All fall sports ended before winter vacation except for one: equestrian. Every team played its final game, went on break, and came back in January with a new sport to focus on, but the riders continue to stay focused on their sport until at least March.

The Williston-Fuller IEA team, four riders from Williston and six from Fullers Horse Facility, will be competing in regionals on Saturday March 1st. Even though three of the team’s four members from Williston are participating in other sports this trimester, practice for riding has begun again.

IEA season started in mid-September and Nationals are being held at the Big E on May 16th, 17th, and 18th. Regionals for this area this year are being held at the Stoneleigh Burnham School and the Williston riders will have to move their Saturday exam. The show season does not match up with Williston’s schedule like the other sports do so missing Saturday classes and having to move exams around is not uncommon for the riders.

Williston-Fuller competes in Zone 1, Region 8 and any team that earns at least 20 points is eligible to compete in regionals. Any rider in Region 8 who earns at least 15 points on the flat can compete as an individual. The same applies for jumping. Teams can compete in as many shows as they want with the number of riders they have but each individual rider can only compete in five IEA shows in the regular season.

Even though all four Williston riders have been doing other sports and have stayed in shape, riding works a lot of muscles not used on a daily basis. After riding every day for four months and then not riding for three, getting back into it can take a toll on rider’s leg muscles. About the additional practices, team member Lacey Gillis said, “I feel that it will really help, to perform better in regionals and I like it because it is good preparation and gets me back into shape”

Practices have started to become more complicated entering the show season. Trying to find time to ride while dealing with strange winter practice times can be a challenge. Two out of the four Williston riders are competing only on the flat, so jumping is not something they need to focus on. The other two riders will have a jumping class and they need to focus on jumping more than flat.

Despite the challenges of this long season, the riders are all excited to be moving on to regionals and perhaps zones after that.