The Equestrian Club provides students with opportunities to participate in events involving horseback riding and compete against other teams to gain more exposure and experience.
In addition to competitions, the club also participates in volunteering and team-bonding events. Riders within the club can compete at other schools and earn placings and accumulate points in their evaluated skill-level classes. Plus, the club is open to students, whether they have riding experience or not, and non-competing members can also play a role in benefiting the club.
As of now, the equestrian club has a total of eight members. They’re hoping to get more students to join, not just for the club to expand, but also to move from a club sport to a varsity sport.
Criminal justice sophomore Lily Morse, who is the club’s president, finds it important for Ferris students to join the club regardless of whether they have riding experience or not because of the valuable lessons the club can offer.
“It’s such a calming sport,” Morse said. “It teaches you a lot of things that you never really knew. For people who’ve never rode horses, it’s a good start-up into something new. For people who do ride horses, it can connect them more to college and get them more involved. Equestrian is kind of an expensive sport and we think a lot more people would enjoy it if they were able to do it without the cost effect.”
The equestrian club has approximately five competitions per year, not including regionals, which take place at Michigan State University.
Criminal justice freshman Lainey Lafargue had experience riding horses before coming to college. Seeing the opportunities from the equestrian club encouraged her to join.
“Ever since I was younger I’ve really loved horses,” Lafargue said. “It’s been something that I’ve wanted to stick with. I wasn’t around them at all during high school. Being able to ride horses that I don’t even know has been a really cool experience because I hadn’t ridden these types of horses before. Being able to figure out how random horses work has been really cool.”
Lafargue doesn’t have a position like president or treasurer because members can be selected for a position after they’ve completed one full semester with the club.
The horses for the riders are provided by the club and don’t have to be retrieved by the riders or members themselves.
Welding engineering sophomore Evelyn Hill, who is the club’s treasurer, has won multiple medals and has had high placings during her time as a member of the club. But the success goes beyond individual success.
“Last year I got first in my class and then this year at our last show I got second,” Hill said. “But it’s not just about me. We’ve all done really well as a team and to have the recognition back of what we’re doing is good because we have so much fun. When we’re doing well in competitions, it expands the fun and it helps the team morale to encourage everyone to keep going and keep getting better.”
Due to Hill’s success, she has moved up a level. The levels within the club are beginner, rookie A, rookie B, level 1 and level 2.
Heading into the next academic semester, the club has two more regular-season shows, and then a few girls are qualified for regionals in March. After that, the top two in each division will move on to the semi-finals then will get an opportunity to compete in Nationals, which is in North Carolina.
For more information or inquiries about joining the club, contact the Equestrian Club at fe***************@***il.com.