Riding
The school operates a horseback riding program, which focuses on show and field hunters, huntseat equitation, and show jumping. The school has 7 riding teams. These include a jumper team, hunter show team, JV hunter show team, Affiliated National Riding Commission (ANRC) team, field team, and Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) team. As part of its program, students can study for an Equine Studies Certificate with a focus in either training or equine management.
Accolades include 10 ANRC Team reserve national championships titles, and 9 ANRC Team national championship titles. Sweet Briar individuals have been reserve ANRC national champions seven times, and national champions nine times. Sweet Briar riders have claimed several individual titles, including Karen Dennehy and Morganne Young.
In 2006, Sweet Briar's IHSA team won their region (Zone 4, Region 1), and placed second at Zones, qualifying them for the Nationals Competition. The team placed third overall, with Jodie Weber '06 claiming a fourth overall in the Cacchione Cup competition. Weber also claimed the Open Over Fences Championship that catapulted the team into the third place position. In 2008, Sweet Briar IHSA won their region again, and proceeded to Nationals, where team members collected individual ribbons.
Equestrian center features include:
- 130-acre on-campus riding center
- 10 large fields ranging from 3 to 25 acres
- More than 18 miles of trails through wooded countryside, foothills, dells and open fields
- One of the largest indoor college arenas in the nation, measuring 120 feet x 300 feet
- Three spacious outdoor rings, along with an enclosed lunging ring
- More than seven teaching and schooling fields
- Hunter trials course
- Fence lines with coops
- Complete inventory of hunter-jumper fences suitable for USEF competitions
- Veterinarians on call
- Twice-weekly farrier visits
- Frequent equine chiropractor appointments
- Biannual equine dentist visits
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Famous quotes containing the word riding:
“Sometimes a musical phrase would perfectly sum up
The mood of a moment. One of those lovelorn sonatas
For wind instruments was riding past on a solemn white horse.
Everybody wondered who the new arrival was.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“Strong Men, riding horses. In the West
On a range five hundred files. A Thousand. Reaching
From dawn to sunset.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“True Thomas lay on Huntlie bank;
A ferlie he spied wi’ his e’e;
And there he saw a lady bright,
Come riding down by the Eildon Tree.”
—Unknown. Thomas the Rhymer (l. 1–4)