Equestrian Club Rides High

By Cassie Ferguson

Gazette Staff

Perched astride a large, coppery colored horse that's flying three feet above the ground, Langdon Fielding '98 looks strangely calm.

Even when the horse abruptly decides it's absolutely not going to propel itself over the next jump during that round of practice, the economics concentrator from Leverett House keeps his composure and simply steers around to another obstacle.

Fielding, whose smoothness can be attributed to 10 years of riding practice, recently finished 6th in zones, an intercollegiate competition that includes the best riders from several regions across the East Coast. His achievement ends a season in which the Harvard-Radcliffe Equestrian Club placed 7th out of the 13 riding teams in the region.

"Just to get to zones is an incredible accomplishment," says riding instructor Alice McNeil, who's been leading the team for four years.

The 32-member riding club, which was revived from a longtime dormancy about six years ago, is open to all students -- from those who've never seen a horse in real life to others who have been showing for years.

"We're here to provide an opportunity to ride for the community," says team captain Michael Katherine Haynie '00, an Eliot House anthropology concentrator from Washington, D.C.

Every Friday, Haynie and other club members carpool to Verrill Farm near Concord to train with McNeil. Since horseback riding at Harvard is a club rather than a varsity sport, the riders provide their own outfits and pony up the money for group lessons.

Coach McNeil puts the riders through their paces in an outdoor arena filled with hurdles and obstacles. In inclement weather, they ride indoors.

As the riders take turns piloting their horses through the course of jumps, most of which consist of colorful horizontal bars that can be raised from ground level to four feet, McNeil calls out her Boston-accented criticism: "Hands together! Ride the corners! Let the jump come to you! You had the horse, but you didn't ride it!"

After a rider lands a particularly elegant jump, Johnson waves an arm in the air: "Two A plusses!"

Riding in a collegiate equestrian event is far different from the horse shows that most people know. Says McNeil, "It's about 10 times tougher."

In intercollegiate competition, riders are randomly assigned a horse that they are not allowed to ride until they're in the ring being judged. They might wind up with the one wonderfully responsive steed that loves to leap, or they might be assigned an ornery beast that refuses to trot in a straight line.

McNeil compares the competition to driving different cars. "You might get a Jaguar and you might get an old Volkswagen. And you've got to figure out how to shift right away."

Judges score the riders based on their form and how well they can control their horses. In one part of the competition, they walk, trot, and stop on command. In the second part the riders encourage, boss, and cajole their horses over a series of hurdles.

Apart from the training and competition, the Harvard riders simply enjoy spending time with the animals they love.

Captain Haynie visits with her favorite horse, Sky Dancer, before each practice. She talks to him, picks the dirt clods out of his hooves, and runs a rough brush over his white and brown spotted coat. In return, he flaps his thick lips and twitches his tail in what Haynie says is a sign of horse happiness.

"I've always been around horses. I adore them," she explains as she pats Sky Dancer's neck. "Grooming and talking to them is a way to bond. "