Equestrian Opens Season at Army

Oct. 9, 2009

WEST POINT, NY - The Sacred Heart women's equestrian team opened its 2009-10 season at Army, riding against several different schools. It was also the first collegiate experience for a few Pioneer riders including Grace Smith and Molly-Kate Carven. The two come from very different riding backgrounds. Carven has always ridden saddleseat while Smith has always ridden English, but both considered their first experience with the Pioneers a success.

"It was nice not having too much pressure on me as I headed into the ring for my first class," said Smith. "It was a learning experience because I had to get on different horses without warming up."

"Showing Western was completely different from showing English because of the differences in tack and there aren't any jumps," she continued. "Not having to jump took away a lot of my nerves."

The two came out of the show with ribbons in every class.

Results:

Casey Marino: Intermediate Western Horsemanship II, 1st place; Open Western Horsemanship, 2nd place, 4th place; Open Reining 3rd place, 2nd place.

Brian Buchanan: Advanced Western Horsemanship 4th place, 3rd place, 2nd place.

Colleen Booth: Novice Western Horsemanship, 1st place, 3rd place, 3rd place.

Grace Smith: Novice Western Horsemanship, 4th place, 3rd place, 2nd place/

Janel Beauregard: Intermediate Western Horsemanship II, 4th place, 6th place, 2nd place.

Alyssa Woronik: Intermediate Western Horsemanship II, 1st place, 2nd place, 1st place.

Molly-Kate Carven: Intermediate Western Horsemanship II, 3rd place, 5th place, 4th place.