Sweet Briar’s Intercollegiate Horse Show Association team attended its final horse show of the fall season on Nov. 1 at Bridgewater College. The Vixens grabbed five first-place wins and were the high-point team for the day, beating Hollins University by one point.
The Vixens grabbed five first-place wins in the IHSA show at Bridgewater College.Sweet Briar is now in third place for the season, just four points behind Hollins, which leads the team point standings with 136. Bridgewater College is close behind with 135. Sweet Briar finished the fall season with 131 points, followed by James Madison University in fourth place with 126 points.
“This is really a fabulous way to end the season,” said assistant IHSA coach Emily Casali. “The team is excited, their morale is high and they are really coming together to hunt down first place when we start up again in February.”
It also was bittersweet for the Vixen riders, because IHSA head coach Jon Conyers was unable to attend the show. Four days later, he passed away following a struggle with cancer. The highlight of the students’ day was calling their coach at the end of the show to tell him about their success.
First-year student Alex Mebane described the jubilant scene as “ ‘Charlie’s Angels’-esque.”
“We piled into the van to yell into the cell phone that Emily [Richonne ’12] had on speaker, [yelling] ‘Hi, Jon!’ ” she said. “It was almost Jon being the fearless leader and us being the Angels who swooped in and took the title from Hollins by just one point. We cheered and yelled into the receiver, and you could just tell he was beaming at the other end.”
Mebane recalled how, at a previous show in which she was struggling, Conyers knew just how to help her get through a difficult round. “He tapped my boot and patted the horse and said, ‘Go on, you’ve got this,’ ” she said.
Even though Conyers couldn’t be there to encourage her from the rail at Bridgewater, “we all knew he was there in spirit, and I think that helped to push us over the edge and take the win,” Mebane said. “We were so proud to have won the last IHSA show he would be able to be around for.”
The Bridgewater show began with Open Fences, where both Meredith Newman ’09 and Alison Sims ’09 turned in excellent trips in competitive fields, Casali said. Sims brought home a first-place ribbon while Newman placed fifth.
First-year Greer Gordon also notched a fifth-place ribbon, riding in Intermediate Fences. Two first-years, Lauren Perhala and Emily Richonne, rode next in Novice Fences, where Richonne scored the Vixens’ second blue ribbon of the day.
Equitation classes on the flat followed the jumping classes. Newman showed in Open Flat, picking up Sweet Briar’s third blue ribbon. Paige Kaylor ’10 was fifth in Intermediate Flat, and Greer Gordon also finished fifth in Novice Flat.
Up to this point, in every class that they ribboned in, Sweet Briar riders had won either fifth or first place. Mebane broke the streak with a third place in Novice Flat.
Sweet Briar had three riders in the final five classes of the day, starting with Advanced Walk, Trot, Canter. Townsend Horvath ’12 was fourth in her section. Emma Rakosky ’12 kept a personal streak going by winning her section.
Casali noted that Rakosky has competed in three of four IHSA shows held this fall and is undefeated, having won every class she has entered.
The competition wrapped up with Walk, Trot, where sophomore Elizabeth Wise won her class and the Vixens fifth blue ribbon of the show.
