RIT Equestrian

The past couple days have brought some decent weather around so Mike, Bree, and her friend Seamus headed off to Evergreen Stables yesterday for their last lesson of the quarter. I decided to tag along and enjoy the company - plus it’s been awhile since I’ve been to the barn!

It was especially good to get out, get some fresh air, and step off campus for a bit after week 10 :) Y’all know how it is! 

We’re wishing the western riders well this Saturday as they head off to show at Alfred!

Mike & Gold… 

Bree…

And some good light :)

-Liz A.

My Story [Liz Hurlburt]

Hey!

My name is Liz and I’m a first year Medical Illustration Student at RIT, and this is my story. (I apologize ahead of time for my writing - I’m not the best at recalling experiences!)

In the beginning, I was accepted to both OSU (Oklahoma State) and RIT. And this club turned into my deciding factor. I was looking at both schools comparing activities, clubs, and overall culture. I was really stuck on which school to attend, but then I saw RIT had D1 Hockey, and the Equestrian club; so I decided to investigate.

I saw that we had both a Western and English team. Which was perfect, seeing as I have ridden both Western and English throughout my life.

After attending the first meeting, and visiting the booth at the club fair at Orientation (and visiting Evergreen Stables while at the accepted student’s open house that April) - I decided the Western team was the team for me.

[One thing you should know about my personality before going any further: I am extremely shy, and meeting/talking to/interacting with other people is EXTREMELY awkward for me.]

I started taking lessons fall quarter, and Jenn convinced me to show. (I was hesitant, seeing as I have a negative self image and not so nice past show experiences). So I kept lessoning, and then the first show came up.

It was fun. as. hell. I never expected to be able to talk to anyone, or carpool with people and actually have fun, or show and have fun at all. I attended all of the IHSA Western shows this year and they were all equally as much a blast.

At the beginning of spring quarter, I applied to be the Social Chair of the club - and here I am!

I highly recommend that ANYONE joins this team, Western or English. It’s amazing, fun, and just awesome - really. If you love horses and riding, this is the place for you.

Even if you have never ridden in your life, you are totally welcome. Some of my closest friends on the team only started riding this past school year and they have improved so much and are doing so well.

So whatever skill level, or amount of experience you have. You can get involved here and still have a ton of fun, and learn a lot of things you would have never expected to learn.

If you guys have any questions or anything, you can always email me at eah1291@rit.edu.

I’m sure I can answer a lot of questions relating to the Western half of the team and the social atmosphere as a whole!

And with that, It’s picture time!

Fall team trail ride

Boots & Fleur (at Evergreen Stables)

One of the horses I rode for the last regular show this year.

I hope this post helped a little (if at all)
Hope to see you at the club! :D

-Liz

Spring News!

Just loving the weather today!
It’s been awhile…so I wanted to put out an update on the latest news for the team -

Most importantly: We’ve elected next years e-board members!

Here is the official list:

President: McKenzie Casciano

Vice President: Ali Schmalenberger

Secretary: Breanna Jewell

Treasurer: Betsy Khol

Western Captain: John McCarthy

English Captain: Alison Cawley

Social Chair: Liz Hurlburt
Advertising & PR: Whitny Giberson 

This final quarter of the year has a lot in store for us… look out for a new (and more appropriate) email addy, e-board member photographs on the website, and another Red Robin fundraiser! And for our next post I’m planning on getting a freshman to share some thoughts on their first year with the team! :)

Until next time…

-Liz Andrew 

Dec. 3rd Western Show

We had an INCREDIBLE horse show last weekend! Everyone rode wonderfully, and went home with at least one ribbon. We had a total of 23 points at our first show, and 31 at our second. 

Placings:

Show 1

Class 14 Advanced Horsemanship

April Meier: 2nd

Class 13 Novice Horsemanship

Courtney Luke: 2nd

Class 12 Intermediate Horsemanship

Kate Meier: 2nd
McKenzie Casciano: 4th  

Class 11 Beginner Horsemanship

Breanna Jewell: 2nd

Show 2

Class 14 Advanced

April Meier: 2nd

Class 13 Novice

Courtney Luke: 2nd

Class 12 Intermediate

Kate Meier: 1st
Ali Schmalenberger: 2nd
McKenzie Casciano: 4th

Liz Hurlbut: 6th

Class 11 Beginner

Breanna Jewell: 2nd

Congratulations to everyone for an unbelievable day!

Ali,

Western Captain

English

Hey Everyone!

The first six shows of the season were a success! We started off hosting Halloween weekend at Lehman’s, then traveled to Alfred University the first weekend of November. The following weekend we traveled to Cornell University and finished up this past weekend with Nazareth College hosting at Lehman’s. Six horse shows in four weekends proved to be a very busy month! I am so proud of our riders! Here’s an introduction to the team:

Alison Cawley - A 3^rd year from Massapequa, NY. She started off the season competing in Intermediate over fences and Intermediate Flat. At the second RIT horse show she pointed out into Open Flat. She took a 2^nd over fences this past weekend at the Nazareth show.

Erin McNally -A 5^th year from Clarence, NY and competes in Novice over fences and Novice on the flat.  In her jumping début she took a 4^th and is Social Chair for the club.

Katy Hannon - A 1^st year from Farmington, CT and competes in Novice over fences and Novice on the flat. Her first show at RIT she took a 1^st over fences and a 3^rd on the flat.

Whitny Giberson - A 1^st year from Levittown, PA. She competes in Novice over fences and Novice on the flat. Whitny took a 4^th over fences and a 5^th on the flat at the Alfred University show. She also competes on the Western team.

Kelly Hurley - A 2^nd year from Chester, NJ and competes in Novice over fences and Novice flat. She took a 1^st over fences and a 2^nd on the flat at the first RIT show.

Claire Owen-Schubnell - A 2^nd year from San Antonio, TX and competes in Novice over fences and Novice on the flat. This past weekend she took a 3^rd over fences and is also Vice President of the club.

Caley Fain - A 4^th year from Fairport, NY and competes in Novice flat. She took a 5^th at the Alfred University show and is Secretary of the club.

Kate Przybyszewski - A 1^st year from Brockport, NY and competes in Advanced Walk-Trot-Canter. She took a 3^rd her first show at RIT.

Geena Baldi - A 4^th year from Long Island, NY and competes in Advanced Walk-Trot-Canter. She took a 5^th at the Cornell University show and is Treasurer of the club. She also competes on the Western team.

Courtney Luke - A 2^nd year from Williamson, NY and competes in Beginner Walk-Trot-Canter. She took a 2^nd this past weekend at the Nazareth show.

Ali Schmalenberger - A 3^rd year from Medway, MA and competes in Walk-Trot. She took a 2^nd at the second RIT show. She is also the Western Captain and competes on the Western team.

And finally I am Elizabeth Hoerl, the English Captain. I began the season in Novice over fences and Novice Flat. I pointed out into Intermediate Fences after the Cornell show. I am from Alden, NY and I’m a 2^nd year.

Congratulations of all of our riders! Our last two shows will be at Cornell University on February 19^th and Alfred University on February 25^th.

Introducing …

Hi everyone!

Welcome to another year with the RIT Equestrian Team! I’d like to take a minute to introduce myself to you all. My name is Betsy Khol and I’m the new President this year. I am not a new face; I’ve been involved since my freshman year, taking lessons and competing in IHSA. For the past year and a half I was the Treasurer but now I have the privilege to lead. It is so great to see so many new faces. I know myself and the other Executive Board members are looking forward to a great year ahead! We’ve already arranged a couple trail rides for the fall since we like to have some fun outside of our meetings and shows. Liz, our English Captain and Ali, our Western Captain did a great job setting up barn tours and getting everyone scheduled in lessons. It sounds like so far everyone is really enjoying their involvement with the team which is great to hear!

Be on the lookout for information about our fall pumpkin painting event. And, we’ve got both English and Western shows coming up very soon. Our first Western show is October 22 at Alfred and our first English shows are October 29 & 30 at Lehman Farms. Come out and show your support for our members!

I would like to encourage everyone to stay in touch with us even if you can’t make it to our meetings. Check out our website & facebook page. Also, be on the lookout for our team members around campus. We’ve recently ordered jackets, rugby shirts, and baseball caps to show our team spirit. As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me or one of the other e-board members. I’m looking forward to a great year with all of you!

~Betsy

2011-2012

Another year is upon us. 

Last time, I came to y’all as President, now I sit back and have taken over the reigns (that fits nicely, doesn’t it?) as Advertising Chair. Part of my position includes managing the ole’ blog. Well, new-ish blog, actually. So here I am.

With Betsy Kohl leading up the club this time around, and a bunch of other girls, myself included, to back her up…I see good things happening! Hopefully soon, I can get her on here to share a little bit about herself ;)

Along with the new year, I decided that WordPress is over-complicated (sorry, Lili) - so I have made us Tumblr converts, as you can see. Hehe and since I’m the only e-board member not currently taking classes this quarter, I have much more time on my hands than the others… so hopefully more lovely design changes will happen as well. I’m speaking mostly of the website that is dying for some fix-ups. 

As always, thanks for stopping by! And welcome to all our new members!

P.S. Thanks to our alum, Jill Knobeloch for providing me with the lovely horsey graphic you see above.

Till next time,

Liz Andrew

The Western Riders have big successes at the first show of the year!!!

We were very excited to be starting off the western season for Zone II Region 1!

This weekend’s shows went quite well and we competed against teams from:
Alfred University
Cornell University,
and Alfred State College.

Regional president, Chris Mitchell of Cornell University also gave us his thoughts on the new region and the standards of sportmanship we are all striving to accomplish. It was good to see a face to all the emails.

April Meier and Ali Schmalenberger both showed all four shows this weekend. Some were better draws than others. April rode hard, but didn’t not get placed until the last show and she worked real hard and got 6th in a tough group of riders.

Ali got 4th twice on Saturday and then ended up getting 1st twice on Sunday. She’s got 20 points for just four shows and is on her way to qualifying for Semi’s in March. She only need 15 more points to move up.

Ashlen also came along to see if she would like to show in February on the western team. She has decided to go ahead and start the process, so we will have three riders in the February shows!

Everyone seems to be having fun showing and working together. We’re looking forward to our next big show weekend in February! Good luck to the western riders and may you have good draws!!

-Jen Bailey, Western Coach, RIT Equestrian