October 2021 Issue

Page 28 October 2021 EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN Real Estate By Haylie Kerstetter College Preparatory Invita- tional, or CPI, is hosted for students in grades 8-12 who are exploring the college equestrian experience. During the event, participants can show in the intercollegiate format, attend the equestrian-focused col- lege fair, and listen to educational presentations. Horses were provid- ed by local facilities to give riders a true sense of the catch riding they High School Students Explore College Riding at College Prep International Centenary University's "Zanga", competing with his rider at CPI in the Novice Over Fences. Photo credit: Olivia Erikson would see in the Intercollegiate Horse ShowAssociation (IHSA) shows. This year, the event took place September 11th and 12th, beginning with a clinic with Nona Garson on Saturday, and wrapping up with an IHSA style horse show on Sunday. Some of the colleges at the event included Centenary Univer- sity, Albion College, Lake Erie College, and Randolph-Macon College. Coaches and represen- tatives from each school came to scout potential riders for their teams and give out information to interested students. An Olympic show jumper fromAsbury, NJ, Nona Garson was the featured clinician for the week- end, and hosted CPI at her The Ridge at Riverview. She competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney where the United States finished in 6th place. Currently, she is operating The Ridge in NJ and FL and plans to teach clinics around the country and abroad. On the day of the clinic, riders were assigned a horse at random and rode them for their clinic group. During the clinic, Nona discussed the importance of riding each horse as an individual. Because riders are given a random horse at intercollegiate shows to simulate catch riding, individual- izing the way they ride each horse will give them a better chance at success. She also stressed the importance of transitions and the promptness of them to give cours- es a cleaner appearance. “Give with your elbow, not the length of your rein,” said Nona. She discussed rein length in great detail, explaining to riders that it is impossible to be effective with an excessively long rein. This theme stretched across every clinic group and was applicable to every horse regardless of their type. Nona also noted that if riders had a horse that wanted to bounce away from their hand, they should give to the horse and be soft, even though the instinct is to pull. In their jumping work, Nona had riders trot jumps and halt in the course in order to keep the riders focused and the horses on the aids. She asked them to focus on the transitions and riding between the fences rather than looking for a specific distance to the jumps. She also discussed the risks of jumping ahead of the horse, especially one that is unknown. “The horse jumps to the rider,” said Nona. “The rider doesn’t jump to the horse.” The second day of CPI consisted of an IHSA style horse show, in which the competitors were given a horse at random to show without any practice. A slight variation from the intercollegiate format is that riders were allowed two warm up fences rather than no preparation, and they were able to either bring their own coach or hire one just for the event. Classes were available for all levels of riders from theAdvanced classes which jump 2’9” to walk/ trot and walk/trot/canter classes that do not include any jumping. One of the winning riders, GraceAllen, bested theAdvanced Over Fences class of nine riders on Centenary University’s “Houdini”. Grace reflected on her plan for the class saying, “I wanted to be decisive and set myself apart with my entrance.” Rather than making an opening circle before the first fence, Grace utilized the handiness of her horse and rode directly to fence one. She also noted that “Keeping a consis- tent pace throughout the course, like we practiced in the clinic, made me stand out.” Grace discussed the importance of CPI to students like herself, ex- plaining that “CPI allows you to be seen by colleges and being able to talk with so many different colleges in one area is very helpful.”