Preparing for College—Five Suggestions for High School Equestrians

Last Friday I had the pleasure of serving on a collegiate coaches Q&A panel at a local Georgia Hunter Jumper Association (GHJA) show.  Most of the questions were from high school students asking how they could get themselves ready to ride in college.  So for today’s blog I discuss five ways high school students can prepare for collegiate riding.

Ride as many different horses as you can, including a variety of breeds, ages, sizes, and temperaments.  During the course of your college riding career you will draw a seventeen hand draft horse, a six year old off the track thoroughbred, and a push button show hunter.  You need to understand how to ride all of them over a course of jumps or in an equitation on the flat class. 

Ride in as many different types of saddles as you can.  Many equine professionals will tell you they would rather ride an unfamiliar horse in their own saddle than their own horse in someone else’s saddle.  The horse you draw could be wearing a super comfy saddle with knee and thigh blocks, or a flat as a pancake Crosby Prix de Nations straight out of the 1990s.  The style of saddle affects your position (and your stirrup length!), so you should practice riding in a variety of different saddles.  And while I’m on the topic of tack, many equitation horses go in a pelham these days, so make sure you know how to hold double reins.

Get strong and physically fit.  Of course everyone knows you should ride without stirrups, but you should also develop a personal fitness plan outside of riding.  If you are joining a varsity team, you need to be prepared for those 6am workouts in the gym.  If you are joining a club team, you may only get to ride once a week, so you will need to have a plan for cardio and strength training on the days you aren’t riding.   For club riders, going from riding five or six days a week during high school to only one day per week in college will affect your strength, which will in turn affect your riding, so you’ll need a fitness plan for the days when you’re not in the saddle to keep yourself in riding shape.

Clinic with as many different professionals as you can.  The very best equestrians are the ones who realize there is always more to learn.  By clinic-ing with different professionals, you can learn new techniques or gain a new perspective on a problem you are having in your riding.  It is best to ask your current trainer to recommend a good clinician rather than just picking a clinic off the internet.  If you’re able to take your own horse, that’s great.  If not, you can ask about leasing a suitable mount from the barn hosting the clinic.  If you can’t do either of these, don’t underestimate the amount you can learn by auditing.

Make use of social media and the internet.  Youtube videos, live feeds of high level equestrian events, blogs, and online magazines are all valuable methods for gaining knowledge out of the saddle.  

I want to take a moment to thank Margaux Casey and the sponsors and staff of the Ticket to Ride horse show as well as my fellow clinicians, John Abbot, Laura Norment, and Daphne Ross for a wonderful time at the coaches Q&A.

from left to right:  Amanda Garner, Daphne Ross, John Abbot, and Laura Norment