2008-09 Riding Blog - Week 7

by Teresa Campbell - March 23, 2009
(photos courtesy of Jordan McMullen)

Going into our first show of the spring season, the riding team was pumped to continue our winning streak from the end of last semester. With the 24-point lead that we secured in the final show of the fall season, we knew that UMass would try to rally to come back and would offer tough competition. After much hard work over the winter break, we felt we were ready for the challenge.

UMass hosted the first show of the spring portion of the season on a very cold winter day. We were all bundled up to the max and enjoyed goodies brought by many supportive parents. We started out the day strong, with the fences classes, and ended even stronger on the flat. In open fences, Cassie Herman earned a blue ribbon, and Amanda Pettengill and Tracey Mack both came in third in their classes. Jordan McMullen took second in novice fences. The alum classes were also exciting. Lorin Weaver ’08 earned a blue in fences, and Trina Baker (also the coach of Becker College) took a blue in flat.

The flat is where we really stepped it up, winning eight out of our nine blue ribbons for the day. Mount Holyoke swept the walk-trot classes. For one of our new walk-trotters, Desiree Demski-Hamelin, this was her first show ever. The entire team watched, as she rode beautifully to a first place finish. We cheered so loudly when her number was announced that you couldn’t even hear the rest of the pinnings. In the next class, Bridget Brady grabbed another blue in walk-trot. Ashley Burka continued our winning streak in beginner walk-trot-canter, followed by Jacqueline Knutson in walk-trot-canter and Cassie Herman in open flat. Mount Holyoke also cleared out the intermediate flat classes with two firsts from Emily McCoy and Liz Tripp. In the final classes, Jordan McMullen, Mary Ciborowski, and Maudie Braswell tied up the day nicely with two red ribbons and one blue, respectively, in novice flat.

Despite our impressive garrison of blues, we came in second place overall with 36 points. UMass earned top honors with 42 points. The result was reminiscent of our first fall show. It still left us with an 18-point lead over UMass in the region.

Several of our riders qualified for the Regional Championships at the show. They were Jacqueline Knutson (walk-trot-canter), Lora Ciborowski (novice fences) and Cassie Herman (open flat and fences). In addition, Cassie Herman took home High Point Rider honors, and Jordan McMullen won Reserve High Point Novice Rider accolades.

We were all positive coming out of this show and knew we would blow the competition away at our home show the next weekend.