Shuller places in first horse show of the season
Senior Livia Shuller smiles with her 6th and 3rd place ribbons from Sunday’s show
October 31, 2014
Linganore’s Equestrian club (team) participated for the first time in the homecoming parade on Saturday, October 21, 2014. The team has been an “off and on” club for the past four years. The team’s first show was on Sunday, October 26, 2014 at Oatlands Stables. At the show, Senior Livia Shuller placed 6th in the hack and 3rd in jumping. Grace Yingling and Kathleen Gallagher also competed on Sunday but did not place.
“The show on Sunday was a fun experience because I got to compete with other people from Linganore. I was proud of placing 6th and 3rd because I have worked to hard change my position to be good at hunters,” said Senior Shuller. Livia usually rides dressage. Last year she started hunters.
The second show is to be held on Sunday, November 23, 2014 at Oatlands. (See the full show calendar.)
The team meets once a month on club days; they also show once a month. To make the team a little more interesting, this year the team is trying to do a few things beyond shows, including visiting barns, learning new techniques, and going on trail rides. The team is also seeking sponsors.
Gayle Blair, special education teacher, has been the adviser of the team since last year. She supports everyone on the team in everything they do. Blair used to ride when she was younger. After volunteering to help administrate the team last year, she enjoyed it enough to continue.
“I thought students that wanted to ride needed and deserved recognition and someone to support them in their riding,” said Blair.
Blair had a lot of horse experience in college. She worked for an Olympic rider, trained horses, and taught young riders.
“These girls spend hours training and caring for their animals; they are high school athletes,” said Blair
LHS graduates Adaire Nehring and Lucy Snell both put the team together last year. Last year, the team members included Megan Barker, Nicole Baye, Alison Capron, Madyson Fleming, Danielle Jagerson, Adaire Nehring, Lucy Snell, Livia Shuller, Magena Straight, Grace Yingling and Kira Zimmerman.
This year the team is made up of some of the veterans of the team. The new competitors are Courtney Casper, Alyssa Chiarelli, Madeline Cindric, Brianna Coposky, Kathleen Gallagher, Kristen Lundy, Taylor Stanton and Lily Tate.
Junior Grace Yingling says she joined because “Somebody told me about the ISHS circuit last year, I joined so that I could show more. Doing it through the school is a bonus because then people can hear more about the sport and see what horseback riders do.”
Some of the participants now compete in high school rodeos. There are different events for boys and girls.The girls events are barrel racing, pole bending, queen contest, goat tying, breakaway roping, team roping and cutting.
Traditionally, the team has had more English riders. English riding is hunting, eventing, dressage and cross country. Western riding is mainly barrel racing.
The Western riders of the team are Taylor Stanton, Danielle Jagerson, and Courtney Casper.
The team does a series called ISHS (Inter-School Horse Show Series.) The series has two show barns NFF (Nothing Fancy Farm) and Oatland Stables. The English shows consist of a hack and a jump. If the rider places in the hack then she advances on to the jumping part of the show.
A hack class is where the rider’s horse is judged on its gates: walk, trot, canter and sit trot. In the ISHS series it is an equitation class. Therefore, the rider is judged, not the horse.
