Western Washington University’s Equestrian club team trots to new levels of success after joining the Intercollegiate Dressage Association.
Dressage is a division within performance horseback riding that focuses on controlling horses to perform specific movements, such as trotting, posing and cantering.
Starting this quarter, the team will try their hand at this new category of competition on a trial period season. After the conclusion of the fall season, they will be evaluated for the opportunity of future participation.
Western’s team is coming into the season with 26 members. Each member’s style varies on equipment styles and sizes, along with the types of trots and disciplines the horse and rider engage with.
Stella Borrillo, a fourth-year at Western and co-vice president of the Equestrian team, described how competitions are scored at events.
“[It's based on] how good you look on the horse, how composed you can be and how controlled you can be on the horse,” Borrillo said.
Due to the club’s lack of resources and the heavy financial costs associated with riding, the club has faced many challenges up to this point. To cope with some of these issues and make participation in the club affordable, members are not given their own horses but rather practice with many different horses.
Allison Aurand from Northwest Saddle Club in Lynden is a stable owner and horse show judge in events such as English and Western riding. Aurand has been in the horse industry for over 40 years.
“They are, thinking, breathing, living, beings that have their own ideas and things they worry about, and they are prey animals by nature,” Aurand said. “[I recommend to] ride as many different horses as you can. “
Depending on how advanced the equestrians are, they are ranked on a point system by jumps and patterns they can follow on horseback.
“Horses have personality just like dogs, cats and people do,” Borrillo said. “The idea is you are judged on you, not the horse, so the judge is supposed to look at you and see how well they are controlling the horse.”
While much of the team has been in the equestrian sector since before college, the team welcomes beginners too.
“We take all levels of riders,” said Ruby Arnold, a third-year at Western and Equestrian team co-vice president. “We take people who are just comfortable doing a walk-trot and some people who can jump 3 feet and up.”
New recruits are sent to Lang's Horse and Pony Farm in Mount Vernon, as teaching new people riding can often be dangerous and requires licensed trainers.
This season, the equestrian team is gearing up with the introduction of a batch of new recruits. Recruits can look forward to what Arnold describes as a fun and supportive team.
“We are all really good friends and hang out all the time,” Arnold said. “A lot of us live together…it's a super cute group of people and we just have a lot of fun doing the thing that we love.”
This year, Western’s equestrian club will compete through February 2025 against schools across the Pacific Northwest, beginning in Oregon on Nov. 9 and 10. The team gets to preview local competition in their first scrimmage on Oct. 26.
Future events and information can be accessed on Western's Equestrian Instagram page.
Jackie Hopkins (she/her) is a Sports and Recreation reporter for The Front. She is a junior studying communications with a minor in public relations journalism. In her free time, she enjoys reading, working out and spending time with her friends. You can reach her at jackiehopkins.thefront@gmail.com.
