Athletics at Athenian Athenian’s New Equestrian Team Learning how to handle a horse, ride, and compete in horse shows requires patience, courage and stamina. Riders must know not only how to saddle and mount a horse, but to groom them as well. Athenian’s new equestrian team participates in Hunt Seat, a form of English riding based on the fox hunt. Competitions include both flat and over fences for show hunters (horses) and participants are judged on the horse’s movement and form as well as the rider’s ability. While there is skill involved, the competition is also left to chance, as the riders draw a horse they have never ridden. They are given a horse list with names, height, breed, personality traits, and riding hints. Competition includes a variety of exercises, from walking, trotting, halting and jumping, to changing leads and horses, figure eights, turns and riding without stirrups. During their first competition in January 2013, all of the riders ribboned in every class. At one time, Athenian had its own horse arena in the area that is now the girls’ softball field. Stables were located on campus below what was then the School’s library (now the Center for the Arts). According to alumna Marnye
(Little) Langer ’81, who was responsible for starting the short-lived equestrian program during her years at Athenian, “Ed Ellis let us paint and repair jumps in his front yard, and we even hosted horse shows where riders from other stables came and competed. At that time, the intercollegiate program hadn’t moved west, and interscholastic competition was not even in the pipeline.” Marnye’s passion for horses never left her, and today she is still immersed in the horse world and is CFO of the Langer Equestrian Group, holds both national level judging and stewarding licenses, and has written a book about endurance riding called The Tevis Cup – To Finish Is To Win. Another aluma, Danielle Coburn ’91, is also involved in the horse world as the Program Director at Xenophon in Orinda, CA. “We work with special needs children by providing therapeutic riding lessons, “she says. “We have several Athenian students volunteering with us. It is a lot of fun and the results are amazing!” As word catches on, the hope is that more students will want to participate in this rewarding sport.
Team members Alex Hirt ’15, coach Hilary Johnson, Irena Volkov ’16, Niki Hirt ’17, Ginger Freeman ’19 and Peyton Freeman ’19.
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