The UW Equestrian Team is a club sport that encourages the community around Laramie to get involved. Though that community is mostly the equestrian community, the club offers things for everyone.
“I like the accessibility of the team since you don’t need experience or a horse,” Katherine York said.
The Equestrian Team is composed of approximately 45-50 members and three coaches that used to be on the team a few years back. Members can participate in English riding, Western riding, or both.
Being in college can be time consuming, leaving no time to care for an animal, so the Equestrian Team relies heavily on the community to provide horses they can use for practice and possibly showing events.
“They’re all community members. So the people send you over there, they have horses, we contact them and they bring the horses or we pick up their horses. They volunteer their horses,” Aurora Gearhart, Vice President of the club, said.
The team goes to four shows a semester, two are English riding and two are Western riding. Recently, the members went to Colorado Springs, CO and Colby, KS for their first two shows and they will soon travel to Boulder, CO for their third show.
The club shows in the IHSA (Intercollegiate Horse Show Association) which gives them the opportunity to compete collegiately and to qualify for regional and national shows.
The Equestrian Team’s goals are to grow the club and improve its members’ skills so that they are able to become better riders in whatever discipline they choose whether that be Western or English.
“Instead of riding the same horse like you normally would at practice and every show, you’re riding a different horse everytime and that’s a different kind of experience,” Katherine Cowel said.
“You could be riding your whole life and have never shown and it’s a very different experience from showing to just ‘oh, I have a horse and ride around and I may work some cows or jump a couple of jumps or something.’ So it’s a very different environment,” Gearhart said.
“I like the people on the team, we’re very close and all the horses are lovely and I love getting to ride. We are very grateful.” Kaylee Davis, the team president said.
With the help of the community and the close relationship between the members, the Equestrian Team is able to give back to those students who are wanting to learn or those who are working to better their skills and follow their equestrian passions.
