That’s the one I was looking for! I’m so glad they started doing this. It’s eye opening.
Obviously there are exceptions, but averages are worthy numbers to consider.
Note that Most Horses Shown in a year: 58
Most Classes in A Year: 720
That’s $$$$$&
At his age being given opportunities to pursue multiple interests is not the worst thing in the world. If his parents are paying for him to have a horse and show they’re clearly supportive of his riding goals, that’s not something most families can take on lightly. While he may like riding best that doesn’t mean he dislikes the other sports (also think it’s likely that he tells all his coaches he likes their sport best, but who knows). Kids that age can be all over the place in what they’re interested in. Regardless of what he tells you, I don’t think you can really know if these parents are overbearing and truly forcing their kid to participate in all these sports, or if they’re good parents supporting a kid with varied interests the best they can. In any case, trying to argue with their parenting choices is a good way to drive them away from the sport regardless of scholarship money.
Personally I think the parents are off-base for pinning their hopes on a sports scholarship in general for a kid that age, who isn’t old enough to know what he wants to study or if college athletics even appeals to him, but they are correct that sports like football and baseball offer a lot more scholarship opportunities than riding even if gender wasn’t an issue. For you to suggest otherwise would be misleading, but there have been plenty of good resources shared here you can pass along if the parents are asking for your advice.
I wasn’t suggesting you are. What does the kid want?
The point, speaking as a university professor and scientist, is funding college through sports scholarships is not necessarily a good nor effective plan depending on what the kid wants.
I know of a few D1 football scholarship players who are now sportsmed docs. Not one engineer though. The academic requirements are too intensive. Now, there are D2 engineering school football teams (Mines have been national champs) but it has taken a lot of accommodation to let these kids succeed.
You are in a place to guide the boy and the first thing is what do they want before you worry about boy’s equestrian scholarships.
Unless the kid excels at one of those, he’s not very likely to get an athletic scholarship. Particularly in football, as with the changes there, the players are essentially semi-pro now.
(And don’t get me started on how effed up it is to pin one’s college hopes on a sport documented to routinely cause brain damage.)
I am also inclined to say… very very rare stellar atheletes are multisport talents
If kid is in baseball football, wrestling and is a HIGHLY talented and competitive rider … he is a fantasy.
I don’t know any 8th grade boys (my sister is a Jr High administrator and has been for over a decade) that are what is described. Talent is obviously embellished bc no one likes talking “bad” about a kid.
If kid was that talented riding horses and had the money to support that talent needed to get scholarships for horses - he’d have been scouted already.
Brian Moggre is a great example - he was a household name by the time he was a teen competing at NAJYRC. And he was not doing other sports at all - was he cross training and doing a program to ride well, yes, but he sure as hell wasnt spending winters wrestling in HS. He was at WEF
If he wanted to ride in college ^ that is the caliber of person they’re looking for. I don’t think Brian went to school but went fully pro at 18
This! Equestrian teams are large (Comparative to the number of riders competing in a Show / meet) as the number of women athletes helps offset for Title 9.
This is true too!
At really competitive programs, some riders may never see the competition ring. But they get to take lessons and go to meets (as alternates). Schools like SCAD have massive teams vs the small number who see regular showing.
A smaller program that isn’t challenging SCAD and Co for Finals might rotate their riders a bit more. And IHSA riders tend to show more vs NCEA (in my experience). Some IHSA riders switch to Western in order to show more, as well.
I’ve been to the Maclay final one week and then an NCAA show the following week, and I saw a lot of the same people getting ribbons two weeks in a row.
Many of those teams are very, very competitive, and they get some very good riders on the teams.
Plus they are expected to take it seriously like any other college athlete as far as keeping up on their fitness and nutrition and all of that.
I know one rider who had to go to the gym as part of her fitness requirements to be on the team. And after the first week or so, a football player finally came up to the group of the horse girls in the gym and asked them what sport they did.
When she first started working with weights, she could only lift up the empty bar over her head. If they put any weights on it, she could not do anything with it.
But really, when do you ever use those muscles around a horse? Unless you’re pushing one off your foot. She probably would have had better luck exercising the kind of muscles that get a workout when you’re riding a horse that pulls like a train. Lol.
My nephew was a very capable football player in high school. Certainly not remarkable, but held his own and worked hard. Earned himself a nice little football scholarship to a private D3 college.
As much as it sucks from your perspective, his parents may very well be right. As veterinarians, they are keenly aware of what college can cost and may even still be paying on their own loans. So I wouldn’t push against this too hard if I were you. They’re thinking 30 years down the road for their kid, you’re thinking 5.
And because he’s a boy, he has a gazillion other sports scholarships he can go after. Girls? Not so much. That’s why it’s Title 9.
Are you sure on the details?
D III schools are not permitted to give athletic scholarships.
Need based and merit based, yes.
Oh absolutely not sure on the details. I have zero idea how football or their scholarships work. Is there another tier down from D3?
D3 scholarships- they will call them something else (,merit, need, whatever) but they get them because of the sport whether they say it or not.
Yeah, but unless they’re the next Tom Brady or Jordan, they’re barely getting in and probably not getting any playing time. NIL has changed the game. Most schools won’t even pull directly from high schools anymore, rather than opting for Transfer portal. That’s why so many kids are opting for Community schools or D2/D3 schools where they can be a rock star, then apply to transfer after freshman or sophomore year, and call out their requests/money/perks. It’s wild.
Right? I’m sorry for them and I’m sure they have heavy student loans from their own schooling, but they are still making 6 figure salaries. This isn’t something that they should be freaking out about… their kid is 4. years away and who knows where the kid will be by then. Many a kid has found boys/girls and left horses in the rearview.
The western usually stock horse riders skew that a bit I suspect. They will commonly show in 6 to 8 classes per show with their all around horse and if they have a reiner or over fences horse another 2 or 3. And most of the circuits are now split combined so they are actually 2 to 3 shows in a weekend which basically means they show in the class once but it is 2 or 3 shows so you get points and placings under 2 or 3 judges.
Unpopular opinion: D1 and even D2 schools are highly predatory when it comes to recruiting student athletes, and frankly it alarms me when any parent goes out of their way to try and get their kid–of any age–visibility to be recruited. Those programs are not looking out for those athletes unless they’re the 1% of performers. They are looking out for the bottom line of the sports program, and those programs have left so many, many young people, particularly minorities, in terrible positions.
I digress. The stat sheet someone shared here about what it takes to get on an NCAA eq team is gobsmacking. I think it also reinforces the point a few folks have made to say “go after other scholarships.”
There are truly scholarships for anything and everything these days. Heritage, hobbies, volunteer work, academics, etc. So many scholarships don’t get that many applicants because people don’t take the time to research them. Here’s a website to look up all kinds of scholarships that are available these days: https://www.scholarships.com/
My mom is someone who does private tutoring and coaching to get kids into college, particularly the ivies but she’s done the whole circuit. For your average kid who is not the second coming of Mozart in a particular field, she tells those kids to focus on academics first–whether that’s test scores or school grades–and then build a portfolio that tells a story. Like horses? Get involved in volunteering for hippotherapy. Like engineering? Use your Eagle Scout project to construct a foot path or something. Beyond generally good grades, college admissions wants kids who have an interesting story to tell, particularly one that shows they have a focus on community in some regard.
I have to say that thought had never once crossed my mind.
But I can certainly think of kids who are the offspring of trainers who ride and show an awful lot of horses between the hunters, jumpers, and equitation.
So that relatively small group of “professional juniors” could probably skew the numbers a bit as well.
This could certainly skew the numbers some. But the most popular division (assuming that’s a numerical stat not an opinion poll), is still Large Junior Hunters. So one can assume the numbers are not fully coming from western disciplines.
It’s gobsmacking either way.
I agree- having many friends with kids in college now some of who plays sport you are totally right that these coaches do not give a crap about the kids in most cases. My friends son had a medical issue and is was get out there your team is depending on you (and this was not at a big sports school or in a ‘populr’ sport).
100% this
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