The United States International Student Riding Association (ISRA) has made the final selection of university riders to compete at the International University Sports Federation (FISU) World University Equestrian Championships (WUEC). The United States representatives will be John Pigott, Megan Godek, Jordan Seigel, and alternate Charlene Noll. The team chef d’equips are Kama Godek and Amy Lowrey.
This year’s WUEC team is especially interesting because all of the riders on the US team will have already graduated from their undergraduate degree program and three of the riders are currently attending higher level master or medical degrees. 2004 Cashion Cup winner Jordan Seigel, BA in Theatre, will be graduating in May from Savannah College of Art and Design. Both Megan Godek, Masters of Education, Marymount University, and Charlene Noll, Masters of Engineering, Stanford University, will be completing their studies this spring as well; while John Pigott (9th individual overall, 2004 WUEC in Japan) is attending his first year in Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University.
The US WUEC team will be travelling to the Netherlands where they will attend a one week ‘training camp’ organized by co-chef’s Godek and Lowrey. Here they will focus riding several styles of borrowed horses, as well as on the team’s first round dressage test (which is similar to a quadrille, although each rider is judged separately).
Competitions are designed in a tournament style in which each round is increasing in level of difficulty. Each competitor rides against two other competitors from two separate countries in each round and the rider which scores the highest in that round moves up to the next round. The organizers of the competition provide the horses for each portion of the competition and each rider draws at random from a hat to find out which horse they will ride. For the dressage portion of the competition, a five-minute warm-up is allotted for the riders to familiarize themselves with the horses. Similarly, a two-minute warm-up with maximum two practice jumps is allowed for the show jumping portion of the competition.
The two finalists in the show jumping phase of the competition are expected to ride a jump-off of a height between 130cm and 150cm on a horse with which they have only ever jumped two warm-up jumps. The two finalists in the dressage phase of the competition perform two tests, including an Intermediare level test and a musical freestyle.
In 2004, FISU organised 25 World University Championships that attracted 4,845 participants from a total of 186 (of which 90 different) countries. For 2006, FISU has already attributed 28 WUCs (including sports such as track and field, swimming, and soccer).
The International Student Riding Association (ISRA) is a US based non-profit organization dedicated to helping students at US universities to compete internationally at student sponsored equestrian competitions. This special kind of competition is open to qualified university students from around the world and requires versatility in competition in dressage and show jumping that is not typically seen in American collegiate riding competitions. For more information on these competitions, please consult the ISRA website at www.USAstudentriding.com and the FISU website at www.FISU.net.
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