A View from the Saddle: AU Equestrian Team Member Recounts her Team Experience
By: Sally R. Credille, Ag Communications Major and Member of the AU Equestrian Team
In 2002, Auburn University declared equestrian as its newest varsity endeavor, bringing the number of women's varsity sports to 12. A foster child of the College of Agriculture, the determined team that had carried itself through six years as a club sport became a joint effort between the Auburn University Athletic Department and the College of Agriculture.
It was a move built on Head Coach Greg Williams' hope to better support his team and his desire to produce a team that was second to none, even his winning pre-varsity team. The decision was long-awaited by Williams, Assistant Coach Herb Schneider and all the 2002-2003 team members.
As a freshman on the 2001-2002 Auburn Equestrian Team, I learned early on that sacrifice is the unspoken rule for the team. It began with the first team in 1996 when 15 girls helped Williams create the core for the future team. It has continued as an established practice.
In so many ways our designation as a varsity sport was an answered prayer, but for those first 15 girls it had come too late. Still, it was the possibility that had pushed them. The sacrifices my freshman teammates and I would welcome as being a part of this team came from an appreciation of the sacrifices made before us.
At times, the surrender of time and effort seemed to be demanded by our upper classmen, but we began to expect it from each other. In ways, this team is like any other varsity team. We have workouts three mornings a week at 5:55 a.m., then attend class, practice every afternoon, physical therapy in the training room if needed, study hall or tutoring if required. Fridays of competition weekends are reserved for travel, which runs right back into Monday morning's 5 a.m. wake-up call. It's a structured schedule that primarily works on an adjust-to or be-adjusted basis.
This team is so unlike any other Auburn sport because it is two-dimensional. The girls only make up one dimension of the team. The second dimension is the horses. It's an equally important job to care for them, as athletes, just as we take care of ourselves. Riding is just the beginning. There is daily feeding, watering, grooming, clipping and more. The horses are the true foundation of this team and anything we do for them is always worth it (though keeping them as fit as us humans usually fits into the category of "most time consuming team responsibility").
Having proudly earned my spot on this team, I realize that I am part of an already winning team. Over the years our team has won numerous awards in both the Western and hunt seat divisions. The team has won the regional championship for the past two years and has qualified for nationals for the past two years, finishing with an overall placing of fifth.
We're a group of winners, and I'm not ashamed to say it. But what sets this team apart is its ability to build leaders–leaders for future teams, leaders in the sport, leaders in the real world and leaders willing to put those whom they lead before themselves. Some teams have a captain to lead the entire team and give support to team members who need building up. On our team, everyone is a captain. It's important to us that every member knows her full potential and faults. There's no place on this team for girls who can only think of individual success. All of this team's successes belong to the entire team. We win and lose as a team, fail and succeed as a team.
As sophomores, we became part of an historic event that would leave us with privileges members of that first team in 1996 had worked so hard for us to have. My teammates and I would never have to experience sleeping eight girls to a hotel room at competitions, or having four teammates compete in the same uniform because without that one, the others wouldn't be able to compete. What the girlsof the past Auburn Equestrian Team accomplished for the future teams is status, a status that no one in Auburn or equestrian history has ever attained.
I can't expect any other student athlete to understand how the hard work of the team absorbs you. Some may say it's a general "love of the game" and that every great athlete has that drive to succeed, but it's more than that. When you peel back the outer layer of this team–the well-rounded girls with high GPA's in any array of majors, double majors and minors that know how to work hard to win–you're left with 31 girls who work hard not for themselves, but to make their team a better institution for the girls who will join it after them.
As my junior year begins this fall so will the Auburn Equestrian Team's second year as a varsity sport. There is so much to look to forward to and so much promise in the team. With the introduction of a new format consisting of head-to-head meets and no division levels (as in previous competitions), National Collegiate Athletic Association equestrian events can continue to become a greater spectator sport and a boon to the horse industry.
Williams and Schneider are looking forward to competition in the fall and the new format. Procedure and routine for this team will change as the years go by, but the formula for success will never change. The girls of the Auburn Equestrian Team know they are the glue that holds their team together.