Club Equestrian at Pitt reins in success for 2024 showing season

Pitt is an urban campus, situated in the heart of the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh. For some students, that is a major selling point. For Club Equestrian at Pitt, this poses a challenge for horseback riders.

Its main barn, BarGee Farms, is located 30 minutes north of campus, but according to senior captain Peyton Chen, sometimes that commute varies. 

“It’s technically 30 minutes north,” Chen said. “But with traffic, it is definitely an hour or more.”

The club carpools to practice and to compete, as it has upcoming shows this season all over the Northeastern U.S.

“This year, we’re competing at Seton Hill, IUP, West Virginia University and Bethany College,” Chen said. “We also host a show at Stonegate, in Ohio, which we rent out for the weekend since we don’t have our own barn.”

Despite having to travel far to get to a barn, learning to ride a horse is straight-forward process, according to Chen, as many places offer lessons and have horses onsite. 

“Most people are involved in horses by going to a barn that is basically an academy, a riding academy, where they teach people how to ride horses,” Chen said. “They don’t have to own a horse to ride. You go to the barn, and you pay whatever that lesson fee is for that trainer to teach you how to ride one of the horses that they have on the farm.”

Despite not having a local barn to host, traveling a long distance to a home show has its perks. 

“I love whenever we go to Stonegate for our home shows, because we sleep over and we eat at Texas Roadhouse every time we go up there. It’s great to have because of that show, we typically have some show team members and some non-show team members,” Chen said. “So it’s great to be able to get that show and that away experience with people that are riding and also just helping out.”

Traveling to all these different barns in the area promotes camaraderie between the members — there’s no one-upping one another in Club Equestrian at Pitt.

“It’s a really close-knit community,” sophomore Jacqueline Chalifoux said. “When I joined as a freshman, I felt immediately welcomed. We don’t judge anyone based on their riding abilities. We have regular meetings, social events and group chats. Plus, we spend so much time together at the barn. We really bond with each other.”

But socializing doesn’t finish once riders get to the barn. They have events throughout the year that each rider is included in.

“We host a couple game nights and team bonding events for the club, just as we can fit in between the show schedule,” Social Chair Danica Harf said. “We also have a semi-formal in the fall, as well as a formal in the spring that a lot of people enjoy.”

The club doesn’t require prior experience. Tryouts for the team gauge whether a rider needs to start at a beginner level or is ready to ride at an advanced level.

“We have different divisions when you try out. We also ask you a few questions in advance to figure out what division that the organization [IHSA] is going to put you in,” Chen said. “We have a division called Intro, [where] all you have to do is walk and trot. It has a condition that you have to be riding for less than 24 weeks. That’s where we put our members new to horseback riding. Then, it goes up from there. If you’re comfortable at the canter, we put you into …a level up from Intro, where you just kind of slowly build up your skills.”

A typical competition day in the life of the show team begins early in the morning, when the team travels to the barn.

“We wake up around 5 or 6 a.m., drive to the barn and get there about two hours before the show starts to watch the horses school,” Chalifoux said. “You hang out with your teammates until it’s your turn to compete. Afterward, we wait for the results and pack up. It’s a long, but rewarding day.”

The show team, which is the main competition team, competes in the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association. IHSA uses a random selection system for the flat and jumping divisions the team competes in.

“[We go] over to Seton Hill University’s farm, and we ride their horses,” Chen said. “At the beginning of the day, we do a drop where we basically get [the horse] signed up for us at random, and then you ride that in the show, in your jumping course or in your flat division.”

The senior captain wants to see success in the shows the team competes in and has goals in place to compete in the postseason. 

“I really just want to see as many people get to proceed to the postseason as possible. And this year, we have another full card, so we have a person in every single division,” Chen said. “I’m hoping that we can get to regionals as a team, which would be really fun, which hasn’t happened for a very long time. I’m hoping to get to more shows as a team.”

Although the club participates in many shows within the season, participants don’t have to compete to get involved. 

“You do not have to compete to be in our club,” Chen said. “There are people who ride and are not on the show team. Those members just come to the barn and take lessons and get better. That way, we all learn together as a group.”

Outside of the stable, Harf has different goals she’s put in place for the organization.   

“I am going to shamelessly plug our Instagram and our TikTok,” Harf said. “Our TikTok is almost at 1,000 followers. I really have a lot of fun making those and sharing it with the team, and everybody has fun participating in them. I’d really like to see them do well this semester.”