Sports
March 2, 2022
Vice president of the equestrian team, Grace Waugh, rides at the team’s new barn, Yonahlossee Stables Feb. 6, 2022. Ansley Puckett
Equestrian team trots home after 12 years Ansley Puckett | Managing Editor
For the past 12 years, one club team has traveled an hour from Boone to three different places to practice. Now, the App State equestrian team will be in the same place for the first time since 2009 and only 10 minutes from campus at Yonahlossee Stables at Pine Hill. “We’re all going to be in one place, and we’re all going to be able to practice together, and frankly, I am stoked,” said Grace Waugh, vice president of the equestrian team. The team, made up of three smaller teams, has Western riders, who do reigning, looping and pleasure riding, and English riders, who are split into a Dressage team and a Hunt Seat team. Hunt Seat riders work on form, being able to jump; equitation, which is walk, trot, canter; and working to connect with a horse in a short amount of time. The Dressage team works on 20-meter circles, 15 and 10-meter circles, which are equitation patterns, and riders walk, trot, canter and do more advanced moves like lateral movement. Carmen Shore, the equestrian team treasurer and facility change coordinator, said the team began practicing at three different barns to meet the needs of each discipline. The team has three coaches for Western, Hunt Seat and Dres-
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sage. The Dressage team currently practices in Taylorsville, the Hunt Seat team practiced in Newton for the fall semester, and the Western team practiced in Morganton for the fall semester. This semester, the Hunt Seat team is moving early to Yonahlossee Stables because of timing issues at their previous barn. The team started practicing in Boone Feb. 14. The Western team also had resource and timing issues in Morganton, and Western riding will be limited this semester until the team moves to Yonahlossee Stables in the fall. Next year, when the Dressage and Western team move to their new barn in Boone, they will all train at the same place. “We’ll all be at the barn at the same time. We’ll be able to see each other in passing, and we can have social gatherings out there, so I really think that it’ll help us become a more cohesive team rather than three separate disciplines,” said Waugh, a sustainable technology major. Shore began working on moving the team to one barn when she joined the executive board in March 2021. In September, the rest of the board joined her in searching for a new home barn. Shore visited barns in Boone, talking with different places until she found a place interested in a partnership. The team is aiming to
For a lot of people, I guess riding is therapy. With everything going on from classes and work schedules and drama and social life, for me personally, riding is very therapeutic.
