Blue ribbons don’t mean it was a perfect season.

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Haley reflects on a crucial part of the horse show world.

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Haley figured out that ALL college assignments can be horse-related.

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Collegiate blogger Haley Ruffner describes a recent challenging ride on a friend’s horse that tested her abilities to adapt as a horseman.

Haley and Berkeley. Photo by Ellie Woznica

Arguably the most difficult aspect of riding in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association, or IHSA, is adapting to each different horse you ride in practice or draw at a show. Even having ridden the Alfred University horses for the past five years as both a high school and now college equestrian, I still learn something new about them each ride.

Most of my coaches have emphasized “getting the feel” of your mount in the few moments you have between getting on and entering the show pen — how much leg do you need to use? Does your horse prefer a soft hand, or do you need to be more assertive? Is he spur broke, does he get antsy if you use any leg at all, does he snap at other nearby horses? Much of this can be determined from watching warm-ups and previous classes, but there is no alternative to actually sitting on the horse and feeling his barrel between your legs and his mouth on the end of your reins.

Last semester, one of my teammates rode my horse, Cricket, for the first time. In short, he operates with very little leg, soft hands, and a lot of seat and voice. My teammate, being primarily used to riding her own fancy (though slightly lazy) jumper, tended towards squeezing with her calves and rising out of the saddle at the canter. The combination of two very different disciplines and riding styles confused both of them and resulted in a rather hilarious learning experience for both horse and rider — a dramatic example of what IHSA riders endure every time they draw a new horse at a show.

To her, stopping was a drawn-out “whoaaaaaa” and pulling on the reins, while my horse was used to a short, firm “whoa,” deep seat, and calves away from his sides. In true IHSA fashion, they were both excellent sports and figured each other out within a few minutes with no casualties and little embarrassment.

This week, the tables were turned and my teammate let me ride her own personal horse, the aforementioned fancy jumper. I can now say that I fully appreciate her struggle to figure Cricket out — I struggled as much (if not more) in my ride on her horse. She warmed him up and explained to me how I should ride him — soft hands, bend him away from the scary end of the arena, lots of constant leg and keep his stride contained to avoid him stepping on himself.

It seemed simple enough until I actually had to do all of those things at once, and stay cantering, and try to maintain some semblance of equitation. To Berkeley, “whoa” means “whoa,” but so does “good boy!”; sometimes passing the side door also means “whoa.” He was wiggly everywhere Cricket tracks straight and let me know exactly when I wasn’t riding him correctly.

My ride on Berkeley was strictly for fun and had no connection to my IHSA practices, but I think I learned more from that ride than I did from the parade of western horses I rode this week. His differences from what I am used to, drastic as they are, will remind me to be more sensitive even on the western horses, who are all fairly similar. Not all horses will tell you when you’re wrong as dramatically as Berkeley and Cricket do, but nevertheless it’s just as important to listen to your horse as it is for him to listen to you.

Go riding!

Haley is the author of Horse Nation’s “Academic Equestrian” series, following her collegiate experience as she balances her studies with participation on the varsity equestrian team and time with her own horse. Catch up on past columns by clicking the #ACADEMIC EQUESTRIAN tag at the top of the page!

Haley Ruffner is attending Alfred University, majoring in English and minoring in Business and Equestrian Studies. She has a green Quarter Horse, At Last an Invitation “Cricket,” and he is also “enrolled” at Alfred. She rides western and hunt seat and also loves to rein and trail ride.

Photo courtesy of Haley Ruffner.

Winter: where good intentions come to die.

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Haley’s putting the “resolute” in “resolution” for 2016.

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Back at home after her first semester of college, our collegiate blogger Haley Ruffner reflects on the past few months.

Cricket, who is really doing his best to grow his bridlepath into a unicorn horn.

I have officially completed my first semester of college as of yesterday morning — grades don’t come out officially until Monday, but I can say for sure at this point that I haven’t failed out! Cricket came home today and is enjoying being reunited with his pasture-mates, and I am enjoying home-cooked meals and unlimited naptime.

Having successfully completed my first semester of college, I can say that there are a few things that helped me to get through it and worked well:

First, learning to manage my time has been integral to staying organized — I know it’s preached to students everywhere and probably sounds cliche at this point, but I would say that balancing everything is the hardest thing to maintain. In high school, I had study halls built into my schedule and designated times every day I had to spend in class, at lunch, and various study halls. In college, there are no training wheels. If you want to skip class and spend all day asleep in your dorm room, there’s no one to stop you — but you will find out that it didn’t go unnoticed when grades come out. If you ride instead of doing homework or leave a project until the last minute, it’s exceedingly hard to catch up and have a good quality of work.

That being said, it’s easy for me to get caught up in how much work I have to do and forget to do anything else — it’s still important to eat, ride, and get out and take a break from studying every once in awhile. As the semester went on, I started my work earlier so that I would have time to break it up a little and not be stuck doing everything the night before or the morning it was due. Often, I would work at the barn so that I could ride and do homework while I waited for Cricket to dry under his cooler.

Taking an active role in student life and classes matters more now than in high school — nodding and saying “okay” to adults’ questions (professors or other staff) will only get you so far. Most people appreciate when you ask questions and clarify things — it shows that you’re actually paying attention and that you care about what’s going on.

I am more than happy that the semester is over and am looking forward to relaxing over winter break with my very fuzzy Cricket!

Haley Ruffner is attending Alfred University, majoring in English and minoring in Business and Equestrian Studies. She has a green Quarter Horse, At Last an Invitation “Cricket,” and he is also “enrolled” at Alfred. She rides western and hunt seat and also loves to rein and trail ride.

Haley Ruffner, the Academic Equestrian, is nearing the finish line of her first semester of college: finals week.

Today is the last day of classes before finals week, and I think I finally understand why “Finals Week” is said with much the same tone as one would say “My dog just died” or “I’m about to go skydiving with a parachute that is probably defective.”

I can’t really complain because I only have two finals and they’re several days apart, but the real reason I’m freaking out is that every professor likes to assign final projects in addition to the exams — all of which were due yesterday or today. Naturally, instead of staying on campus to double-, triple-, and quadruple- re-check every sentence of every essay I have due today, I went to the barn to ride this morning (because when my coach offers to let me ride a reiner, I can’t say no, and really, who can say no to this face?)

On the bright side, my knowledge of how to work Microsoft Word on my new computer has increased exponentially after typing what felt like 35 pages, and none of my work was lost in any saving malfunctions. I may have had too little sleep and too much coffee, but after time in the saddle I feel a little more like a real person again.

Haley Ruffner is attending Alfred University, majoring in English and minoring in Business and Equestrian Studies. She has a green Quarter Horse, At Last an Invitation “Cricket,” and he is also “enrolled” at Alfred. She rides western and hunt seat and also loves to rein and trail ride.

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Haley reflects on why she chose her college.

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It’s not all trail rides and blue ribbons.

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Midterms kept Haley from her horse all week long.

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Our freshman blogger is learning the value of time management!

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Cricket’s freshman year is off to a great start!

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What’s harder: saying goodbye, or not being able to?

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It’s move-in day … for both Haley AND her horse!

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Haley Ruffner takes on the horsey internet.

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Haley Ruffner recounts her recent experience of taking a green horse out of his comfort zone.

Cricket and Jimmy showing off their Pleasure Pairs skills with me and my best friend Elena aboard, showing off our matching outfits. Photo courtesy of Keystone Equine Entertainment and Training.

Horse showing is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you’re going to get. (That’s how that quote goes, right?)

A couple of weeks ago, I took my relatively unseasoned horse to a small open show, mostly because he’s coming to college with me to be used in an IHSA program and I wanted to test the waters, so to speak, and see how much work needed to be done before he was show-ready. It was his first show in almost three years, and I really wasn’t sure what to expect–would he remember to wear his big boy pants that day and behave like he does at home, or would the new and terrifying sights of a new arena and busy fairgrounds make him lose all semblance of focus?

We arrived and unloaded with little fanfare (always a positive) and he was his usual inquisitive self–the barrel in the corner was mildly scary only until I had let him sniff and slobber all over it, and he tried to stop and say hi to every person standing alongside the rail. Warm ups went well, despite my original misgivings that the morning hunt seat portion of the show would be a disaster because a) I hadn’t ridden hunt seat since the last IEA show in February, and b) Cricket hadn’t had an English saddle on him since then either. He acted for all the world like he’d been schooled in a bouncy trot and soft canter for months on end…at least until about the second class in, during which he decided he really just wanted to canter around and run through the bit.

We made it through the rest of the morning relatively unscathed except for rising blisters on my ring fingers from his very rude and uncharacteristic bit wrestling (and without running anyone over) and finally we moved on to the Western part of the show. I told him that he was a bad creature and he gave me the sad eyes and looked appropriately chastised, and then I changed from breeches and hunt coat to chaps and a western shirt and off we went again.

During the second half of the show, we evidently chose a good chocolate out of the metaphorical horse show box, because Cricket was as much of a gentleman as ever and tried his best for me.

What I took away from that day is that you have to react to what happens as it comes, and that sometimes you just have to make yourself enjoy the ride even if it’s rough going at first. Except for some morning bumps in the road, it was a positive experience for my inexperienced horse, and I feel more confident in his ability to behave himself and relax into the rhythm of showing.

Steve Shank, my IHSA coach and Director of the equestrian program at Alfred, riding Cricket in the Adult Walk-Trot class. Photo courtesy of Keystone Equine Entertainment and Training.

Haley Ruffner will be attending Alfred University in the fall to major in English and minor in Business and Equestrian Studies. She has a green Quarter Horse, At Last an Invitation “Cricket,” and he will be joining her at Alfred. She rides western and hunt seat and also loves to rein and trail ride.

What qualities do you recognize?

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Life doesn’t always go according to plan.

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Haley Ruffner refuses to be stereotyped!

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Horse show moms do more than serve as groom and chauffeur: Haley Ruffner reflects on the gifts she’s received from her own mother.

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