Hoof Dreams

The Baylor equestrian team galloped into its first season as the University's 18th varsity team. Beginning with not so much as a horseshoe last November, when the Board of Regents approved it, the program began competition this fall, including hosting some matches.

Coach Ellen White, BA '81, said she has some top-notch equestriennes to participate on the varsity team. And White is an excellent judge of talent. A competitor in the most demanding English discipline of dressage, the Baylor alumna is well-known in the horse world as a rider and a breeder of warmbloods (horses that have been inspected and registered by world-recognized breeding associations to excel in the sports of dressage and/or show jumping). For the last 23 years, she has owned and operated Willow Spring Farm in Waco.

White was awarded U.S. Dressage Federation silver (1992) and gold (1999) medals, captured Selle Francais Horse of the Year honors three times (1992, 1993 and 1994) and won USDF Horse of the Year honors in 1993. She received qualifying scores for the U.S. Olympic Festival and Pan American Games and was invited to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team in dressage, although she declined to do so.

"We had a little over 70 girls apply to the program," she said. "We had spots for 25 riders, so we chose to have 20 scholarship athletes, and we filled the last five spots with walk-ons. And we have girls coming here who are big-time winners. They are quality girls, and the majority also have academic scholarships.
Trista Armstrong, who was the Western coach at Fresno State, came to the team in May as assistant coach. "I am so excited to be here. Baylor has a wonderful reputation, and I also am thrilled to be part of Big 12 competition," she said.
Armstrong worked two seasons as assistant coach at Fresno State. Her riders went undefeated against regional competition the past two seasons (including this year), earning the Regional and Zone championships and reserve national status at the 2004 IHSA National Championships. Armstrong also guided eight individual riders to the nationals, including one AQHA reserve title.

Prior to Fresno State, Armstrong was an assistant coach at Ohio State from 2002-03 and a teaching assistant at her alma mater, Oklahoma State, in 2001. She also has coached overseas.
As a member of the Cowgirls' equestrian team, Armstrong rode in both English and Western disciplines and placed in the top five for individual Open Western Horsemanship and Reining, helping Oklahoma State claim the National Zone Championship. In 2001, she captured the Alumni Western Horsemanship title at the IHSA National Championships.

For NCAA programs, the riders compete in one of four disciplines, both English and Western. The two Western disciplines are horsemanship, in which the athletes ride a certain pattern, and reining, the most advanced Western event in which riders perform an individual, pre-assigned pattern from memory and demonstrate a variety of stops, turns and figures at various speeds. Hunt seat (walk, trot, canter) and jumping make up the English disciplines.

An NCAA match features head-to-head competition. In each of the four disciplines, there will be five Baylor riders and five of the opposing team's riders and five horses. Two riders will compete using the same horse. In general, quarterhorses will be used for Western disciplines and warmbloods for English ones.

"The horses don't travel. The host team provides the mounts, so you can see that you have a huge home team advantage, because you will be riding your horses," White said.

Currently, 21 universities sponsor NCAA equestrian teams, including Big 12 schools Kansas State, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State.