Carolina attempts to take down defending national champions
South Carolina’s equestrian team will face its toughest test so far this season when it travels to face defending national champion, Auburn, on Friday. Coach Boo Major said this matchup will be a test to see how good USC really is.
“This is a crucial match for us,” Major said. “We are very comfortable with where we are right now after the first two matches, but Auburn is the reigning national champion. This isn’t like their football team where they lost a Cam Newton; the equestrian team still has a lot of great players. If we win Friday then I’ll know I have a special team.”
The Gamecocks will be short-handed, however. Star freshmen Katherine Schmidt and Layla Choate won’t make the trip because of other competitions scheduled this weekend.
“It’s kind of a complicated situation,” Major said. “Their individual seasons run through December. They probably wouldn’t have come to school here if they had to forfeit those competitions, so those races are important to them. Not having them could hurt us, but we have a seasoned, experienced group going.”
The loss of the freshmen hurts both the Hunt Seat and Western teams, but particularly the latter because of instability so far this season. USC has struggled at times with execution and Major said that the Western riders have to put forth their best effort against the Tigers.
“In practice this week, we have been trying to get Western more focused,” Major said. “We will have to fix the mental errors that are occurring if we want to win. As for the Hunt Seat team, we will have to improve on what we’ve done in the past because Auburn will be, by far, our toughest test of the year so far.”
The fact that the match is in Auburn will make the situation more difficult. In equestrian, the home team supplies the horses. This results in the away team having to get used to unfamiliar horses in a short period of time. Major thinks her team won’t be completely in the dark, though, due to its familiarity with the Tigers.
“The heart of equestrian is being able to figure out the horses,” Major said. “When we prepare for away games, we make the girls get on different horses in practice with a short time to adjust to them. We are a little familiar with the Auburn horses because we play them three times a year, and they provide a lot of the horses in nationals.”
Both teams enter the weekend 2-0 and each boast victories over TCU by equivalent scores of 14-6. Auburn also posted a 13-5 victory over Tennessee-Martin.
Major is confident that the team will prepare as much as it can and give the Tigers its best shot.
“Our coaches have done a great job getting the girls ready for Auburn,” Major said. “We really have to make no mistakes and ride our best. Our matches against Auburn have been very close over the years so we usually play tough against them.”