{"id":2707,"date":"2009-10-24T11:44:44","date_gmt":"2009-10-24T04:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/?p=2707"},"modified":"2009-10-24T11:44:44","modified_gmt":"2009-10-24T04:44:44","slug":"college-horse-play-is-turning-heads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/industry\/college-horse-play-is-turning-heads\/","title":{"rendered":"College Horse Play Is Turning Heads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Varsity Equestrian 2009-2010 season under way with great competition for athletes and horses.<\/em><\/p>\n

The American Quarter Horse Journal, October 22, 2009 <\/em>\u2013 While football might be the college sport that gets the most attention in the fall, the newest sport to attract female athletes to universities across the country is\u00a0Varsity Equestrian<\/a>. The NCAA emerging sport of equestrian competition pits women against their peers in western and English contests. In western competition, the riders compete in horsemanship and reining.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great use of the American Quarter Horse,\u201d said Leman Wall, director of corporate and affiliate partnerships for AQHA. \u201cThese well-trained horses have good jobs, and the young women in Varsity Equestrian competition are terrific athletes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the season\u2019s latest poll of coaches,\u00a0Auburn University<\/a> is ranked first. The\u00a0University of South Carolina<\/a>, who was ranked on top\u00a0in the season’s first poll\u00a0fell to\u00a0No. 2. L<\/span>ast year\u2019s overall winner, the\u00a0University of Georgia<\/a>,\u00a0is ranked third. The Georgia Bulldogs were also the English-division winners last year. <\/span>Last year\u2019s western division winners, the Aggies of\u00a0Texas A&M University<\/a>, were ranked sixth in the coaches\u2019 poll.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 22 colleges with Varsity Equestrian teams will compete in head-to-head matches throughout the 2009-2010 season, culminating April 15-17, 2010, in the\u00a0National Championships at Waco, Texas<\/a>, when the top teams will meet in tournament brackets.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to a great year of excellent horsemanship and sportsmanship at these universities,\u201d Wall said. \u201cThe Varsity Equestrian participants are outstanding role models as students as well as horsewomen. Many of our former AQHYA members are completing college on Varsity Equestrian scholarships. It\u2019s a particular treat to see them doing so well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

AQHA is an official sponsor of Varsity Equestrian National Championships and works in cooperation with the U.S. Equestrian Federation to advance equestrian sports. To learn more about the program and see the complete rankings from the coaches\u2019 poll, go to\u00a0www.varsityequestrian.com<\/a><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

AQHA news and information is a service of AQHA publications. For more information on\u00a0The American Quarter Horse Journal, The American Quarter Horse Racing Journal<\/em> or\u00a0America\u2019s Horse<\/em>, visit\u00a0www.aqha.com\/magazines<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Varsity Equestrian 2009-2010 season under way with great competition for athletes and horses. The American Quarter Horse Journal, October 22, 2009 \u2013 While football might be the college sport that gets the most attention in the fall, the newest sport to attract female athletes to universities across the country is\u00a0Varsity Equestrian. The NCAA emerging sport […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aqha","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2708,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707\/revisions\/2708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ebarrelracing.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}