Competition continued Saturday at the 2019 Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association (IHSA) National Championships at the New York State Fairgrounds Exposition Center in Syracuse. The Intermont Equestrian at Emory & Henry team earned 50 team points and edged out Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) who earned 43 points. Stanford took the third spot with 36.5 points.
Intermont Equestrian at Emory & Henry is the 2019 IHSA USEF/Collegiate Cup Champion team. Photo by alcookphoto.com
The Intermont Equestrian program has won 21 national championships since its establishment under Virginia Intermont College. In 2014, Virginia Intermont closed and Emory & Henry College took over the program. Since then, the team has won one IHSA National Championship.
Emory & Henry head coach Heather Richardson said that the hard work began at the beginning of the season. She brought the team together as a group to work on details. Her advice to them was, “to be natural and normal.”
Bobbie Jo Adsit of Intermont Equestrian at Emory & Henry on Lucky owned by Centenary University, the Collegiate Cup Open Flat champion. Photo by EQ Media
“You know, to come all that way, and be the best out of 400– these kids are really supportive of each other,” she said. “They make friends for life.
Emory & Henry has 70 students in the equestrian program and 68 horses in the barn. “What we’re really trying to do is turn out people that are going to work in the industry,” she said.
It was Bobbie Jo Adsit, a junior from Montpelier, Virginia, who sealed the deal for the Emory & Henry team, by winning the USEF Collegiate Cup Equitation on the Flat, against a field of the top riders in the IHSA, including Edgar, the 2019 USEF/Cacchione Cup winner.
“The Open Flat has been my strongest all year, so it’s very exciting,” she said. Adsit has qualified for Nationals for three consecutive years.