Pace Paw Print

Media Credit: Nicole Papaioannou Amber Bauchner and her horse go head to head with a jump on an open fence course.

The members of Pace's equestrian team wake up at 5:45 a.m. on the day of show for their bus. Their shows last from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., meaning that they leave before dawn and for the most part come back in the darkness of night.

To answer the first question that pops into your head, yes Pace has an equestrian team. Don't worry though you are not the only one. The majority of the Pace community probably doesn't know of their equestrian team.

Equestrian's senior co-captain Nicole Papaioannou had this to say about her team, "We get more recognition in equestrian world than we do at our own school."

Junior co-captain Julia Freeman added, "There are so many people that don't know we have an equestrian team and I think it's such a gem for this school."

The team consists of 18 female Pace students who are all coached under Lisa Tomaselli. With Tomaselli, the girls practice twice a week and on the week of a horse show they practice three times.

The horse shows are held on weekends and they are never held at Pace, due to the fact that Pace's facilities are too small.

Instead, the majority shows are held at Centenary College in Hackettstown, New Jersey or at Briarwood Farm in Readington, New Jesersy. The reason why Pace's equestrian team travels almost two hours away is because the team requires a venue that can contain enough horses for over 250 rides per show.

The fact that there is no bus to bring students/fans to shows and that the shows are nearly nine hours long are probably the main reasons why the team does not receive much support from students.

Unfortunately for the Setters equestrian team they don't get much more support from the Pace's athletics department.

Sophomore Caroline O'Connell feels that, "I feel like it's a slap in the face!"

No equestrian member is on a scholarship since Pace does not offer them for equestrian.

You won't see sweatshirts on the girls of equestrian, being that the majority of their budget is spent for their shows; they don't get those little perks.

"It would be nice if we could get some jumpsuits or something," stated sophomore Mary Beth Dixon.

Equestrian also doesn't face off against schools in the Northeast-10 Conference as they are affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) but, they are also part of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA).

The team holds about ten shows a year with about six in the fall and four in the spring, not including Regional, Zones and National Championships that follow the seasons. Every year at least one girl from Pace goes to the Regional Championships of the IHSA.

The IHSA is separated into nine Zones throughout the country and four Regions in Pace's Zone which is Zone 2 and they are in Region 1.

Schools that are located in Pace's region are: Bard College, Centenary College, Drew University, Marist College, SUNY New Paltz, and several others.

Equestrian is more of a sport than one may think. It's more than riding on a horse since a rider's score is reflected on how they make the horse look.

There are two forms of competition with equestrian individual and team riding. The riders will get scores for themselves and scores for their school. When it comes down to the team riding the IHSA has an equal playing field.

Last year, for example Pace came in second place in their Region Championship as a team. The only school ahead of them was Centenary College who won the title for the previous 18 years. Centenary had over 100 riders while Pace only had 12 girls at the time.

The equal playing field made this match-up even despite the major difference in number of riders.

Even though Pace's equestrian team does not receive much or any attention, the girls couldn't be happier with their team and their teammates.

Sophomore Jan Kutscher state that "We've only gotten better"

For O'Connell this is her first year on the team she has this to say, "I think the equestrian team is a bond."

Papaioannou added that, "We all support each other."

Freeman made this overall team statement saying, "It's very intimate, and all of us girls have a somewhat unusual common interest. On the other hand, it would be nice to have the Pace students know more about us so we could have more of a support system and eventually more of Athletics' budget given to us!"

Hopefully, for the Pace equestrian team the support that they truly deserve will come from the entire Pace community sooner rather than later.

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