University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 33, May 29

            Equestrian club team wins national competition
     
     The UD Equestrian Team captured its first national
title recently when it won the sport's Intercollegiate Cup
in competition at Mount Holyoke College May 3-4.
     It is the only club (non varsity) team in the nation
ever to win the championship.
     "Most of the teams we compete against are from schools
where riding is a varsity sport. The schools have riding
programs and riding majors, they provide instructors, there
are barns on the campus, the students may ride everyday. We
only get to ride once a week, we work out of three barns in
the area and pay for our own lessons," Leanna Boyle,
Delaware '98, team co-captain said.
     One of those barns is Vicmead in North Wilmington,
owned by Lori Jakubauskas.
     To get to the national competition team members had to
win in their region and go on to win in the eastern zone.
Of the approximately 45 club members, nine were chosen to
represent the club and participate in the national
competition.
     Boyle, senior co-captain Kim Fenn and coach Bryan
Bradley, who works with club members in his barn near Fair
Hill, Md., chose the lucky nine.
     "It was really hard and took us a long time to
assemble the team," Boyle said. "We looked for riders who
had participated both semesters, who did consistently well
in shows, who were dedicated and who showed good
sportsmanship."
     Interestingly, in intercollegiate competition, no one
knows in advance what horse they will ride.
     "You pick a horse in a random drawing the morning of
the show," Boyle explained. "You get no time to know the
horse, no time to warm up, you have a matter of minutes to
figure everything out. It's a true test of horsemanship and
ability."
     Even at weekly riding lessons, Boyle said, UD students
ride different horses, often switching mounts in mid-
lesson.
     "You really do learn a lot more that way," she
explained, "and a lot of us who compete on a college level
can't afford to keep a horse or find the time it takes to
care for one."
     Competing in the down-to-the-wire National
Competition, which the UD team won by a slim, two-point
margin over Colorado State University, were Fenn, who took
third in the open, flat, class; Sara McDevitt, who won
first place in the open fences class; Cheryl Pierce, who
placed fourth in intermediate fences; Dale Nepert, who
placed seventh in intermediate flat; Susan Goldenfarb, who
placed third in novice fences; Abby Smith, who placed
second in novice flat; Lindsay Volpe, who placed fourth in
walk/trot/canter; Elaine Manaro, who placed third in
walk/trot; and Jen Garrell, who placed sixth in walk/trot.
     The riders don't know what events will be counted in
the team's total on any certain day, and team captains
prefer to keep it that way to encourage a sense of team
spirit and to keep riders relaxed.
     "Kim was our last rider and she was in the ring not
knowing it all depended on her. I was watching and holding
my breath," Boyle   said.
                                               -Beth Thomas