Dartmouth equestrian has picket-fenced the region this season, taking first place not only at Colby-Sawyer College on Oct. 19 and at a home show this past Saturday, but at every competition this season. The team goes uncontested for first place, sitting in the standings 28 points above second-place the University of New Hampshire, almost enough points to account for an additional show.
“I have to say this is the best team as a total that I have had in the 24 years that I’ve been here,” coach Sally Batton said. “They just are naturally talented, but also they all are hard-working: they all want to progress and succeed and work as a team, even though equestrian is mostly an individual sport.”
The Big Green took first place at Colby-Sawyer, bringing home four blue ribbons and another first overall. But the real story came this weekend, when Dartmouth hosted nine other teams at Morton Farm for their first of two home shows.
“We had a lot of people come to watch,” co-captain Janna Wandzilak ’14 said. “It’s just exciting to have people come see what we do, because a lot of people don’t understand necessarily what we do and what we’re working on all the time. It was kind of our joke this week because we were doing so well that we wanted to max out our points.”
The Big Green came dangerously close to the perfect mark, besting second-place the University of Vermont by 12 points. The team scored a total of 47 points, which is the highest score possible without reaching complete perfection. In addition to the nine blue ribbons the team took off the stage, six of which were point riders, Emma Waugh ’16 won reserve high-point rider.
“The point that we dropped was a second-place point, but for some people that’s the best that they’ll get, so that’s amazing,” Meg Rauner ’17 said. “It was fun to watch our horses go, but it can be frustrating because you can see them riding our horses and you feel like they’re doing it wrong. But on the other hand, it’s good because you can see the things they mess up on, and we know we must be messing up those exact same things when we ride their horses.”
When hosting a show, the home team must provide horses for all of the competitors.
“We had to borrow some horses because we didn’t have enough, but some of the horses couldn’t show,” Rauner said. “Before the show, we warm up the horses to make sure they’re not lame or injured, but two of our horses were spooked by the crowd.”
Besides a two-hour delay due to a missing emergency medical technician, this home show ran very well. The team opened the competition to all riders instead of limiting the entries, with over 200 individuals participated.
One of the benefits of hosting a home show is having the opportunity to talk to the judge about the team’s performance that day.
“The judge thought that a lot of us had really good angles,” Wandzilak said. “Basically we know that we need to be really tight, and we practice that by building muscle in the weight room and riding without stirrups. She said we can always improve upon accuracy and distance in jumps.”
These small critiques are beginning to be the point of attention for the unstoppable Big Green, which has only a few remaining shows this season. Dartmouth has only taken first in its region twice in the last 17 years, but with its obvious strength and point position — if it takes first in the region, it will advance directly to the zone competition — Dartmouth has its eyes set on the final prize.
“The goal is trying to get to nationals,” Wandzilak said.
Nationals will be held in May in Harrisburg, Pa., and the team has started preparing as if they have already qualified.
“We want to make sure those top riders don’t get too many points and put out their class,” Batton said. “I have other riders that can do equally as well, but we still need to win the region.”
Strategy aside, the strong season has inspired a positive energy on the team.
“It was really exciting to just watch people ride and do really well,” Rauner said. “It just feels like we’re unstoppable, and it felt so incredible to watch us do so well without really breaking a sweat. It’s a little bit surreal.”
The team looks to reign in the remaining competition, and will travel to both the University of New Hampshire in Durham and Endicott College in Beverly, Mass., for competitions this weekend.
