I know it probably depends based on the school, but how do you generally get a riding scholarship? And does it have something to do with the equitation? I’ve heard people saying stuff like they’re going to do at least one year in the eq, go to all the finals, etc for that. Do you have to ribbon… or just attend? And on that note is there a scholarship for jumpers or hunters then too? Like if you do really well in the junior jumpers or hunters? Sort of a weird question and I’m not quite sure how to ask it so I’m trying my best lol. Thank you!!!
I don’t claim to know everything, but I’ve learned a few things over the last few years. First, NCEA riding teams are comprised of both western riders and hunt seat riders, both judged on their equitation. When you say “equitation,” I’ll assume you are talking about “hunt seat equitation” and that’s what I’m talking about below. I have zero insight into the western side of this.
Very generally speaking, NCEA riding teams recruit kids for riding scholarships from the BigEq divisions. I know very little about riding scholarship opportunities at IHSA schools, though I suspect some schools offer serious scholarships. Scouting starts much, much earlier than many would think – most kids are getting formally recruited during the fall of their junior year of high school (11th grade) with the schools expecting them to commit the following spring. (This may be changing as I think new NCAA recruiting rules are permitting earlier contact with potential recruits.) Most (but not all) recruiting for scholarships is already done before the riders’ last finals season. So that means riders need to start getting recognized as freshmen and sophomores in high school. Qualifying for finals in their last year as a junior competitor is probably not sufficient. In fact, I was told by one of the trainers in our area with close ties to one of the top NCEA schools that starting to show regularly in the BigEq divisions as a high school sophomore was too late, that riders really needed to become serious in the BigEq as freshmen.
Quite a few of the NCEA schools have alumni that are trainers in different parts of the country that act as informal “scouts” for given school(s). As far as I can tell, these scouts provide their school(s) with the names of the successful kids in their area. The scouts may also report on things like sportsmanship and horsemanship in addition to pure riding ability. The top BigEq barns/trainers have multiple connections to the NCEA schools and seem to be able to place their kids on teams even if they don’t necessarily get scholarships.
There aren’t separate scholarships for hunter or jumper riders, because the NCEA competitions are focused on equitation. With that said, many of the successful NCEA riders seem to be those kids that were also successful as “catch riders” during the junior career. So there are definitely some scholarship opportunities for kids that primarily show in the hunter/jumper rings if they are able to prove themselves on lots of different horses — but these kids need to have a “champion” to get them on the radar screens of the college recruiters. My daughter spent most of her time in the pony hunter/junior hunter rings and the first time a scout approached me was at junior hunter finals, so it is possible to be recruited from those rings.
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Seems like I can’t edit after the new update. I’ll add that several of the NCEA schools have summer riding camps. While not “officially” part of the school’s recruiting program, I know of several kids that seemed to get a “leg up” by attending these riding camps (only my perception). If I were to do it over again, I would have made sure that my daughter attended a couple of the camps during the summer between her freshmen and sophomore years.
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For some reason it won’t let me quote but Bent Hickory- thank you so much!!! That is so helpful. Do you know if it’s usually a full ride or a partial scholarship or what?
Based on what I’ve pieced together, each team gets some number of “full ride” scholarships for a recruiting season, say for example 3. The team can either offer full scholarships to 3 riders; or half scholarships to 6 riders; or quarter scholarships to 12 riders, or some combination. Some schools offer “full rides” to make sure they get one or more of the top 10 BigEq kids. But I think most schools offer partial scholarships across a wider range of riders. But being on a team doesn’t mean the rider is getting a scholarship – some might only get a “book” scholarship, some might not get anything and just happy to be on the team.
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One of the things to keep in mind is that like with most sports, the scholarships aren’t really cost-effective. That is, the expenses to train and compete to a level where you would qualify are on par with the annual tuition cost. Pursue goals in your sport because you love it, and because the investment is worth it for its own sake, not because there will be a return on investment. If you get a scholarship while doing that, of course, great!
NCAA scholarships come with significant restrictions and obligations around your participation in the sport, the ability to work for an outside income, and of course your continuing academic progress. Make sure you’re aware of those issues when deciding between an offer that is an NCAA scholarship versus say a need-based financial aid package or schools with lower tuition.
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Exactly. Because riding and competing at a level that would qualify you for a scholarship is so expensive it’s not really a useful path to pursue for financial reasons.
Team sports are a lot less expensive to play and basketball players in particular are often self taught. So football and basketball ball scholarships can often provide a college education to low income kids who wouldn’t have been able to attend college otherwise.
But if you need access to a $100,000 horse at age 13 to 18 to qualify for an equestrian scholarship, it’s not likely to pay for itself, let alone be a ticket out of poverty.
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Even the kids who play soccer and softball - some of those families spend $20k a year or more getting their kids training and competitive opportunities from age 9 or 10 “so they can get a scholarship.”
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Honestly getting a sports scholarship only makes strategic sense of if (a) the costs of qualifying are low, or something you’d do anyhow and/or (b) playing college sport is a potential route to a career in the big leagues with an outsize salary.
Neither of these appear to be true for equestrian scholarships. There is no straight path from being on a college team to being a “professional rider” and there is moreover no salary associated with being a pro rider, except what you earn from giving lessons, training and selling horses, and perhaps prize money
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For the football and basketball scholarships often the quality of education is compromised by time devoted to competition and a young man can end up neither making the big leagues nor getting an education that leads to a coherent career after graduation.
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@equinekacy - Ignore the wet blankets and their “sage” advice – smh.
No doubt, the sport can be expensive, but I can think of a half a dozen kids with riding scholarships (or that will be getting one) that come from blue-collar families, some of which never even owned a horse, let alone anything purchased for more than $100k. We never owned an equitation horse, and while that probably kept my daughter out the ribbons at eq finals, it didn’t prevent her from getting multiple scholarship offers.
Do you know what the vast majority of college graduates can’t put on their resume? “I played on an NCAA team.” That ALWAYS gets the attention of employers no matter the chosen career…
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There are only something like 23 schools in Division I or II that have an Equestrian program, so the first step remains perusing that list and seeing if any of those schools are interesting choices for OP. Division III does not give athletic scholarships.
There are lots of ways to get money for college, and if you are a lower income student, need-based financial aid may work as well or better for some of those schools. For example, if you’re a California resident attending CSU Fresno, and your family income is less than $100k, you probably already qualify for a Cal Grant that completely covers your tuition.
If your goal is to ride in college, there are more schools with Division III programs or schools with strong IHSA teams that may be just as interesting, as well as colleges that are located near a strong horse community that would give you great riding opportunities as a paid client or working student.
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That is really good to hear that kids can come up the levels without owning a horse! But I expect that the earlier comments about being good early on still apply.
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