MHC DRESSAGE TEAM WINS
REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – The Mount Holyoke College dressage team clinched the Northeastern Regional Championship of the Intercollegiate Dressage Association Saturday April 10, at the final show of the season, which was held at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. The school's latest triumph marks its ninth regional championship in the past ten years. The team amassed a perfect score of 28 points for the season. (Each school's top four scores are counted out of the eight-show season. Seven points are awarded for each championship; Mount Holyoke won five of the eight championships.) Of the six other schools participating, UNH placed second and Johnson & Wales placed third.

Next stop for the Mount Holyoke team is the IDA nationals, where it hopes to add a third victory to its two-year run as national champions. The team consists of four rider who compete at different levels: introductory, lower and upper training, and first level. The competition will be held April 23-25 at Cazenovia College in Cazenovia, New York, which, like Mount Holyoke, has a nationally renowned equestrian program. In addition earning a berth for the team competition, Mount Holyoke riders secured five of the 12 slots allotted for individual qualifiers from the Northeast region. Mount Holyoke's riders won three out of four individual rider championships and placed second in the other division.

Team captain Lindsay Whipple, a sophomore from Barre, Vt., said, "I could not be prouder of the way the team worked together and supported each other. It is an amazing feeling to be part of such a successful team."

The team has made tremendous progress under the coaching of Rebecca Schurink of Amherst, a highly regarded dressage trainer and competitor, who has worked with the Mount Holyoke riders since 1998. "When I started here, everyone who tried out for the team got a place. Now we have stiff competition for a limited number of spaces. If I had more horses and more places at shows I'd love to take more riders." Serious young dressage riders come to Mount Holyoke specifically for the opportunity to work with the team. Whipple, well-known as a junior rider throughout New England, said, "The dressage team drew me to the school in the first place, and then it was the deciding factor."

Schurink is thrilled with the team's success. "Dressage competition is such a psychological sport. Having won the regionals gives the riders tremendous confidence as they go into a higher level of competition. I am hopeful they’ll retain this feeling at nationals."

The riders competing at nationals are: Lindsay Whipple '06 (Barre, Vt.); Kate D'Ambly '05 (Raynhnam, Mass.); Cathrine Tauscher '06 (Clinton, Wash.); Christiane Benzing '04 (East Wakefield, N.H.); Nina Akerley '04 (Durham, Conn.); and Nadine Krause '07 (Newtown, Conn.).

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