Auburn Equestrian Begins Season with an 11-8 Win At Georgia

Solid performances in all four events carry the Tigers to victory in a tough, opening road meet.

Auburn Elvis | Oct 7, 2022

Auburn Equestrian Begins Season with an 11-8 Win At Georgia /

You might be one of those folks who prefer to ease into really cold water, spreading out the icy shock over a good long time, until you’re finally used to the refreshing chill. But if you’re anything like Auburn Equestrian, you just jump right in and get on with it.

Normally in college equestrian, you’d like to have a meet or two against some non-conference opponents so you could test out some of the new starters in the lineup before the grind of SEC play begins.

This Friday, Auburn charged right into the thick of conference play, with a tough road trip to a strong Georgia team that many figured would get the better of the Tigers.

Many people (including me) figured wrong.

The meet started off with Fences, which has historically been one of Auburn’s best events. Junior Ellie Ferrigno won her point and also took home Most Outstanding Performance honors for her ride. She was joined on the winning side of the scoreboard by sophomores Sophee Steckbeck and Ava Stearns. Their points gave Auburn the 3-2 lead to begin the day.

Next up was Horsemanship, which saw a pair of freshmen join Auburn’s lineup. Newcomer Alexia Tordoff won both her point and the MOP award for the event. Senior Maddie Spak and junior Madison Parduhn also notched wins for the Tigers. So after the 3-2 result in Horsemanship, Auburn entered halftime with the overall, 6-4 lead.

This part of the meet was pretty much what the“many people” mentioned above expected. But Auburn’s real test would come in a second half that featured the two events that gave orange and blue riders lots of trouble last season.

In Equitation On the Flat, Auburn gave as good as they got. Graduate Emma Kurtz and sophomore Mary-Grace Segars each won a point, and Ellie Ferrigno battled Georgia’s top returning Flat rider to a standstill with a no-point tie. The 2-2 points result in the event meant the overall score was 8-6, with Auburn only needing two more points to secure the victory.

So everything would be decided in Reining, an event in which we last saw Auburn swept 5-0 in the first round of the national championship tournament back in April. But this year’s Auburn Reiners were determined to show they’ve improved a bit from last season.

Auburn senior Boo Kammerer took the event’s first point, and her teammate junior Isabella Tesmer took the second. At this point, the Tigers had sealed the victory, but junior Kate Buchanan wasn’t done. Her ride took the final point of the meet and put an exclamation point on the Reining squad’s performance.

After that, a roar went up from the sizable Auburn contingent that nearly drowned out the 11-8 final score announcement.

Maybe they were roaring out of shock; maybe relief. But whichever it was, they jumped right in and got on with it.