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LINDEN HALL SWEEPS HOME SHOWS; MUCH IS LEARNED ABOUT THEIR OPPONENTS Lititz, PA - Nearly a foot of snow fell on the fortnight of the first of two IEA shows hosted by the Linden Hall school over the January 21st/22nd weekend. Despite conditions that might have forced a postponment in other areas the shows went on, with the January 21st contest delayed two hours in order for everyone to get safely to Linden Hall during daylight hours. After two days of showing the host school had swept all four contests. The Linden Hall Upper School team, which had won both of the Grier School shows on November 12th and 13th in their only previous shows of 2011-12 again earned high point honors not once but twice. On Saturday Linden Hall was especially strong on the flat, earning five blue ribbons and three red ones. The Linden Hall Middle School team won for the first time in 2011-12 on Saturday and followed it up with another win on Sunday. During the Saturday show Linden Hall middle schoolers earned five blue ribbons in eight rides. The Reserve Champion middle school team on the 21st and the Reserve Champion upper school team on the 22nd were both Butler - CTS. By earning a total of nine Upper School points over the weekend Butler - CTS moved into a tie with Lake Effect (which did not take part in the Linden Hall shows) for the lead in the Zone 2, Region 1 upper school team standings. The Butler - CTS Middle School faired as well but the overall result was even better. Butler - CTS headed west with a total of 39 points, six more than Lake Effect. The Grier School was Reserve Champion Upper School on the 21st, which moved them into second place behind Butler - CTS and Lake Effect. The Grier upper schoolers have posted 29 points, one point ahead of undefeated Linden Hall. Glory Springs Farm was the final Reserve Champion team of the weekend. One of two teams comfirmed to have made their IEA debut this season, Glory Springs had the runner-up middle school team on Sunday. It was only the second time Glory Springs had ever been to an IEA competition. On December 3rd Glory Springs crossed region lines to compete at a Buffalo Equestrian show. Incredibly Glory Springs had both the Champion Upper and Middle School teams that day even though their upper school roster was made up of only three riders at the time!
Each of the nine teams that took part over the weekend earned at least one team point for either their upper or middle school teams. Mon Valley, which competed on the 22nd only, earned four upper school points and one middle school point. Bux Mont Equestrian, the only program to travel west to get to Linden Hall earned one point for their middle school on the 21st but improved to three points a day later. Caustelot Farms earned three Upper School points on the 22nd while Manners Ranch earned two points for their Upper School each day. And the brand-new Holly Hill PA team earned one upper school point in their IEA debut on the 21st (This particular Holly Hill team is not associated with the Holly Hill facilities in Massachusetts and Ohio which also field IEA teams - Editor). During the Saturday show this writer asked each of the eight coaches present if he could e-mail them to find out how their IEA team came into being. Save for Linden Hall we had heard back from each of the coaches by February 14th, who spent varying amounts of time explaining how their IEA teams were created. "Our team first started showing with the IEA this year in December. I heard about the IEA through a trainer friend who coaches an IHSA team. I looked into it and started the team earlier this year. They are a bunch of very dedicated riders who love to compete and improve their riding skills." - Becky Weik, Coach of the Glory Springs IEA team. "(This is our) Sixth season. We started once a local farm started a team and we learned about the organization. Our first year we did huntseat only then the second year we added western. This is a great organization for young riders to be involved in." - Kathy Marciak, Coach of the Caustelot Farms IEA team. "Manners Ranch Equestrian Team was founded in November of 2010 and began competing in December 2010. I first learned about the IEA when I boarded my horses at Caustelot Farms where Kathy Marciak coaches the Caustelot Farms (IEA) Team. When I later built my own facility and opened my own business I decided to start my own team." - Joelle Manners, Coach of the Manners Ranch IEA team. "I started coaching IEA with (Western PA IEA team Coach) Becki Bloom in the 2005-2006 season. I coached IEA with her for two years and then started my own business and my own team in the 2008-2009 season. I started with a team that was sponsored by the school district that I work for, Butler Area. Butler allows the students to earn varsity and junior varsity letter status through the athletic department. I also started a barn team for my students who do not attend Butler. This year the two teams have merged to create one large team. We are one of the largest teams in our zone, with 35 hunt seat riders and 14 western riders." - Lauren Holmes Prisuta, Coach of Butler - C(ulver) T(raining) S(tables) IEA team.
"I actually started the IEA team at Grier in 2006 (I think maybe). I learned about the IEA from (Meadowbrook Stables Coach) Sue Wentzel and (Garrison Forest Coach) Jenny Mitchell because from 2003-2007 I coached Grier in the Tri State Equitation league which was a group of boarding schools in PA, VA, and MD. Our first few years in IEA it was mostly boarding schools and much smaller. Many of the shows we attended were a lot of the same teams and locations as the "old school" TSEL. TSEL is now no more and all of those grouped are now part of IEA instead! - Emily Zientek, Coach of the Grier School IEA team. "I started my team in 2010 after changing my home base as a professional. I had a past student go to Linden Hall and she was captain of their team. I further investigated when I was contemplating a job change in 2009. A position opened at a boarding school in Mclean, Virginia and I comtemplated applying. That is when I really started to investigate (the IEA). When I finally made my decision on where i wanted to work I decided that a team would be a good starting point for me. It would help me get to know kids in the area. And so it began... Getting started was easy. I advertised locally on school websites. A physical ed teacher I knew at a private school loved the idea and was able to connect me to all of the local private schools. From there it was word of mouth. The IEA is easy to start up with. Like everything it just takes money and proof of insurance. There have been some hiccups along the way. The IEA has grown in leaps and bounds in the past two years and the National office has trouble keeping up. I am confident that it is moving forward in a good way. In many other parts of the country the IEA has been going strong for years. It is new in my neck of the woods but it is a totally new kind of showing for my kids and they love it. After competing in college myself I can see the benefits. Even if you don't plan on riding in college, catch riding is a great way to learn. No other training can replace it!" - Kim Cousins, Coach of the Bux Mont IEA team. "My facility just celebrated its three year anniversary on January first of this year. Being a fledgling barn, I am always looking for ways to grow and expand my programs (I specialize in the junior equitation rider). I attempted for years to start an intercollegiate team but it never got off the ground. College girls are mostly too busy working, studying or partying to have the time to dedicate to riding. I really approved of the intercollegiate system – hop on a strange horse and go – it takes all of the politics out of riding and gets down to the brass tacks, so to speak. I realized that all of my most dedicated and enthusiastic riders are between the ages of 10 and 16. I thought to myself, why can’t there be an interscholastic association to make horseback riding into more of a school sport and bring it into the mainstream? So of course I Googled it – and there it was. Someone had already thought of it! I printed out the info and started pitching the idea to my parents and kids. They loved the idea of getting to ride new horses and traveling to “big” shows! There was also some animosity in my barn because the girls had been showing against each other previously. I really hoped that this experience would unite them as a team, bring them closer, and make them more supportive of one another. Plus this kind of competition prepares them for riding at larger, more difficult shows. I had enough girls to meet the minimum requirements for the middle school team but only one high school rider. So I put out a bulletin on Facebook to recruit riders from our local show circuit, 4-H, and Pony Clubbers. I got instant responses from two girls and made the high school team just in time to meet the cutoff for the 2011-12 show season. Most of my riders are on a tight budget, so we decided to stay as close to home as possible. Our first show was at Linden Hall on January 14th. We overcame all sorts of obstacles in order to attend this show! First, my application to IEA was delayed because of a missed signature. It took multiple phone calls to figure out what the problem was. Then all of the girls were late turning in their registrations for the show (they are used to small schooling shows where you register on the same day) so I had to drive to Linden Hall to deliver the show entries in person to meet the deadline. Then the show was (postponned) because their arena flooded. Moving the show to the following weekend caused more confusion and then we had to switch some of the riders from Saturday to Sunday and vice versa. WHEW. Just when I thought that we had conquered all of our problems, the weatherman called for a snowstorm on Friday night. We had not planned on staying in a hotel because the show was only an hour away. But the worst part of the storm was supposed to hit just as we would be driving. The moms wanted to cancel. Come hell or high water, I was going to get to this show, and agreed to pay for the hotel out of my own pocket. So I rounded up the Saturday girls, crammed them and their luggage into the cab of my truck and drove to Lititz Friday night at 9PM. One of the mothers kindly researched “cheap hotel” as we were driving. The girls were expecting an indoor pool and a continental breakfast. We ended up at the Bates Motel. You know, the kind where the doors open to the outside, with creepy lighting. When I went to get the room key, I laughed and returned to the truck to show the girls. Room 13. Everyone screamed. Afraid of murderers, we blocked the door with a chair. Afraid of bedbugs, they all slept on top of the sheets. Being a good coach I gave the girls the beds and slept on sofa cushions on the floor next to the non-functioning heater. Our alarms went off at 5 AM. Everyone jumped up and started dressing. We got a phone call at 5:30 that the show had been delayed until 10AM. The girls were too keyed up to go back to sleep so we decided to brave the snow and go out for food (No continental breakfast here). We ended up at a really lovely amish buffet place and our kind waitress humored our boisterous group until we left at 9AM. Rolling into Linden Hall like the Bad News Bears we had no idea what to expect when we got to the show, and the anxious kids and moms were asking me questions that I had no idea how to answer. All we could do was take notes while we watched the horses schooling. We compared these horses to our horses at home and tried to figure out how best to ride them. Everyone was freezing cold in the 16 degree weather (the underprepared child had arrived in flip-flops as well) and kept running to the truck to get warm. Alexis Jurchenko was my Open Varsity Rider from our 4-H Club. She drew first position for her over fences class, which is far from ideal, but she rode like a pro and nailed her course, winning us a blue ribbon for our very first IEA show. The rest of our weekend was chilly but fun, and we figured things out as we went along. All in all it was a fantastic learning experience for everyone and I am excited to be a part of this organization for years to come." - Heather McCarty, Coach of the Holly Hill (PA) IEA team.
An IEA First: Though Zone 2, Region 1 includes New Jersey within their territory no IEA program within the Garden State has competed within the organization so far this season (one team, Chariot Riders, has signed up with the organization). It is not clear if an IEA show has ever taken place in the state of New Jersey (or if an IEA team has ever been located there prior to the 2011-12 season) but on March 24th and 25th this will change. Briarwood Farm in Readington, New Jersey, which has hosted many IHSA shows over the years (at least four different IHSA Regions used Briarwood for at least one show this season) will be the site of 2012 IEA Zone 2 Zones, the final leg of the post-season prior to Nationals in Syracuse, New York on April 20th through 22nd. Briarwood is centrally located between New York City and Philadelphia, with both cities about an hours drive away. While teams in Western Pennsylvania and much of Upstate New York will have a reasonably long drive to get there, at least no one has to leave IEA Zone 2 territory for hunter seat events until sometime in the fall if they don't want to! ---Steve Maxwell Saturday Team Totals - Upper School: Linden Hall 7, Grier 5, Butler - CTS 4, Glory Springs 3, Manner's Ranch 2 and Holly Hill (PA) 1. Saturday Team Totals - Middle School: Linden Hall 7, Butler - CTS 5, Grier 4, Glory Springs 3, Manner's Ranch 2 and Bux Mont 1. Sunday Team Totals - Upper School: Linden Hall 7, Butler - CTS 5, Mon Valley 4, Caustelot 3, Grier 2 and Glory Springs 1. Sunday Team Totals - Middle School: Linden Hall 7, Glory Springs 5, Butler - CTS 4, Bux Mont 3, Grier 2 and Mon Valley 1.
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