MTSU's Hunt Seat team is on fire this year. With leading overall standings for the season and several accomplished riders, MTSU is on a fast track to team success.
March 4th and 5th was the last show before regionals, where 6 girls qualified to move on and compete, including Kelsey Sloan, Julia Rhyne, Ryelee Jordan, Lauren Brown, Allison Driver and Lindsay Ross. MTSU competed against Univesity of Knoxville, Murray State, Vanderbilt, Tennessee Tech University, University of Arkansas, Rhodes College and Maryville College at Murray University.
With several individual high placings and a Reserve Highpoint team award both days, the team left Murray with intentions to keep their overall Highpoint status going into the regional show.
Horse Science major and senior, Rylee Jordan, fought hard this show year to earn her way to regionals. IHSA can be a tough association to show in, due to the many horses you compete on, not knowing much, if anything, about them.
"The most challenging is obviously the unknown of what horse you are riding, but also just the competition...going into a show and knowing you want to win but there is a handful of other riders that want the same thing. "
Jordan was able to outride her competition and make qualifying rides on the horses she drew, but not without a fight.
" My season has been very rocky this year, I've not had very good placings and [was going through] a lot of personal issues. What got me to regionals was preserving and doing everything I could to better my riding. I rode with my trainer every day over spring break and got 'tortured' with no stirrups and picking apart all of the parts to my riding."
Jordan, who has pointed up into Open Fences and Flat will must compete in the division she started the season in-Intermediate- after the regional show, even though she has pointed up into the highest level.
Sloan uses every opportunity to grow as a rider and open opportunities to success, but that doesn't aways come easy.
"The biggest contribution to my success has to be all the different horses I've had the privilege to ride.Through the team and outside of it as well, I've gotten to ride and show all types of horses. The most challenging part is balancing school, the team and my own horse. The team takes a lot of time and dedication and sometimes it's hard to prioritize. I put A LOT of pressure on myself, probably more than the coaches combined."
Though juggling her priorities and dealing with pressure and high expectations, Sloan has a strategy to keep her both sane and successful.
" I've learned to just ride the horse I'm on, and stay focused on being the best I can. I try to take away the good away from every round instead of just focusing on the bad.IHSA is a great opportunity and I highly suggest doing it. The best advice I have is to ride anything and everything you can. The best rider is one who can adapt to the biggest range of horses."
All photos courtesy of Robin Duff