“I’m most proud of their teamwork,” said Leesa Massman, the MSU Stock Seat Equestrian Team head coach. “I’m just really proud of how they’ve come together to be a really enthusiastic team and work as a unit.”

MSU took first place in three out of the team’s eight competitions, team captain and environmental studies and agriscience junior Samantha Stechschulte said.

Stock seat equestrian, also known as Western-style riding, places riders in an arena where an announcer gives them different instructions and maneuvers for the rider to command to the horse, Stechschulte said.

“They’ll ask us to walk or jog or reverse, or do something like that,” she said. “We’re judged on how well and controlled we can get the horse to do that, as well as how pretty we sit on the horse — like our posture and confidence.”

Under collegiate rules, riders aren’t allowed to use their own horses, Massman said. Instead, horses are provided by the school or venue that hosts the competition.

“They have to have exceptional horsemanship skills and the ability to assess their horse’s behavior quickly,” Massman said. “They’re riding horses in competition that they have never ridden or had any interaction with.”

Although riding so many different horses can sharpen a rider’s skill, Stechschulte said getting comfortable on a new horse for every competition can prove difficult.

“It’s kind of frustrating sometimes,” she said. “If you get a horse that isn’t very well-trained, it makes it a lot harder to do well with it, but the judges are supposed to take that into consideration.”

As if controlling unfamiliar horses isn’t enough of a challenge, coaches have to pick one team member in each division — beginner and open divisions — as the point rider prior to the start of the competition. The point rider is the only team member whose score counts toward the overall team score, Stechschulte said.

Doctoral student Karen Waite, the team’s faculty adviser, said the riders have been working on different mental preparation and training techniques leading up to the semifinals competition in March.

“We’ve had really talented teams in the past,” Waite said. “But this group has really put an effort into preparing themselves mentally where sometimes we might not have done that in previous years.”

If MSU places in the top three teams at the semifinals, it will head to North Carolina for the IHSA Nationals competition in May, Massman said.

“It would be a great accomplishment and a chance for our riders to really prove just how good they are,” she said.