Basketball, football, soccer; the most common sports played in the United States. Although these sports are very popular here at FHC they may not be the most successful. There are many sports that have done extremely well in past years but are just simply overlooked.  One sport here at FHC that doesn’t get a lot of attention is Equestrian: the sport of horseback riding.

This year the equestrian team had three riders:  freshman Jenna Sitarski, junior Abby Deweerd, and senior Sammi Moore. This is a normal size team for FHC, as the past couple years there have been 3-4 girls who choose to participate. The requirements for the team are you must have a horse or can borrow someones’, and have clothes and equipment in order to ride in the shows.

“It’s not that people don’t want to join,” junior captain Abby Deweerd said. “It’s just a very time consuming sport that you have to be completely dedicated to. Its also hard for people who ride horses to participate because you have to be able to trailer your own horse to practice and comptetions and you have to be very versatile.”

Deweerd has been riding horses since she was 8 years old. She explains that she goes to the barn a couple times a week. This is done all throughout the year, even during the winter.

“I’m usually at the barn 3 to 4 hours of the week,” Freshman rider Jenna Sitarski emphasis. “Not only do you ride but you also have to brush your horse, pick their hooves, put their saddle and bridle on, you also have to warm them up. Its a very time consuming sport.

Sitarski has been riding for about 8 years now and comments that it can be sometime intimidating to get on an animal that has a mind of its own.  

According to Deweerd and Sitarski, many people do not know about the equestrian team or even what it is.

“It’s not a known sport,” Deweerd said. “We do a lot of events so its hard to keep track of all of them if you do not understand the sport.”

Coach Kathy Covert describes it as being very unfortunate that the girls do not get a lot of support from their peers because they work very  hard to perfect a specific skill.

In the past four years, the Equestrian team has won 3 District Championships, 2 Regional Championships, and even received 10th place in the state in 2014. These accomplishments are barely known.

“It’s just disappointing,” Covert said. “They work so hard just like the other sports and barley receive praise or credit.”

Covert explains their practice schedule they practice all through the summer about twice a week for two hours at a time. Most kids have to trailer their horse to practice, adding an hour before practice and an hour home. “This is a very time consuming sport,” she said. “It takes a lot of dedication”

Riding, just like other sports, has scholarships that can be awarded from colleges themselves or outside sources throughout the community. “It’s truly like any other sport,” commented Covert. It’s just not known and is hard to appreciate.

Freshman Jenna Sitarski states that the appreciation factor is not there yet and that people just think that the horse is doing all the work, she stresses that this is not true at all.

While Deweerd believes that more people are starting to understand the sport and that the popularity of riding horses in general has been increasing.