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Eastwood and Genoa may be headed for a showdown on the football field during the final week of the season, but that is not the only sport.
The two schools also have equestrian teams, and the Ohio Interscholastic Horsemanship Association state equestrian meet is October 16 at WB Ranch, an indoor facility in Swanton. Only Eastwood and Genoa don’t exactly compete against each other because they are in different divisions and the schools don’t necessarily sanction the teams, either.
“Eastwood doesn’t recognize it, but they are always excited to hear about it. They like the information,” Eastwood equestrian coach Nancy Swigart said.
Eastwood is Division I and Genoa D-II. Eastwood has 14 riders, including 11 who attend Eastwood, two are from Rossford and one is from Gibsonburg. The Eastwood team wasn’t always D-I.
“To be honest, it was never real competitive before because we had five riders and we were Division II,” Swigart said. “We were up against four other schools, so if you don’t have the maximum kids, like nine, you can’t fill all the slots so it’s almost impossible.
“Now, I have to ask kids to give up some classes and I never had to do that. I’m thinking, now you can play the game and put them in your best classes and pick your best riders. Even though I don’t know a few of the kids yet, we just seem to have a great time. They’ve been getting points and they’ve been doing an excellent job. It’s all about the fun,” Swigart continued.
Swigart expects her team to place high at the state meet.
“Our team is probably doing better than they’ve done in four or five years. We’re probably running about third now in Division I with our placing,” Swigart said.
Genoa is celebrating its fifth year of having a team, which consists of Genoa seniors Emily George and Chelsea McCormick, Woodmore junior Hannah Wagner, and Genoa sophomore Alex Whitney.
“Our team is involved in a variety of activities, soccer, marching band, FFA, along with the horses so I’m very pleased with the dedication shown by the team. It’s (meet days) about a 12-hour day for these kids,” Coach Deb George said.
“Our team is made up of more entries in the contesting events than the pleasure events. Class sizes are much bigger, therefore it’s more challenging to place and score points. We are having a lot of fun.”
An OIHA meet competition consist of these classes — western showmanship, hunt seat showmanship, saddle seat showmanship, saddle seat equitation, saddle seat bareback equitation, saddle seat pattern class, hunt seat equitation, hunt seat bareback equitation, equitation over fences, western horsemanship, western bareback horsemanship, reining/western riding, trail riding (any seat), barrels, contesting pattern class, two-person relay race, and poles competition.
Each class is judged from first to eighth place with the rider receiving points based on his or her (yes, it’s coed) placing in the class.
“The highlight for me as the coach has been in the relay race,” George said. “The first week Alex signed up not really understanding what the event was since it’s his first year. It is a timed event where two riders run a relay similar to track. They have to hand off a ‘baton’ within a given area.
“He ended up using his pleasure horse for the class and he and Chelsea McCormick placed in the class. Last week, Emily and Hannah decided they wanted to make a team so all of the Genoa riders could participate in the same class. Emily used her pleasure horse and their team placed, also. Pleasure horses are traditionally slower and usually don’t do well in timed events. Although, I should admit that both horses were bred as reining horses which usually have some speed to them,” George continued.
Equestrian competition like this has been going on in Michigan for some time, and there it is highly regarded.
“The neat part of it is it’s just high school kids and it is different than 4-H because we follow team rules and it is teams. It is some of the top riders in Northwest Ohio who are riding,” Swigart said. “Michigan has been doing this for over 20 years and they have over 2,500 riders, so our goal is to expand out into Ohio and get more districts. That’s the plan.
“The kids who ride horses — this is what they do. They don’t play volleyball, they don’t play basketball, they ride horses and that is their life. That’s what started this was giving them something to compete for, not just in the summer, but they needed something they can show for when the fall comes,” Swigart continued.
“There is always a need for another coach. The coaching thing is no big deal, but you get another team that is ready to form, if they don’t have a coach, it seems they are always kind of dead in the water.”
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