Your Turn: Varsity eventing

College can put a damper on even the most enthusiastic young rider’s eventing career. Ryann Quigley, co-founder of the High Point University (NC) Eventing Team, explains how she and her her teammates make it work.

Top photo: Ryann Quigley and Panama Limited competing at Beginner Novice at Virginia Horse Trials.

From Ryann:

Hey HN, my name is Ryann Quigley and along with Hayley Parsons, we founded the High Point University Eventing Team. Here are some commonly asked questions about the team! Follow us on twitter (@HPUeventingteam) and on Facebook.

What is required of a teammate?

Being a teammate is really easy. We are a close-knit group of students who love horses and the sport of eventing. We have someone from virtually every level. We require a club sport payment of 60 dollars, which gets you a jacket and t-shirt. The school helps us out with costs the best they can, giving us a budget each semester to offset the costs of eventing as a college student. Our university is geared to making every student’s experience extraordinary! Check it out at www.highpoint.edu

Ryann Quigley, Hayley Parsons and Stephanie Sapp

How is being on a team different than competing alone?

Being on a team is great! We’re all used to having parents or grooms to drive us to events to help us out any way they can, but once you’re in college having your parents come to every event seems a bit absurd. Having the team makes it easier at the events, we help each other out, and we can all split the costs of driving and hotel rooms! Parents love the fact that riding bills may be shrinking. We all look out for each other any way we can. Coach can’t be there to walk your course? Have a more experienced teammate help you out!

Is it difficult to balance schoolwork and riding? Do you have a social life?

At first it’s definitely a challenge. If you’re good with time management and are lucky enough to get a schedule that works for you, then you should be fine, but everyone is different. I might suggest taking a month or so off before bringing a horse to school–that way you can get acclimated with your classmates and get a feel for how much schoolwork you’ll have during the week.

Hayley Parsons and RubyRoc competing at Preliminary.

Who is the coach? How often do you train with them?

We use Holly Hudspeth for a coach, although we have no requirements. Your usual coach will be in Aiken and you want them to help you at Paradise Horse Trials? No problem. We’re super flexible in that regard because we want everyone to succeed. Holly is based out of Equiventure Farm which is a little over an hour away. It’s extremely convienient to go there, and the facilities are amazing. Check them out at http://hollyhudspetheventing.com/ or http://equiventurefarm.com/.

Where are you based?

When we were looking for a location, we needed a place close enough to campus that provided top-notch care for our beloved horses. We found the most amazing barn, Hunter’s Pointe Stable, that is six miles from campus. Hunter’s Pointe is a hunter/jumper farm that has beautiful pastures and a HUGE ring. They treat each border like it’s their own horse–they do a fantastic job.

How often do you compete and where?

We compete as often as we can, but it’s totally up to the individual. They can pick and choose what events they’d like to go to. Typically we’ll to two to three competitions in Aiken, Southern Pines I & II, and Virginia Horse Trials in October (They have the college team challenge!! Really fun!). There are also tons of schooling shows in the area, and other Prelim and below shows all within 90 minutes away. All these competitions are within three hours and we try to keep everything to weekends so we don’t have to miss any classes.

Have any more questions? Message us on facebook or email us here: [email protected]

Go HN, and Go High Point University!

High Point banners hung up proudly!