Saddle up!

By Chris Horn

Bravo! rides with the USC equestrian team

Talk to student athletes on USC’s equestrian team and you’ll get the distinct impression that this posse of pony-tailed riders considers itself the Rodney Dangerfield of NCAA sports. They just don’t get no respect.

Freshman rider Ellen Hogate, one of several scholarship students recruited from across the country, summed it up: “People will say anyone can ride a horse and the horse does all the work, so how can this be a sport? Well, anyone can throw a football, but not too many guys have the talent to play on a college football team.”

Good analogy, but I was certain that I was the exception to the rule. I dreamed of owning a horse in grade school and even rode one a few times more than 20 years ago. Armed with those qualifications, I drove to Irish Oaks, the equestrian team’s barn in Irmo where I met Coach Boo Duncan, a 1981 USC graduate who has coached the team since its inception six years ago as the newest women’s sport. She took me and Hannah, a trustworthy gray Thoroughbred, into the main arena for a lesson.

Perched precariously in the saddle, I quickly learned why equestrian athletes work out three days a week with a trainer: you need well-developed leg muscles to ride well. Six-pack abs would help, too, but somehow I haven’t developed either in my keyboard-pounding job.

Hannah is one of about 15 horses the USC team rides in its twice-weekly practices. When university equestrian teams compete in the fall and spring, they share the home team’s mounts to eliminate the cost and headache of transporting horses hundreds of miles.

“We just draw the names out of a hat so no one can pick a favorite or one they think might do better than another,” said Duncan, who trained riders and rode competitively for nearly 20 years before coaching at USC. “That way, the rider’s skills are really tested. A good rider on a poor horse will do better than a poor rider on a good horse.”

No truer words were spoken. Hannah quickly figured out that the 185-pound man on her back didn’t have an ounce of equine savvy. The gentle gray mare mostly humored my prods and nudges and paid attention instead to Coach Duncan’s voice. For a while, I teetered along while trying to ride two-point—a taxing position in which the rider balances in the stirrups while the horse bounces along at a trot.

In equestrian competitions, athletes are judged for how well they maintain proper saddle position while guiding their horses through a series of prescribed gaits around the arena. Some riders also jump over fences up to three-and-a-half feet tall, all the while maintaining the two-point stance that nearly sent me over the handlebars.

After my bobbling ride on Hannah, assistant coach Joe Humphrey saddled up Zip, a bay Quarter Horse used by the Western horsemanship athletes. The large saddle was kind of like an EZ-Boy recliner compared to Hannah’s English saddle. Still, there’s no substitute for talent, and Zip couldn’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. He was accustomed to the agile athletes who spin him through turns and sliding stops. His large, liquid-brown eyes watched me sadly as I dismounted half an hour later; how could a grown human know so little about riding?

I’m not the first person, of course, to learn that the sport of equestrian involves more than just sitting in the saddle like a sack of potatoes. The equestrian team has invited other USC sports teams to the barn to tack up and ride. Most hobble away with a better appreciation for their fellow student athletes.

You can see it all for yourself this fall when USC’s equestrian team switches to a spectator-friendly format featuring two teams in a three-hour match. USC, Georgia, and Auburn field the only SEC equestrian teams for now, but Kentucky, LSU, Arkansas, Vanderbilt, and Florida are expected to saddle up soon, and universities from other sports conferences are competing, too. As more teams join the herd, expect to see equestrian reach NCAA championship status in four or five years.

In the meantime, if someone tells you that horses do all the work and anyone can ride, take it from this cowboy: that’s pure horse hockey!