Trinity’s equestrian club headed north to Texas State’s new indoor facility in Dripping Springs. Trinity finished sixth out of 13 overall on both Saturday, Jan. 31 and Sunday, Feb. 1.
Saturday was day one of two in the showcase.
The Trinity team performed well, headed by Camille Alexander who finished first in the flat.
Alexander was followed by teammate and newly elected, equestian club president Chelsea Runacres (third in flat), Nina Keasava (fifth in flat), Kelsey Toms (sixth in flat), Rachel Pauerstein (sixth in flat), Aly Kirchhof (sixth in flat) and Kayla Hood (sixth in flat).
The Tigers were successful again on Sunday, led once again by Alexander as she finished first in flat for a second consecutive day.
Behind Alexander were Keasava (third in flat), Hood (third in flat), Pauerstein (third in flat), Toms (fourth in flat), Runacres (fifth in flat) and Kirchhof (sixth in flat).
For her strong performances at the show, Alexander earned Reserve High-Point Rider.
“We have multiple classes that we ride; it is four classes and then you add up all the points for each rider and the high point riders are the riders with the most points,” Alexander said. “Since I was reserve, I was the rider with the second highest score.”
Trinity’s equestrian club is regulated by the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA). Under the IHSA, the host school provides all horses for the show.
Since this was Texas State’s first time hosting an event and could not supply all of the horses necessary, schools were allowed to submit their own horses for the show.
Then horses are drawn at random by the riders, who don’t get to ride with their horse until they compete in the event.
For this event, Trinity brought four of their own horses, hoping that one of their six riders might draw one of Trinity’s four horses, as the riders have had experience riding those horses before.
“There are a lot of things that are up to fate at the shows, which keeps it really exciting,” Runacres said.
Runacres and the rest of the equestrian team are scheduled to head to Baton Rouge, LA to compete at Louisiana State University for their next meet March 7-8.
