Intercollegiate Horse Show Association
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Intercollegiate Horse Show Association or IHSA is an equestrian organization established in 1967 by Bob Cacchione. It was begun to promote the ability of any college student to participate in horse shows regardless of the rider's beginning skill level or past riding experience. The IHSA has more than 300 member colleges and universities across the USA and 6200+ active competition riders. Both men and women are eligible to compete.
Within the IHSA, riders can compete in English riding("hunt seat"), Western riding("stock seat"), or both. There are 8 different levels within the English division and a total of 9 competition classes including: walk-trot; beginner and advanced walk-trot-canter; novice, intermediate, and open over fences (jumping); and novice, intermediate, and open on the flat. In English shows, the riders may choose to ride in an over fences class, a flat class, or both.
There are 6 levels of competition for Western riders who compete in classes such as walk-trot, horsemanship, and reining (a special class where the rider completes a specific pattern made up of skills such as flying lead changes, rollbacks, and a sliding stop). Like the English division, Western classes range from beginner to open. A Western rider may compete in both a horsemanship class and a reining class if he chooses.
In both the English and Western divisions, the riders are judged on their equitation, meaning that each rider is individually judged on his effectiveness as a rider, his ability to look aesthically pleasing (ie. posture and positioning on the horse), and his ability to make riding a horse seem easy and effortless. In "regular" shows riders can choose to compete in equitation shows, in which the rider is judged rather than the horse.
IHSA shows are unlike "regular" horse shows. A host IHSA team organizes each show and invites the other member colleges in its region to attend and compete. The show usually takes place at the host team's facility, or another nearby. Competitors are not permitted to ride their own horses. The horses used at an IHSA show are horses that are "donated" for the day from other teams, coaches, and area equestrian facilities. Each horse is schooled (warmed-up) before the classes begin by non-competing riders, while competing riders watch to discover particular attributes of each horse. Riders participating in the competition are not allowed to choose the horse they would like to ride. Each rider is assigned a horse, partially through random selection and partially through a matching of the horse's abilities with those needed for horses participating in certain classes. (It would not be appropriate for a horse that does not do over fences to be placed in an over fences class.) The rider mounts the horse he has been assigned just before his class is scheduled to begin. Competing riders are not permitted to warm-up or get used to their assigned horse. One of the goals of the IHSA is to provide all riders with an equal chance of performing well in their class; by not allowing riders to compete on horses that they are comfortable with judges can accurately rate the ability of the rider to effectively control the horse and ride well.
Based on Regional and State competitions each year, the best riders compete at a National IHSA competition. The 2008 IHSA National Competition will be held in Burbank, California at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center May 8-11.
