By Jovita McCleod
Staff Writer
They say that when a door closes, somewhere a window opens. The door on Pepperdine’s Equestrian Center, which began in 1971, closed in May 2001, when the University decided to remove the horses and the program from the campus. <?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p>
But a window did open, with the help of senior Steve Williams, who decided that student equestrian involvement did not have to end with the Equestrian Center, and began the Pepperdine Equestrian Team, part of club sports program.<o:p> </o:p>
The team is a small group of students who must be dedicated and disciplined enough to pursue their sport of riding horses, without the help of coaches, campus facilities or very much University financial support. <o:p></o:p>
The students practice for one hour a week, usually on Saturdays, at Foxfield Ranch, an equestrian training center, which is about a 45-minute drive from Pepperdine.<o:p> </o:p>
Getting up, driving to lessons once JOVITA MCCLEOD/STAFF WRITER
a week and paying for the lessons, Senior Steven Williams is living proof
which cost $25 per hour, isn’t easy that the myth of English equestrian
for the team. being a sport for girls is untrue. <o:p></o:p>
“Going to school and riding is a huge task,” said Williams, the team’s president. “It’s a sport that can be a lifestyle…when you go to school the lifestyle changes…it’s difficult.”<o:p> </o:p>
While many other students lie in bed — wearing off a stupor developed from staying out so late the night before, Williams leaves his campus apartment at 10 on a Saturday morning. <o:p></o:p>
He arrives at Foxfield around 11 a.m. to groom and prepare the horse he will be riding that day. Most of the students on the team do not have their own horses at Foxfield and may train with a new horse every week. <o:p></o:p>
An hour later, atop his horse, Steve joins the other students, in a ring—basically a flat, circular dirt ground bounded by fences. <o:p></o:p>
During the session the teacher who watches from a booth outside the ring, calls out instructions and correction.<o:p> </o:p>
“Steve she’s buggy, that’s not your hand.” <o:p></o:p>
“Don’t turn his head so much.”<o:p> </o:p>
“Lengthen and collect.”<o:p> </o:p>
These lessons the team members take and the style they compete in is known as the English style of riding. On the intercollegiate level the team specifically participates in two types of competition: on the flat and jumping. <o:p></o:p>
The competition on the flat is about the rider’s control of the horse. The rider and horse display different types of gaits — different ways of moving for the horse. <o:p></o:p>
In the jumping portion of the competition the rider with the horse jump various obstacles to demonstrate both the skill and strength of the horse and rider’s technique. <o:p></o:p>
The students do not seem to be complaining about the time, money or extra effort the lessons require. <o:p></o:p>
“My riding is improving a lot,” said junior Kristin Shaw, the club team’s vice president. For her the lessons are about being around the other riders, and the joy she gets from being involved with horses, which she began riding at age nine. <o:p></o:p>
Many of the riders on the team began riding when they were young. Williams began at age seven.<o:p> </o:p>
Williams said, “In the United States people look at (riding) as a feminine thing.” But he said that his riding was fostered by an interest in cowboys when he was young.<o:p> </o:p>
Not all riders are young, however. Ron Batchelder, professor of economics at Pepperdine, and the team’s faculty advisor, became interested in riding in 1997. <o:p></o:p>
“I got interested in riding, (because) I thought it was great exercise,” Batchelder said. <o:p></o:p>
Batchelder does not compete. Because of a rising curiosity from seeing the horses roaming the campus, he began taking lessons from the original Equestrian Center’s organizer and trainer Jim Willie. <o:p></o:p>
From Willie, Batchelder learned that there is a whole philosophy surrounding riding. Riding and equestrian sport is about leadership, communication, and management skills. <o:p></o:p>
However, managing a horse is difficult without a relationship between the rider and the horse. Developing a trusting relationship with a horse and learning to communicate with the horse requires a lot of skill. <o:p></o:p>
Watching riders in training, one can see in the intently focused expressions in the riders’ faces and the sweat soaking through their clothes that this is in fact a difficult sport. <o:p></o:p>
Shaw said riding is the most difficult out of all the sports she has participated in, which include surfing and cycling for recreation and tennis and running competitively.<o:p> </o:p>
Riders seem to agree that it is the high level of technical skill involved that makes riding such a challenge. <o:p></o:p>
A great deal of the technical aspect of riding is about communicating with the horse through body language.<o:p> </o:p>
Batchelder said he was first surprised with the idea of communicating with a horse. But he said that if the rider develops self confidence and leadership ability, the horse will gain confidence in the rider and will essentially follow the rider’s commands. <o:p></o:p>
However, when the Pepperdine Equestrian team competes this can be difficult because Intercollegiate Horse Show Association rules determine that the students cannot choose which horse they will ride in competition.<o:p> </o:p>
Instead the competitors have to draw the number of what horse they will use for competition out of a hat before each show. They are not allowed to use a horse they are familiar with unless they choose that horse’s number. <o:p></o:p>
It’s a big challenge,” said Shaw. The riders are not allowed to warm the horses up, but can only watch others prepare the horses for them. The first time the riders actually get on their horse during a competition is when they enter the ring to compete. <o:p></o:p>
“It’s a good test, but at the same time, not all the horses are equal,” Shaw said.<o:p> </o:p>
The competitions are usually held over a two-day weekend period, with each day being one individual show that lasts the entire morning and afternoon. <o:p></o:p>
The first show of the year was Nov. 1 at Cal Poly Pomona. Riding is a very competitive sport. Shaw said the team generally does well at the competitions, especially for being so small.<o:p> </o:p>
Though competitive, the equestrian team is not merely focused on winning. The leadership, communication, and management are lifelong lessons that the team can carry into the rest of their lives, while also carrying equestrian sport into Pepperdine’s future.<o:p> </o:p>
November 13, 2003