It’s not that the members didn’t care about doing well, but they lacked the resources they needed, which led riders to share uniforms and equipment.

When they were lucky, the team members got to ride at a local stable, said Ewart, now the associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Veterinary Medicine.

“(The team) wasn’t very elaborate or formal,” she said.

Ewart said she started “anxiously begging” her parents for a pony when she was 3 and got one about 8 years later, which is when she started riding competitively.

She wanted to continue her passion in college after learning that other universities had equestrian teams.

“My goal really was to give my classmates at (MSU) the opportunity to ride and compete on horses, (which) I was fortunate enough to have as a young woman myself,” Ewart said.

So she and a couple of other friends who had horseback-riding experience became makeshift coaches and started recruiting students to join the team.

“We continued and (the team) evolved to what it is today, which was a far cry from where we started,” Ewart said.

About 25 years later, members agree there are still struggles for equipment and practice time, but the equestrian team has come a long way.

Overcoming challenges

While all riders are under the umbrella of the equestrian team, they actually are split into two teams of about 20 members each — stock seat and hunt seat – which practice separately and participate in different competitions.

Because the team is a club sport, the university provides about six Arabian horses for six hours a week of practice time at the Horse Teaching and Research Center, four miles south of campus on Collins Road.

However, the number of students involved forces teams to rotate practice weeks, and each member practices once every two weeks.

“It’s really rewarding when we do well at the horse shows because other teams practice every day,” said Nicole Sienkiewicz, captain of the hunt seat team.

She said this year her team placed fifth out of 13-15 teams in its region, which includes all of Michigan.

Stock seat captain Chelsey Shivley said the stock seat team placed first in its region for the first time in the team’s history, after winning five out of seven shows during the season.

The normal season runs from early October to March, and is followed by regional and zone championships, Sienkiewicz said.

Among the schools MSU competes against are the University of Michigan, Western Michigan University and Grand Valley State University.

On Thursday evening, both teams held concurrent practices — the stock seat team at the usual space to prepare for last weekend’s regional competition, and the hunt seat team at a farm in Mason to hold tryouts for its regional competition, being held this weekend at Western Michigan.

Sienkiewicz said some riders have their own horses and can ride in between normal practices, or they ride in other locations if available.

“If there’s any other opportunity for us to ride, then we take it,” she said.

Shivley, a zoology senior, said being on the team costs anywhere from $700-$1,000 per season in order for members to pay coach Adrienne Woodward, along with equipment, clothes and competition entrance fees.

“It’s definitely a challenge we’ve always faced,” Shivley said.

Different styles

The two parts of the equestrian team have different styles of riding and dressing for competitions, but are united through team meetings and dinners.

Members of the stock seat team practice western riding, which rider Stephanie Murray said stems from herding cattle.

In practices and competitions, the stock seat riders practice movement patterns while holding one hand up as if holding a lasso.

“It comes from a working cow-horse pattern,” the political science and pre-law senior said.

Shivley said her team’s performance uniforms consist of hats, chaps and boots.

“Girls wear very sparkly outfits and guys wear a button-down western shirt with a tie,” she said.

Murray said the outfits are usually skintight so judges can see the rider’s form during competitions.

The hunt seat team rides English style, which Sienkiewicz said stems from foxhunting because of the way the rider sits on the horse.

Team members wear knee-high boots, fitted blazers, black helmets and neutral-colored pants, she said.

“It’s very traditional and classic,” she said. “It’s a very conservative look.”

In stock seat, riders practice work on the ground, but also jump over fences.

Sienkiewicz, an education junior, said she fell in love with horseback riding when she was about 10.

“It’s a really different sport,” she said. “Not a lot of people know a lot about it, so the people who are involved in it … feel really passionate about it.”

Both captains said MSU’s equestrian team was one of the factors that solidified their decision to attend MSU.

“Horses are such a big part of my life and I realized that if I made the team … then that’s a great way to keep riding and go to a good school,” Sienkiewicz said.

Even though the equestrian team is split for most practices and competitions, there is still a strong sense of community among the members.

“We really try to make it one team,” Shivley said. “Pretty much everything we do except for the shows, we do as one team.”

The night before each competition, members of both teams hold a team dinner, which she said serves as “bonding time” for everyone.

Sienkiewicz said the team dinners are important because many members are only used to competing individually.

“It’s really important for the team to bond before because a lot of our members are not used to anything like this,” she said.

Shivley said a lot of students attend both teams’ shows for support and there is good communication between the hunt seat and stock seat riders.

Along with the shows and practices, all members attend back-to-back meetings for the equestrian team and the MSU Horsemen’s Association on Wednesday nights.

“A lot of my friends are from both teams,” Shivley said.

“You get to know people really well when you’re spending that much time with them.“Learning the “unspoken language”

During Thursday’s practice, riders warmed up not only the horses, but their own bodies as well.

In an indoor arena with a dirt floor, the stock seat team practiced lifting their legs up and down while riding the horses around the arena, and both teams rode while standing in the stirrups.

“It is a sport, just like any other,” Sienkiewicz said. “You have to be athletic, and the people who are more athletic have better endurance because it does take certain technique and different muscles that you use to have good position.”

A big part of horseback riding is getting an animal several times bigger and stronger than you to follow your directions, she said.

“You’re getting it to move in a complicated way, to do what you want,” she said.

Sienkiewicz said this “unspoken language” between a horse and its rider is key because riders have to use their bodies to give the horse different messages through several techniques and signals.

“It’s such a unique sport because it’s a communication that isn’t always visible,” she said. “The best riders can be said to make it look like it’s silence and it’s harder to tell what they’re asking for because the more advanced you become … that language becomes more defined.”

And the riders have to be able to speak this language with any horse because riders don’t know which horse they will be on until minutes before the show’s start.

“It’s the idea that it is a true kind of test of horsemanship because … it’s like a lottery,” Sienkiewicz said. “We just hop on the horse and we’re not allowed to touch the reins until we get into the arena — it’s very hard-core.”

She said to help prepare, riders watch the horses warm up and take notes on how they perform.

“We have to really be able to know how to ride any kind of horse in order to do well,” Sienkiewicz said.

“It’s really just practice, practice, practice.”