The Texas Tech Equestrian Team is hoping to bring home more awards this weekend when they compete in regionals against 7 other schools.
“Being part of the team is really great. It’s been the best three years of college, I think anybody could have. We’re one big family,” says team president, Charlie Snider.
“It’s thinking not just about you, it’s thinking about how you can help everyone else, that’s what I like about this. I love the team aspect of it, because it brings everyone together and everyone’s cheering everyone on. We all want to do good, and we want our teammates to do good,” says member, Hannah Johnson.
It’s their team spirit that have made them successful so far this season.
“Right now, we’re 15 points ahead of second place, which is West Texas A&M, I believe, so this weekend we’re hoping to continue our winning and pull out and be region champs. It would be the first in Tech history if we pull it off,” says Snider.
The last two shows of the regular season take place before Sunday, which is Regionals. There’s a team competition, but also an individual aspect to it, as well. If the members qualify and get the proper amount of points, then they get to participate. 3 members have already qualified for regionals and 8 more are close going into the weekend.
“Basically I’ve been telling everybody to go in and own their round. We want to walk in and drop the mic. We want to make sure that the judge has absolutely no reason not to place us number one, and since we have home field advantage, I think it will be a really great opportunity for all of our riders to do really well in the ring,” says Coach, Lindsey Jones. “As a team, our goal is to make it to Nationals.”
The riders compete in different categories involving fence jumps and ground work. The goal is to show riding consistency.
“By this time in the season, you can really tell who wants it and who doesn’t. I can tell you every single rider for Texas Tech wants it,” Jones adds.
The event is free and the team encourages the Lubbock community to come cheer them on.
