I’m curious as to why Virginia, with it’s rich history in equestrian sport, does not offer an NCEA program at any of the State universities. With the quality of horses and riders hailing from Virginia I would think Virginia or VT would put together a very highly competitive equestrian team and attract some of the Nation’s top riders if scholarships were offered. Is this an Atlantic Coast Conference shortcoming or a just a lack of interest from the schools? How would one go about encouraging these schools to participate in more than just IHSA?
Someone with better info with likely chime in but at a lot of schools, there are a lot of hoops to jump through to be ncea. Title 9 regulations balance the proportion of male and female sports and an ncea team would have to be accounted for. As well there has to be the money to offer those scholarships. And the benefit to the university to offer it. There is also the added hoop that head coaches have to have a master’s I believe although it may just be a bachelor’s. It can be a long complicated process that costs the university money without a lot of reward.
Add to that, ncea is in a tenuous position for their ncaa status I believe.
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I remember there being some weird requirement/restriction on how much saddle time one could amass, as in, not much.
You couldn’t walk-trot a school horse for half an hour that was coming back after an injury, it counted as a lesson. Or something weird like that, but that was in the beginning and things may have changed.
I think in the beginning there were lots of rules made by folks that didn’t understand how lesson barns functioned and a lot of schools just didn’t want to deal with it.
Virginia is firmly IHSA country. We do not readily embrace change.
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Not a state university, but Sweet Briar joined the NCEA this year:
http://sbc.edu/news/sweet-briar-beco…n-association/
Regarding @kmwines and @ohnoO 's statements about the complications:
I also am not an expert on NCEA regulations, however, SBC is a women’s college, so I’m not sure male/female ratio is necessarily a stumbling block. Title IX just says you can’t discriminate and must provide equivalent level of services to males and females. None of the coaches at SBC have masters degrees as far as I know.
I vaguely remember from my own college years back in the infancy of the NCEA that the nature of the equestrian world can sometimes conflict with NCAA policies. Because inevitably, riders usually receive money for something horse-related, or train/compete outside of NCAA competition. But I’m sure someone more well-versed in NCEA can speak to how to handle those situations.
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Change is not a bad thing! Options are great and a good thing for those seeking other situations with unique opportunities. My daughter rode in the NCAA format years ago and there are many positives to this format, as there is in IHSA. One is not better than the other…just different. It would be great to have more schools join and there is certainly some interest as I understand. As mentioned earlier, some of the VA schools would be great to consider this option, being prime horse country. Some of the top young riders (just look at some of the rosters at universities such as Texas A&M, UGA, Auburn, Univ. of South Carolina, etc.) are choosing universities offering the NCEA format and obviously have worked out time in the saddle, and monies earned. Academics of course are priority. Yes there are rules, however, many are opting and work it out… fairly easily. This opportunity only comes once and the horse world will always be there! Some students even continue to ride/compete when they are on break or home. There are many websites (such as NCEA or specific NCEA universities) and videos that speak to this topic. There are even camps held by participating universities that enable young students to experience and learn what it entails to ride and perhaps be recruited by a specific university. Perhaps it is worth investigating whether an interested university and/or an interested young equestrian!
One of the main differences between IHSA and NCEA is the number of riders who can compete for the team at each show. With the NCEA format, there are only 4 riders on the flat and 4 riders over fences. They all have to be competitive at the open level (3’6"). In IHSA you have riders of all levels and many shows have a large number of rides per team. For schools that do not attract (or want) all open level riders, IHSA is the more logical choice. Many of the schools that currently offer an NCEA team also have an IHSA team for the larger group of riders who compete at the various levels offered by IHSA.
The school also has to be able to host shows - and for NCEA shows that means having the horses that can be competitive at that level with a variety of riders. A lot of schools just don’t have the horses to support that, however, they have great school horses who can compete in IHSA with simple changes. And if your school is already in compliance with Title IX, NCEA equestrian is a large financial investment that many schools just don’t want to make. Their equestrian program may be under club sports and they’re happy to leave it there rather than fund another varsity sport.
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