New Paltz Equestrian Will Ride As a NCEA Team In 2019
When a dominant college athletics program comes to mind, your mind likely doesn’t jump straight to equestrian. When SUNY New Platz, one of the more successful D-III schools in the Northeast in a variety of different disciplines, comes to mind, few will default directly to show horses prancing around and jumping over barriers as their most dominant sport.
However, the New Platz Hawks have been the proud owners of one of the most dominant club equestrian teams in their division. Starting in 2019, New Paltz will become the 25th NCAA school to join the National Collegiate Equestrian Association, or NCEA. This will make equestrian an official varsity sport. They will be the third Division III school to be a part of the NCEA, joining Sweet Briar College and the University of Lynchburg in Virginia.
Athletic director Stuart Robinson was thrilled that the club, which had largely been organized and run by passionate riders, will finally get the official recognition it deserves. “More than anything, I’m happy for the riders,” Robinson said. “This club was built and sustained on their commitment for this opportunity.”
New Paltz has had success in this arena before. Their club men’s volleyball team made the jump to D-III and won the 2016 national championship. The New Paltz men’s lacrosse team went though that same process and is now one of the most popular teams on campus.
Equestrian is judged in one of four disciplines: Hunt seat equitation on the flat or over fences, Western horsemanship, and Western reining. Each team of five riders gets assigned a random horse, with whom they can warm up with for four minutes. The judges will decide who wins based on precision, smoothness, and position of the rider. Which ever team had the most of the five riders win ends up with the victory. The team most recently won the flat and reigning titles in their zone, which will send several riders to the regional championships.
Robinson is worried about that initial learning curve, especially when they face what are almost universally considered the best programs in the country in Division I schools Auburn, Georgia, and SMU. However, he believes that the team will soon compete with the best, saying “the great equalizer is the horse, and the horse doesn’t know what D-I or D-III is.” He also cited volleyball as an example of a team quickly overcoming a learning curve.
If Robinson has one reservation, it isn’t related to performance. Equestrian is one of the most expensive sports in college athletics, given the price it takes to maintain the health of the horses. Ultimately, Robinson believed the potential benefit a recognized program could do would outweigh any potential financial worries.
Ultimately, Robinson wants New Platz’s jump to the NCEA to be viewed as pioneering on several different fronts. “Hopefully other D-II to D-III schools can see what little old New Paltz did and realize that they can have an equestrian team make the jumped they want to pursue it,” Robinson said.
Perhaps even more important to Robinson is the example that the club can set for women both at New Paltz and across the college landscape. “We’re extremely proud of our captains and we’re excited to see the impact they can have for women on this stage,” Robinson said.
The best days of New Platz equestrian lie ahead, as the program is destined to continue its’ meteoric rise to the top.
