When the rushing of hooves grabs the attention, it is no other than the Equestrian Club. This past Sunday, September 18th 2022, the club hosted a clinic at NFF stables, located in Darnestown from 9 AM-3:30 PM. At the clinic, there were a total of five members from MRHS and one from MVMS who ranged from all riding levels.
The Equestrian Club is an organization where members get to participate in eventing shows. They go through a program called ISHS (Inter-school Horse Show) series, a DMV (DC, Maryland and Virginia) program for schools to start hunt seat teams without having to hire a coach. All one has to do to be a part of the club is to take lessons on a regular basis as well as have some sort of school horse, lease horse, or even one’sown! The clinic was there to introduce what the riding season would look like. The clinic was almost like a mock show, trying to test the waters as to each rider’s capabilities.
“The purpose of the clinic was to get used to the arena, the competition, the judges, and the horses. We received a bunch of feedback for our future shows and some of us moved up or down a division to find the perfect placement for us,” explained senior Melina Parson.
The founder of the club, Natasha Randhawa, a sophomore, expressed her excitement to get the team back together, “The most exciting thing about the clinic was being able to meet some new members of the team and get back into being able to do horse shows with the team!” Randhawa said.
The refreshing feeling of getting a group together successfully after a long break is extremely rewarding.
The club’s small size ensured that each of the girls had some time to really focus and hone their riding skills and learn new things to guide them in their equestrian journey.
“I learned that I don’t need to stress it and that I should just go have fun!” sophomore Brenna Hyatt exclaimed.
The whole purpose of doing the clinic was to get to know the group, the coach, and, most importantly, where everyone is skill wise.
Due to the diversity of experience within the club, it is important to see what one does well in and what one needs to improve upon. Seeing what each rider is capable of is a fundamental part of showing – the rider wants to flaunt their strengths to the judges, however, because the set up was like a mock show the riders were more nervous than usual.
“The show I was in before I had a fall, so I was a bit nervous doing it but Natasha [the founder of the club] helped me a lot with the nerves,” freshman Anya Kelly said.
Even though nerves can be a hard thing to overcome, having a great support system is super important.
“The equestrian club is really a team of girls who come together and support each other at these shows and help each other grow in their riding.” Hyatt stated. Despite first day jitters, the clinic was an outstanding success with Hyatt placing first in her first ever class for Marriotts Ridge. The club itself is fairly new, with there still being time for other riders to join in on the fun and be able to support one another in the sport. For future reference, every event will be held at NFF stables.
“This barn is the host barn, and the shows have been held there for a while! We compete against a lot of other schools in the DMV area in the same shows, and this is a good, central area for all of us,” club founder Randhawa said.
With the success of the clinic, the Equestrian Club is thrilled for future events and more competitions.