A Day at the Ascot

The word "Ascot," when associated with horses, evokes images of traditional English pomp: prestigious races held before large crowds of stylish, high-society spectators.

Saturday at the Ascot Riding Academy in Ipswich, Mass., however, a decidedly non-traditional event took place.

In front of nearly 300 horse-show aficionados, the newly formed Harvard Equestrian Club produced its first horse show. Now that the year-old equestrian club has organized and orchestrated its own show, it becomes a full-fledged member of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA).

Organizing a horse show for IHSA is no simple task: President Gallie Howard and club officers Hannah Bouldin, Kim Smith and Bridget Bailey had been preparing for the show since last February.

The host of an IHSA competition must provide 25 horses in full tack for all the riders representing the 12 schools in the region. On Saturday, Harvard--in conjunction with the Ascot Club--provided 173 riders with 27 schooling horses, and also hired a judge for the event.

Horse showing is usually considered the tandem activity of a horse-and-rider team that has trained together for several months. In IHSA competition, however, the horse and rider are not even permitted to warm up before their event.

Each rider draws a horse at the beginning of the day. Thus, when the rider mounts the horse in the ring, it is the first moment of contact between the two team members.

"How would you like to walk into the ring for your event and then climb onto a horse you've never seen before in front of a judge and whole crowd of people?" Bailey asked.

Bailey said that the IHSA show is the perfect form of collegiate competition, however, because students need not own a horse to participate.

Five of the 13 Crimson riders in the Ascot show, for example, were beginners. And while some members of the Harvard equestrian club own horses, the majority train on schooling horses that the club leases from a private barn in Millis, Mass.

Training on different schooling horses is "a good way to train riders rather than horses," Bailey said. "Trading horses is a good test of the rider."

Smith, who was Harvard's high-point rider at Ascot Academy, said that she watched her horse's jumping style in the events held before her heat of Intermediate Equitation over fences--but stressed that riding a new horse is always unsettling.

"I could tell whether he would pick up the right leads and whether he would go straight over the fence or weave first," Smith said of the horse she had drawn. "It's never very comfortable starting out on a new horse, though," she said.

Uncomfortable or not, Smith secured a third-place finish in Intermediate Equitation over fences, and will probably advance to the regional competition at Colby-Sawyer College next May.

Even with four more shows scheduled before regionals, Howard and Bailey have already amassed enough points to compete at the Colby-Sawyer show in the intermediate (level 6) and advanced (level 4) divisions, respectively.

Gaby Gosman, the Crimson's most advanced rider, is also likely to compete in the regionals. Gosman will need a strong showing at the four spring shows to earn a berth in the open (level 7) divison events.