60 SIDELINES MARCH 2012
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
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By Lauren Corey
The 2012
Interscholastic
Equestrian Association (IEA) is
in full swing and I am busier than
ever! As team captain of the
Woodside IEA team, I work with
the Stanford Collegiate team to
plan the show. I had to assemble
a list of riders who were competing
in each division, assign each of
them show numbers and mark the
team alternates. The coaches
sent emails at different times and
the lists of riders were in different
formats so it was incredibly time
consuming to put together a
master copy.
Welcome Help
Luckily I did not have to do
everything on my own. Since
this is a joint show between the
Woodside and Red Barn teams,
I get to work with Samantha
Goldstein, the team captain of
Red Barn. We have been the
best of friends since the moment
we met (four years ago even
though it feels like we’ve been
friends forever.) We get along
great; but are not the most on-task team. We always
get the job done, with several breaks along the way.
We got together on Sunday night the week before the
show to get the rider list and class counts together. The
time passed quickly while we listened to our favorite
songs. We sang along to *NSYNC while assigning
numbers to each rider. We also looked up each rider
we didn’t know on Facebook before adding them to the
list. It was fun to put a face to the name on the page
and hopefully we can recognize the riders as we work
the draw table.
Now For the Fun
Thankfully there is more to a show than just paperwork.
I have been very fortunate in my riding lessons for the
IEA team over the last few weeks. When the weekly
schedule is sent out, there are usually about six people
in my lesson. I love smaller lesson sizes; but one day
I showed up and I was the only one. Colin Daly, our
trainer, had assigned a horse to the other girl that was
supposed to be in my lesson; but she never came.
Colin, because he believes in rewarding those who
show up on time, decided to give me a private lesson
on the horse he assigned me and then let me join in
the next lesson on the horse he assigned the other girl.
The private lesson was the most successful I have
ever had at the Red Barn. The lesson was on Jove, a
Juniorside
“Show Prep” Takes on a New Meaning
new addition to the Red Barn horses. He was an eventer and
reminded me of Dillon, the horse I showed over the summer.
I figured out the best way to ride him was to focus on the
rhythm. As long as we were steady, the distances always
worked out. I had a blast going over the courses with him,
now if only I were lucky enough to draw him for the show…
The second horse, Zanzibar, was more challenging for me
but was also quite fun. He had the most round canter I had
ever ridden, so I mostly went around in a half-seat. I found
jumping him quite challenging because I could not find a good
distance. Because of the roundness, he has a smaller stride
than I am used to and when I thought I found a good distance,
it ended up being long. Zanzibar also has a super round jump
that I really liked. It was fun to feel his movement underneath
me and I figured out how to have better equitation over a more
expressive jump. I absolutely love the horses I rode and I am
keeping my fingers crossed to draw one (or both!) of them in
the show.
The extra riding time on these horses has helped me prepare
for the show. There are several new horses at the Red Barn
that I used to be nervous about; but after these lessons I had
the opportunity to ride them all. I am excited for the show
because for the first time I will be entering the show ring with
complete confidence. I decided that I do belong there and
I know all of the horses well enough to execute a complete
course. I haven’t had a very successful IEA season so far, so
I hope that all the work I put into this show will pay off!
Team captains Lauren Corey and Samantha Goldstein pose after competing over fences
at the last IEA show
Photo by Brenda Goldstein