What is IHSA?
IHSA is the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association. The mission of the IHSA is to provide equestrian competition for all college and university students regardless of riding level, gender, race, sexual orientation or financial status. The IHSA is dedicated to promoting sportsmanship, horsemanship and academic excellence.
All riders take a placement test to put them in the associating level to their skill set. This allows for riders to compete against riders with the same skill level. You must be a full-time undergraduate student to be on the team.
If you would like more information on IHSA, please use the following link:
IHSA at Iowa State
Tryouts
Our show team roster contains anywhere form 24-30 people with no more than 5 people in each division. Tryouts will take place after our first meeting of the fall semester and before the first show of the season. After tryouts a roster will be posted. This roster will stay the same for the whole show season.
Practice
Those who make the show ream roster will attend practices. We practice at Kozy Korner in Perry, IA. Rachel Lange, the owner of Kozy Korner, will teach weekly group lesson. You will have a set group and lesson time per semester. Carpooling is something we encourage, therefore you do not need your own transportation to attend lessons.
Shows
We are a part of Zone 7 Region 5. Regional shows take place at Missouri State University and Truman State University, and we occasionally host home shows. Semifinals and National Shows change yearly. There are approximately 4-5 regular season shows each school year. We show Saturday through Sunday. We travel on Fridays and do our best to accommodate all team member schedules.
We do not bring horses to shows, we use the horses located at the hosting school. You will be randomly assigned a horse to ride in your respective class. Then, you will show rail work and a specific horsemanship pattern. You will not receive time to practice with your horse before your class. Patterns are scored based on how well you perform each specific maneuver.
Once you have received 36 points in your respective class you will move up and start competing in the next division. You will also qualify for Regionals. At Regionals if you place first or second you will advance to Semi-Finals. At Semi-Finals if you place in the top 4 you will advance to Nationals.
Not only do you compete for individual places, we also compete as a team. At each show the team captain will pick a point rider for each division. The point riders' placings will determine how many points the team receives in each respective level. The points from all divisions will be totaled and the team with the most of amount of points for the show will be the highpoint team.