After a strong start to the season and a refreshing winter break, the equestrian team hopes to end this year’s show-season the same way it started it — with a bang. The Red leads the region by 50 points, according to head coach Chris Mitchell. The squad is undefeated — a status which it hopes to maintain through the remainder of the season, though it will not be an easy feat.  The challenge begins this weekend when the squad will travel to Virginia to compete in this season’s final Tournament of Champions.

“This time last year I’m pretty sure we were also undefeated and then we got a little too confident and weren’t working as hard because we were confident,” said senior co-captain Katie Fink. “It’s on us … To keep everyone’s spirits high but also realiz[e] that we still have to work for it and it’s not gonna come easy to us.”

Despite the challenge, Fink is determined to keep the team focused. 

“I really [want to] push the team to stay undefeated,” she said. 

Junior co-captain Emily Kowalchik is equally adamant about keeping the squad concentrated on its goals.

“I really, really would love to finish being undefeated this [year],” Kowalchik said. “I really think we can do it and I really would like to. We’re going to try to keep our focus a little bit better this year. If we ride like we did last semester it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Since the Red’s next team show, which it will also host, is not until Feb. 19th, the team still has a considerable amount of time for improvement. This weekend’s show,  unlike regular Intercollegiate Horse Show Association shows, is a competition between the top teams in the country where individual performances count, as each team is allowed to bring only one rider for each division. 

Luckily, the Red knows what to expect from this unique tournament. According to Kowalchik, the riders who competed in the last Tournament of Champions on Dec. 3, Open Fences held at Centenary College, will also represent the Red this upcoming Saturday.  One of the riders who performed at a high level of competition was senior Bronwyn Scrivens, who began the show with a solid start for the Red, winning a second place ribbon in her event.

“I’m very excited about Scrivens,” Mitchell said. “She’s second in the Cacchione race right now with two horse shows left … She’s very hungry for it, so I expect great things from her.”

Cornell’s team finished the December tournament  placing 10th out of the 24 schools which competed, giving the riders confidence for the upcoming show.

“We finished on a really strong note before winter break,” Kowalchik said. “All of us who are going [to compete this weekend] rode over winter break, so we’re ready to go — which is really nice.”

After this weekend, the team will have only two more shows in which to compete before the season winds down with regionals, zones and nationals. Cornell will also compete in a special Ivy League show in April. Some of the other Ivies only have club level equestrian teams, so Brown and Dartmouth’s varsity squads are typically the Red’s biggest competition, according to Kowalchik.

While the squad maintains a considerable lead — one so large that the Red could skip a show and still win the region — remaining undefeated would give the team the extra competitive edge it needs to do well in the final competitions, according to Kowalchik. 

“I think we’ll have a better chance of taking a team to nationals if we go into zones knowing that we’re undefeated,” she said. 

Although riders can qualify for regionals on an individual basis, winning the region would allow the Red to bring an entire team to the show. Five of Cornell’s riders have already qualified for regionals.

With such a successful start, Mitchell looks forward to what is to come. 

“I’m very excited,” he said. “I think we’ll finish up in hopefully grand fashion with Cornell’s first trip to nationals — that’s our goal.”