<p>I am not yet ready to begin the search but my D has started to look around on the internet. Her main criteria is that the school have some sort of riding team. Does not have to be NCAA.She has made a major shift from insisting she was staying at home and going to the community college so she could continue to ride to going to the local UC to now saying she wants to go away. She is only entering 10th grade so we have plenty of time. What I do see is that this shift has given her a reason to try to improve her grades and take a more difficult course load.
She is a good student but tends to take the easy way out. 9th grade her report card was all B's. Most of them B+'s that should have been A's. She will take the most rigorous course load in the social science but is average in Math. She will not get to Calculus unless she goes to summer school at some point. We are not looking for high ranked schools. Her Dad would prefer her to stay in Ca and attend a public school due to cost. So looking for schools that offer merit aid for strong B students or public schools that come out at the equivalent cost of attending a UC. Schools that interest her so far are UC Davis and Cal Poly SLO. She knows she needs to get more A's to have a chance at both of these schools.
We can learn bits from websites but it would be helpful to have firsthand experience of anyone who has a student who has continued riding in college or knows someone who has. She is not interested in studying animal science or vet school. Riding is English.</p>
<p>I have always thought of Sweet Briar (in VA) as being equestrian and horsey. I know nothing about riding, but you may want to check it out.</p>
<p>Adding-preference for school to have a campus barn.
Pizzagirl- she likes the idea of Virginia. (all those horse boarding school book series) After having one child across the country and the logistics of travel my husband would prefer her to stay closer to the West Coast. But if the price is right he could be convinced.</p>
<p>mom60 - This taxes my memory cells a bit, since our investigation was three plus years ago. But here are some starting points:</p>
<p>Colleges we visited with on-campus riding and stables: Mount Holyoke, Sweet Briar, Hollins, Goucher.</p>
<p>Colleges we visited with off-campus riding: Elon (wouldn’t let us tour), JMU (not recommended), UDelaware (not recommended)</p>
<p>Colleges we considered but did not visit: Otterbein, Radford, Westminister.</p>
<p>The only ones I know of are the ones I show with, which are unfortunately not in CA. But if you look around there are lots of equestrian teams. I can name four or five in Michigan alone so I am sure there are some out there. The main schools kids around here go to to ride are Michigan, and Findlay in Ohio.</p>
<p>If I were her I would find a school that interests me and go to one of their shows-- that gives you a chance to check out the team AND their competition, she may find one she likes better at the show. I always find it interesting to see how the different teams interact with their teammates and with their trainer. It also shouldn’t be a problem to drop by the barn and talk to the trainer and see if she likes their philosophy. We have people popping in all the time at Umich’s trainer’s barn to see what her lessons are like, and we have no problem with that.</p>
<p>ETA: Umich doesn’t have an on-campus barn, the trainer’s private barn is where the girls train and it’s about 20-30 minutes away from campus, however I believe the girls carpool with each other. So I wouldn’t necessarily rule out a program with an off-campus barn if she loves the school otherwise, it’s still worth investigating how the rest of the team gets out to the barn. Especially since she’s not going into equine studies, I would think other areas would end up being her main priorities in judging a school, and an off-campus barn isn’t always a big deal.</p>
<p>Earlham has a great riding program. [Earlham</a> College | Equestrian Program](<a href=“http://www.earlham.edu/~eceq/]Earlham”>http://www.earlham.edu/~eceq/)
It is a Quaker school, small liberal arts. A friend’s daughter is there and loves it: a very warm community feel. I imagine they look for geographical diversity so being from California maybe she would get some financial aid. Sometimes small private colleges can offer a packet that comes in the same or better than in-state.</p>
<p>TwistedxKiss-going to a show is a great idea. We have noticed that while many schools have teams it varies greatly in size and also in accessibility. Just briefly looking at UCSC it looks like you have to arrange for your own training and transportation to the trainer. If you don’t have a car that would be difficult.
We have glanced at Earlham’s site and it does look like a great program with a nice barn facility.
From our area the only girls that she knows who have shown in college have gone to Fresno State with scholarships. She has no interest in Fresno.</p>
<p>Hmm the only schools/programs I know about are mostly on the East Coast. I know you wanted to stay closer, but suggestions on schools with good riding programs/facilities: Mount Holyoke - MA, Sweet Briar - VA, Hollins -VA, Lake Erie College (OH), Skidmore - NY (not on campus, but I think they have a shuttle that runs to the barn), St. Lawrence - NY (not on campus).</p>
<p>Definitely visit the barn/talk to the coach/see a show (if possible) when you visit schools. Ask lots of questions about the program and the commitment she’ll have for the team - how many times will she ride a week, are their required workouts, do freshmen get to show, what kind of costs will you be looking at (my school’s team is varsity so we don’t pay for much - we have a lesson fee at the beginning of the semester but the school pays for shows, transportation to shows, food at shows, pretty much everything…the lesson fee is tiny compared to what I normally pay for lessons lol), how you get to the barn if it isn’t on campus…</p>
<p>The atmospheres of teams are also going to vary a lot…some teams are really competitive and really want to win and some teams don’t really care about how they do…your daughter might want to think about what kind of team she wants to be a part of. Personally I like the competitive type teams (and am on one) and we have a lot of fun, too. Definitely try to talk to riders on the team, too, and see what they have to say about the program. Some teams are full of drama…a friend from my barn at home was telling me all about the drama on her team and with the coach. The size of teams will vary a lot and the size may dictate how much you get to show. My team has about 26 riders on it…I showed three times last year. Generally the upperclassmen get to show more as they try to point out and there’s lots of strategy on our coaches’ parts for who is pointing out,who isn’t showing as much so they don’t point out so that they can ride for the team at zones, etc.</p>
<p>I show IHSA on a varsity team (and sometimes we do NCAA “scrimmages”) and keep my own horse at school and I’m happy to answer any questions about riding in college in general :)</p>
<p>[Equestrian</a> Home Page](<a href=“http://sportclubs.ucdavis.edu/equestrian/]Equestrian”>http://sportclubs.ucdavis.edu/equestrian/)</p>
<p>Here are some on the west coast and Texas
Cal St- Fresno
Cal Davis
Cal Santa Cruz
Redlands
Wash St
Western Washington
Univ of Denver
TCU
Texas Tech
I searched using SAT scores of 550 each section</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ihsainc.com/CustomForms/CurrentTeams.aspx[/url]”>404;
<p>This is a partial list of teams in the IHSA. There are some major teams not listed because they may not have paid their dues for the season yet. Check back on the link in mid-October as most should have paid by then.</p>
<p>Also check out [Campus</a> Equestrian: Information, including results, stories and archives from the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA), ANRC, USA Equestrian, USET, rated shows,riding academies, horse trainers and all things riding-related](<a href=“http://www.campusequestrian.com/]Campus”>http://www.campusequestrian.com/) . There is a map on that page showing the IHSA zones and you can click on it to see what schools are in those zones and regions.</p>
<p>I showed in IHSA about 30 years ago and my D did several years ago. It is different from regular horse shows, but a whole lot of fun!</p>
<p>hj059-thank you for sharing about your program. The cost is something that will be a factor. Can you explain the difference between Varsity in IHSA and NCAA. The girl we know well at Fresno has a scholarship and I don’t think pays for anything. I know my D told me that the entire team got new GPA helmets for free. If you ride you might know how much a GPA helmet runs. For instate Fresno is already pretty inexpensive so don’t know how much value the scholarship is. I know the girl at Fresno said the showing is a bit of a bummer since upperclassmen do show more.
Some of the teams appear to just be a handful of girls who seem to organize themselves and find a local trainer. I am assuming these programs would be more costly since you have to find a horse to ride? As of now my D is definitely looking for a competitive team but also a team that has fun.
My D has already put Skidmore out to us. I don’t think they give merit aid and it would be a reach for her academically.</p>
<p>kitty-thank you for those links. We have been on Campus equestrian and it is how we have found the schools in Ca that compete. Will check back on the IHSA site in the fall.
Tom thanks for the list. It gives us a few more to add to the list.</p>
<p>Here’s a search tool that may help:
[FindurU</a> - easily research colleges and universities](<a href=“http://search.finduru.com/search/?sp_i=1&sp_q=equestrian&sp_a=sp10039135&sp_p=any&sp_n=21&sp_f=ISO-8859-1&sp_sfvl_field=sg|lv|tp|yr|st]FindurU”>http://search.finduru.com/search/?sp_i=1&sp_q=equestrian&sp_a=sp10039135&sp_p=any&sp_n=21&sp_f=ISO-8859-1&sp_sfvl_field=sg|lv|tp|yr|st)</p>
<p>Well, there isn’t really much difference between varsity teams and club teams in IHSA. For some reason my team is varsity, but we compete IHSA - I think at one point the schools had to pick whether they would do IHSA or NCAA and they chose to do IHSA. I think there are also schools that have a varsity NCAA team but also a club team that do IHSA for those riders who didn’t make the NCAA team/didn’t want to do NCAA/weren’t really ready for NCAA. Otherwise, we’re basically the same as the club teams. We do the same shows as the club teams and the main difference is probably the support we get from school (though some club teams will get a lot of support from the school, some club teams are barely recognized by their schools…it varies).</p>
<p>I’d say it’s definitely more expensive to be on one of the club teams where there aren’t many riders and they’re organizing themselves and finding their own trainer, since they’ll probably pay a more regular lesson rate, they need a local trainer that has horses they can use or they need to somehow scrounge up horses to ride, they’ll pay for their transportation to shows and their show fees and possibly a coaching fee, too, for their trainer to come. However, a lot of teams do fundraisers to try to lower the cost at least a little. </p>
<p>It was really nice last year not paying much - I think we had like a 200-300 dollar lesson fee each semester (for two lessons a week all semester)… compared to what I pay at home/what I’ll pay for lessons at the barn I board my horse at, that’s barely anything. </p>
<p>Showing definitely can be a bummer when you really want to show a lot/expected to show more…the best riders get to show a lot, the seniors get to show at basically every show until they qualify for Regionals…my coach definitely tries to give everyone a chance to show a few times each year, but not every coach is like that. There’s a girl who was on my team who transferred from another school where she didn’t even get to show once. I showed three times, but most of the other riders got to show four or five times…there were some circumstances that were probably the reason I didn’t get to show quite as much as some of the other riders did.</p>
<p>IHSA is really fun 
Very different from regular horse showing and I love the team aspect of it.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure my D’s BFF took her horse with her to Santa Clara. That was one of her must have criteria, and she was the Sal.</p>
<p><a href=“Webs.com has been shut down: Find out more”>Webs.com has been shut down: Find out more;
<p>I think Scripps had facilities as well, but a bit more competitive in terms of admissions.</p>
<p><a href=“http://peninsula.pomona.edu/claremont-equestrian/[/url]”>http://peninsula.pomona.edu/claremont-equestrian/</a></p>
<p>Well, THAT photo is taken in front of the horse barn at STANFORD, 20m miles north. I went to Santa Clara, and it is an urban campus, with no horse facilities that I ever saw. I’ll bet her horse is stabled elsewhere on the peninsula,probably quite a distance from the campus.</p>
<p>There’s a link with the local barns. </p>
<p>DISCLAIMER!!!</p>
<p>I don’t know much about horse stuff, and I don’t know the area well enough to know about distance, but I REALLY liked the school, and D had an interest in horses when we were looking.</p>
<p>[Santa</a> Clara Equestrian Club Home](<a href=“Webs.com has been shut down: Find out more”>Webs.com has been shut down: Find out more)</p>
<p>PS Is Santa Clara “urban”? I was thinking sub-urban, but then I’m originally from New York.</p>
<p>We have looked at the Santa Clara site. MenloparkMom-thanks for pointing out that the barn in the photo is Stanford.
The first school my D presented to us was Stanford. She asked is it hard to get in? She had no clue. She just saw that beautiful horse barn.
Is there any easy way to find out how each team is supported? I know we can try to email the contact listed for each school she is interested in. Cost will definitely be a huge factor. We are not willing or able to pay what we are paying now once we also have college tuition to pay.
The Redlands Tom listed is Redlands Community College not Univ of Redlands.</p>
<p>well, I don’t think it make sense to think that it would cost less to house a horse out here, when land prices on the SF peninsula average $1,000,000 an acre . The only people who can afford to own a horse here are those with LOTS of $$ to burn.</p>