Skidmore rules in college riding

Betsy Carter's Horse Scene

Date published: 7/30/2010

SKIDMORE COLLEGE won the 2010 Intercollegiate Horse Show Association Championships Team Hunter Seat Collegiate Cup with 28 points. Defending champion Centenary College tied the University of Findlay for the reserve title with 20 points.

Individual rider high point award, the USEF Cacchione Cup, went to Lindsay Sceats of Mount Holyoke College with 175 points.

The Kentucky Horse Park played host to the IHSA at the new indoor arena where the IHSA also retired the original Cacchione Cup, first awarded in 1972.

IHSA teams compete at host schools, riding the host school's horses. The host school and the guest school must ride the same horses throughout the day. However, the guest school riders are unfamiliar with the horses on which they are riding.

Each rider is allowed only a few minutes of riding to become familiar with her mount before competing, so the competition is a real test of horsemanship well beyond just showing a horse around a course of jumps.

Sometimes the horses chosen for the day's competition are difficult or have unusual requirements, which the guest riders must quickly figure out. During the competition year, each school plays host at least once, therefore supplies the horses, so they have the home-school advantage at that time.

Calendar

July 28-Aug. 1: Rose Mount Summer Horse Show

July 29-Aug. 1: USPC National championships, VHC

July 30-31: Old Dominion at Sweet Briar

July 31: Lake of the Woods; Sandstone; Kelly's Ford Western show.

July 31-Aug. 1: EEMI Summer Fling, Morven Park

Aug. 1: Happy Valley dressage; Avalon dressage

Aug. 3: Oakland Heights; Frying Pan Park

Aug. 4: Picturesque; Touch Point

Aug. 4-8: Blowing Rock; Eastern Arabian Championships, VHC

Aug. 7: NHS at James Long Park; Summerplace; Oakland Heights; Fox Chase; Coventry; Elysian Hills Starter Horse Trials, Marshall

Aug. 8: EKG; Fox Chase; Elmington; Chesapeake Dressage Institute; Middleburg Orange Pony Club Combined Test

Aug. 10: TWA at Summerduck; Oakland Heights

Aug. 11: Picturesque

Aug. 11-15: Lexington National

Aug. 12: Woodpecker Pony show

Aug. 13: EKG

Aug. 14: Sandstone; Cinnamon Ridge; Toad Hollow dressage and CT; VADA/NOVA at Looking Glass

Aug. 15: Hazelwild; Frying Pan Park; Kelly's Ford; VADAF at Bayberry Riding Center; SVDA at Carlton; Oaakland Heights dressage; PWHA Western show

Aug. 18: Picturesque; Touch Point; Oakland Heights

Aug. 18-21: Winston National, Culpeper

Betsy Carter can be reached at The Free Lance-Star, 616 Amelia St., Fredericksburg, Va. 22401; or by fax at 540/373-8455.