The Big Green's combined points in the first week of competition put the team in second place overall in its division.
At its first show, Dartmouth was led by first-place showings from Abby Franklin '13 and co-captain Helena Witte '13 in the advanced walk-trot-canter and in the novice fences events, respectively.
Janna Wandzilak '14, Trevy Wing '13, Faye Keegan '12 and Sarah Spangenberg '11 all finished second in their respective events.
Wing is a member of The Dartmouth staff.
As a team, however, the Big Green only managed fifth place out of eight teams. Several team members attributed the low team finish to a stroke of bad luck.
"If you draw a difficult horse, you are just going to have a tougher time riding," Wing said. "It really does depend a lot on what horse you draw."
At the Middlebury show, five team members, including two freshmen, posted first place finishes. Wandzilak took first place in the novice flat and Katrina Zandberg '14 was first in the beginner walk-trot-canter. Other first place finishers included co-captain Kelly Tropin '13 in the open flat, Franklin in the advanced walk-trot-canter and Spangenberg in the intermediate flat.
After the strong weekend showing, the Big Green is only narrowly trailing the University of New Hampshire for first place in the regional standings.
Tropin attributed the team's strong start to the riders' commitment to preseason preparation.
The attendance and hard work demonstrated by the team in training have been important, according to Tropin. A strong performance by the Big Green in a preseason show in Maryland earlier in the year increased the team's optimism about its prospects for this season.
"It really raised our sights," Tropin said.
After having a fairly young team for the past few years, Dartmouth now has a good balance of experienced and young riders. This year's team is comprised of seven underclassmen and seven upperclassmen.
In fact, the two freshmen riders are already playing an important role on the team.
"[The freshmen] did really well at tryout, and they meshed really well with the team," Witte said.
The team members are encouraged by their early start, Witte said, expressing confidence that with the energy the team has demonstrated early on, the Big Green will continue to improve as the season progresses.
"I think we have a really great team," she said. "I'm really excited about it."
If the first two events are any indication, the Big Green certainly has a bright future as it looks forward to the rest of the season. Co-captain Cristina Herren '12 said that as the team competes in the more intense Intercollegiate Show Horse Association (ISHA) environment an adjustment period is necessary. With two shows under the team's belt, though, she feels that the team is already in midseason form.
"The ISHA is a very different show environment," she said. "We worked out most of the kinks."
The team will look to continue its success and gain ground on UNH this weekend at home on Saturday and on Sunday as it travels for the Colby Sawyer Show. Hosting shows gives Dartmouth the significant advantage of knowing the horses the team will be riding.
