Fairfield has good coaching and SUNY-Stony Brook is also very good," Dana Levine, CC '99, said. "Our team needs to finish second in the standings in order to advance to the zone championship competition."

This is the first year that the team, which has a record number of members this year, has been able to field a rider in every class. "We have a good chance at advancing because we have a lot of talented riders. We need another team to become inconsistent, though," Carothers said.

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