At the Dartmouth Show, the Big Green, the defending Ivy League equestrian champion, finished first out of nine teams, ahead of the University of New Hampshire, the University of Vermont and defending regional champions Mount Ida College, who rounded up the top four.
Seven different Big Green riders won events on Sunday. Erica Anhalt '09 won Novice Jumping, Alaina Smith '09 won Intermediate Flats, Susannah Kurnick '11 won Walk Trot Canter, Kari Lewis '10 won Beginning Walk Trot Canter and Gabrielle Emanuel '10 won Walk Trot.
Lucretia Witte '10 also won a beginners' Walk Trot Canter in her first college appearance in the event. Spangenberg also won another classic Walk Trot Canter event, in addition to a victory in the same even at Colby Sawyer the previous day.
"It's always a great confidence boost to win a show," Parsons said. "Some of the girls were disheartened by the show on Saturday, and so it was really good to win the show right after it."
At Saturday's event at Colby Sawyer, the Big Green finished in the middle of the pack overall. Dartmouth was led by Linda Cummins '10, who won Walk Trot Canter. Samantha Parsons '10 and Sarah Spangenberg '11 both finished second, with Parsons a runner-up in Open Flats and Spangenberg taking second in Novice Flats.
Because it was an away show and an IHSA competition, the Big Green had to ride horses provided by the host college, and, as a result, there was some difficulty adjusting.
"It definitely makes it much more difficult," Parsons said. "The only time we get to see the horses is the morning of the show when someone else is riding. We aren't allowed to prepare with them, and it definitely gives the hosts a home-field advantage of sorts."
The Big Green made some critical mistakes Saturday that contributed to the squad's overall performance.
"At the Colby Sawyer show we had some errors, and there were some things that we could improve upon," she added. "It was disappointing because we always want to win our shows. Saturday was definitely one of our more difficult shows."
Colby Sawyer won the show ahead of Mount Ida, who finished second, while the Big Green tied for fourth with UNH.
The Big Green has two more shows this fall before breaking for winter, and the team hopes to use them as preparation for the Ivy League Championships in the spring.
"We have a very young team," Parsons said. "Six of our 14 riders are new. Hopefully by spring we'll be experienced. Right now, a lot of the girls are still getting used to not riding horses before the shows."
But Parsons believes that despite its youth, the team will have a great chance of defending its Ivy League title.
"We would love to win it again. I think that, come spring, this team will have a good, competitive chance of winning," Parsons said.
The Big Green will hope to stay in form and earn another win this weekend as it heads to the Mount Ida Show in Newton Centre, Mass. The following weekend, Dartmouth will travel to the UNH Show in Durham, N.H., the team's last show of the fall.
