2008-09 Riding Blog - Week 8

by Teresa Campbell - April 6, 2009

On February 28, we had our first home show of the spring, and everyone was super-psyched! Teammates went all out on psych-up signs for each other, which were accompanied by a lot of piñatas. Captain Petts even received a life-sized Hannah Montana poster from her secret someone. There was a ton of positive energy going into the show, and it carried on throughout the day.

All of our riders were incredibly consistent, and we ended up with a blue and red arsenal at the end of the day. Earning first place finishes were Cassie Herman (open fences, open flat), Maudie Braswell (novice fences), JoJo Gutfarb (open fences), Emily McCoy (intermediate flat), Liz Tripp (intermediate flat), Caroline Daly (novice flat) and Katie Viechnicki (novice flat).

Seconds were taken home by Lindsay Sceats (open fences), Tracey Mack (open fences, open flat), Shannon Peavey (intermediate fences), Lora Ciborowski (intermediate fences), Anne Tucker (walk-trot-canter), Amanda Ross (walk-trot-canter), Meredith Feinberg (intermediate flat), Brenna Cogswell (novice flat), and Emily Coler (novice flat).

In between the fences and flat portions of the day, we had our senior recognition ceremony. Each senior was presented with flowers, and our coach, C.J., said a few words. It was sad to see the faces of all the wonderful seniors that would be leaving us at the end of the year. From left to right in the picture you can see Katrina Kelly, Kirsten Kasper, Amanda Pettengill (our captain), MacKenzie Ferland, Shannon Peavey, Maudie Braswell, Monica Sakurai, Cassie Herman and C.J. This is such a wonderful group of seniors, and they have all contributed greatly to the team in many different ways. You will all be missed!

After the senior shenanigans were over, we had some further fun in celebration of our assistant coach, Gilly’s, birthday. Our surprise to her was in the form of a cake - and her beloved horse, Freddy, decked out in birthday garb, mostly thanks to the creative genius of Tracey Mack. Gilly got on and, dodging the balloons tied to his neck, did some victory laps around the arena and then demonstrated some amazing western riding. Some of us had never seen Freddy move so fast, and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy it! Freddy is an incredible schoolie, and Gilly is an incredible coach. We are fortunate to have them both as part of our riding program, and their celebration was well-deserved. Thanks, Freddy and Gilly!

The day wrapped up with Mount Holyoke in first place with 36 points. Smith followed with a close 33, then Becker with 31 and UMass with 17. This put us at 36 points ahead of the second place team, UMass, in the region. We couldn’t have asked for better. We also had several individuals qualify for Regional Championships: Tracey Mack (open flat and fences), Liz Tripp (intermediate flat) and Meredith Feinberg (intermediate flat). Cassie Herman seized Reserve High Point Rider honors for the show, following High Point Rider Angela Bernier of Becker College.

Aside from the points, the horses were well-behaved on the whole, and the show ran extremely smoothly thanks to the hard work from our team members in the barn and on the ringside. Everyone, as always, was appreciative of the quality show that we put on and how nice our horses were. Now, entering the final regional show of the season on March 7, we were confident that we would be soon securing a place at Zones on April 4th.