NCAA college equestrian teams expanding

by Blaise Runyon, News Editor

The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.

The NCEA announces another addition to their list of participating colleges. Photo credit: @NCEA_equestrian on Twitter.

College sports like football are a huge part of the culture in Ohio. Each year plenty of students from Bradley announce commitments to athletic programs. Besides just football, there’s an extensive list of sports that are part of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association). Few people realize that equestrian sports are also recognized and are a huge part of the NCAA.

College equestrian teams are generally small, a total of 671 riders are D1 as of 2021, and they are spread across 20 teams. That averages out to about 33 per team, which are then essentially split into four sub-teams headed by two separate assistant coaches. This is similar to the concept in football of having a head coach, defensive coordinator, and offensive coordinator.

What makes college teams unique from regular equine sports is that athletes don’t bring their own horse to work with and show. Horses are donated to colleges and shared by all team members. These horses are ridden and taken care of by the whole team. During meets, the home team provides the horses for that day. The advantage of this is that riders are relying on their ability and not the ability of their horse. They also often have never ridden the horse before at an away meet, so they’re allowed a short warm-up to figure out the basics.

Equestrian sports were only adopted into the NCAA in 1998, and since then, they’ve become much more competitive. This year they have added both Tennessee University of The South and Sacred Heart University. In 2018 the University of California Davis joined the NCEA, which is regularly ranked among the top 10 public universities in the country. These new teams are earning a name for themselves quite quickly, in fact, UC Davis just overtook South Carolina (established in ‘97) last week 11-6.

The NCEA has made it possible for riders to receive extensive scholarships to attend high-quality schools such as the University of Georgia, Auburn University, and Baylor University. The NCAA allows each school to hand out 15 scholarships, although schools tend to set their funding limits. Due to the sport being relatively small, Athletes USA states, “If you are competing at a national level then you have a great chance of receiving a 100% scholarship.” Although, most of the luck really just depends on knowing who to contact. Many athletes verbally commit in their junior year, so it’s important to start early, whereas in some larger sports it’s common to not commit until the senior year of high school.

Equestrian sports are gaining popularity and respect among colleges, but the numbers are still low considering the high cost to own and show any horse, especially at the level colleges expect. It is, however, highly rewarding to have that opportunity. Club levels are also available through IHSA (Intercollegiate Horse Show Association), which is offered at local schools like OSU and Findlay. Those teams cost money to join, rather than offering scholarships. There are many overlooked college sports, and you can learn more through the NCAA website, because who knows, maybe your obscure athletic talent could earn you a full scholarship to your dream school!