Hey Y’all. After an exciting first two weeks of school, practice and workouts, SMU Equestrian continues to work hard! The team is currently preparing for a preseason scrimmage on Saturday, September 8th, against Baylor University at BuckBranch Farm, the home of the SMU Equestrian Team. In addition to welcoming new freshmen teammates to the roster, SMU Equestrian also welcomes a new donation horse to the Hilltop

Hey Y’all! My name is Megan Osteen. The love and passion I have had for horses started about thirteen years ago

I’m sitting at my favorite Starbucks in uptown with Alex talking about the team. Both of us are trying to remember when we first met and neither of us is coming up with anything. We know it was at some team function, but the specifics escape us. Somehow that inconspicuous introduction transitioned into a valuable friendship complete with a lot of 4AM rides to the airport, me crashing on Alex’s couch, and pre-competition trips to Starbucks

Julie riding Olivia   When scheduling my summer, nearly my entire agenda revolved around on spending some quality time with my best friends before I transfer in the fall. This month I’ll be seeing Taylor, Blaire, and Alex at summer school in Dallas. Last week, however, I travelled to Julie’s home in Wellington to see her before she heads off to study abroad in Madrid. We rode in the mornings, tanned in the afternoons, watched almost every movie currently in the theatres, and drove all around Wellington in hopes of an alligator siting (apparently they aren’t usually hard to find but, to my dismay, we didn’t see one the whole week).  During one of our frequent excursions, Julie exclaimed to a particularly slow sedan, “lead, follow, or get out of the way!” This adage became our sort of motto for the weekend.

Rachel and I first really got to know each other when we pledged the same sorority last winter. I dropped it shortly thereafter, but Rachel and I have remained close friends ever since. Her car was totaled in a storm over the summer, so I often toted Rachel around with me to meets, the barn, dinner, and Starbucks.

I took on this blog with the intent of writing about riding on an equestrian team, the stuff that isn’t documented in a press release, the things besides the statistics.

I took on this blog with the intent of writing about riding on an equestrian team, the stuff that isn’t documented in a press release, the things besides the statistics. Clearly, I intended to write about SMU Equestrian but, being a student-athlete, my priorities are on the “student” part first.

It always seems that, no matter how much time I spending counting down ‘til the end of the school year, it manages to sneak up on me. As each semester winds down, I try to stay on top of my mounting workload. I have yet to master this endeavor. So this particular blog is brought to you in the lull that follows the chaotic terminal weeks of the school year

AMPING UP FOR NATIONALS At the close of the Mustangs’ regular season, we ranked 5 th in the nation and had amply qualified for National Collegiate Equestrian Association (NCEA) Championship.  With a potential roster in place, the show girls’ practices intensified to meet the demands of the impending competition. We scrimmaged the weekend before Nationals on our own horses so coaches could make one last assessment and finalize the roster.  On Monday afternoon we packed up the trailer and on Tuesday morning we shipped out to Waco with four horses and eleven teammates. DAY 1 Obviously I’d gotten way too accustomed to my classes starting at 10AM because my 6:45AM wake-up seemed preposterously too early.  In retrospect of the week, or even an average horse show, 6:45 is sleeping-in. Too tired to remember breakfast, I lugged my duffel, backpack, boot and helmet bags across campus to meet my teammates at the van that would take us to Waco

In college, I am constantly meeting new people. When they find out that I am on the equestrian team, inevitably they ask, “How does that work exactly?” Even fellow riders ask this question. NCAA riding uses a system concocted specifically for the purpose of judging athletes’ equitation on an even playing field.