Auburn Elvis’ SEC Equestrian Championship Preview

The Curious Fans’ Guide to Auburn’s Attempt at a Fourth-Straight Conference Title

In recent years, it’s become almost a given that Auburn’s top-performing sports program will be its equestrian team.

This Friday and Saturday on the Plains, the Tigers will take to the saddle in pursuit of more hardware, and a record fourth-consecutive SEC title.

Most casual fans probably aren’t sure how equestrian works, what the competitions are like, or even how to follow along.

This guide will tell you all the basics of the sport, the tournament schedule, which riders to keep an eye on, and how to be a part of the action live, or in-person.

So let’s get started.

What are we talking about exactly?

Four SEC equestrian teams will meet in Auburn for a two-day, single-elimination tournament to decide this year’s conference champion. Second-seed Auburn will face third-seed Georgia Friday, March 25, in the day’s second semifinal at 3 PM Central. Top-seed Texas A&M will face fourth-seed South Carolina in the first semifinal at 10 AM CST.

The semifinal losers will face-off in a consolation meet Saturday morning at 9 AM CST, and the semifinal winners will ride for the SEC Championship at 2 PM CST.

Auburn has a Tournament Central page here to keep fans informed of scores, and the various location and scheduling details.

I won’t be in Auburn. How can I follow along?

Auburn’s Tournament Central page will have all the scores, so you can check that from time to time to see how things are going.

All of the meets will be shown on ESPN+. The Tournament Central page has those links.

If you want to feel the drama as the scores are posted throughout the day, follow teams’ Twitter accounts.

Auburn: @AuburnEQ

Georgia: @UGAEquestrian

South Carolina: @GamecockEQ

Texas A&M: @AggieEquestrian

Tweets of the scores can sometimes come through before the online scoresheet updates, and the tweets can also give you a sense of whether something important just happened.

And of course, you should follow me on Twitter @AuburnElvis as I give the independent analysis and predictions that a team’s official account just doesn’t.

How good is Auburn this year?

Auburn has consistently been one of the top-three teams in the nation all season, along with current #1 Oklahoma State and Texas A&M. Auburn's record is 8-3 (4-2 SEC) with its three losses coming on the road to Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, and Georgia.

Since the SEC Tournament is in Auburn this year, the Tigers are probably the favorite to win the conference, even as the second-seeded team.

Who are we up against?

Auburn is the 2-seed and will face 3-seed Georgia. This is a rematch of the Tigers’ final regular-season meet at Georgia, which the Bulldogs won. Auburn underperformed in that meet, and they hope to ride up to their potential at home this time around. If they do, the Tigers should win.

The other side of the bracket has 1-seed Texas A&M going up against 4-seed South Carolina. Most people feel A&M will win that one without much trouble.

The two semifinal losers will face each other in a consolation meet, and the semifinal winners will advance to the championship meet.

Auburn would probably have a tougher time with Texas A&M than South Carolina. The Aggies aren’t quite as talented at the top of their roster as Auburn, but A&M seems to have less dropoff in production at the tail end of their lineup than Auburn does. A&M has upset Auburn in College Station thi season, but just like with Georgia, if Auburn rides well, they should be able to win.

Do we roll Toomer’s Corner if Auburn wins the title?

Definitely. Auburn Equestrian’s last two SEC Championships have come under COVID restrictions that prevented even informal rolling celebrations. If Auburn wins the tournament at home, the team will absolutely want to celebrate with the rest of the Auburn Family.

So, what sort of equestrian are we talking about?

Varsity college equestrian is a competition between two teams, called a “meet.” A meet will have riders competing in either one or two riding disciplines.

One discipline is called the Jumping Seat, and riders in this discipline look like fancy English fox-hunters, wearing blazers, white button-down shirts, and tan riding pants.

This discipline is the more common type of riding around the country, with some schools only competing in jumping seat meets.

The two jumping seat events are:

Equitation Over Fences - also called “fences”

Equitation On the Flat - also called “flat”

The other discipline in these meets is called Western Riding, and its riders all dress like cowgirls, complete with pristine hats, boots, and leather riding chaps.

The two western events are:

Horsemanship - sometimes abbreviated “horse”

Reining - which is pretty much just known as “reining”

Each team will have a lineup of five riders for each event. Sometimes a rider is good enough that she’ll compete in both her discipline’s events. This tends to happen more in the jumping seat events than in western.

How does a meet work?

Before the meet, all the riders are randomly assigned an opponent rider from the other team they will directly compete against. Each pair of competing riders is also randomly assigned a horse the riders in that pair will take turns riding on.

Each event has a predetermined pattern of riding maneuvers that all the riders in the event will be judged by.

When a rider performs her pattern, she is given a judge’s score based on how well she completed the event pattern, and her score will be compared to her opponent’s score. Whichever rider in the pair has the higher judge’s score wins a point for her team. If both riders in the pair have the same judge’s score, neither team wins that point.

This process is done for each pair of riders for each event throughout the meet. At the end of the meet, the team points are totaled and the team with the most points wins the meet. If the team points are the same, a tiebreaker is used where all the individual judge’s scores are combined for each team, and the team with the highest score combination is the meet’s winner.

What are the events like?

As mentioned, there are four events: Fences, Flat, Horsemanship, and Reining.

Each event has a pattern of maneuvers that every rider in the event will perform. The event patterns are typically decided a week or more before the meet, so riders can prepare for them in the regular practice sessions.

I tell newcomers to the sport that you really don’t need to know a good ride from a bad ride. That's what the judges are for. You just need to know that a higher number beats a lower number.

Here are some videos I made demonstrating the patterns in each event:

Fences

Flat

Horsemanship

Reining

Who are the main riders to watch?

Auburn boasts a lineup with a lot of All-American and All-Conference riders. Here are some that have distinguished themselves this season:

Emma Kurtz (Sr), Ava Stearns (Jr), and Ellie Ferrigno (Fr) ride both Fences and Flat, and tend to win at least ⅔ of their rides.

In addition to those, Auburn has event specialists Meghan Knapic (Sr) and Helen Ulrich (5th) who are each standouts in Fences and Flat respectively.

In Horsemanship, the Auburn trio of Taylor Searles (5th), Olivia Tordoff (Jr), and Madison Parduhn (So) are pretty much all terrors for opposing riders.

Along with them is former All-American and graduate Deanna Green (5th) who returns to the lineup after skipping the fall season.

In Reining, Kate Buchanan (So) joins Searles and Green to anchor a strong squad that can earn points against almost anyone.

How are the riders scored?

The event patterns are a set of predefined maneuvers that each rider in the event will attempt to perform.

Judges sit in a special area beside the ring where they can clearly see how the rider (and their horse) are performing.

Each judge is issued a scribe that writes down the judges’ comments about the riders’ maneuvers. This way, judges can watch the riders the whole time, while the scribe jots down all the comments and maneuver scores.

When the ride is complete, the scribe totals up the maneuver scores and any deductions that their judge called out. That total is the judge’s score.

In a normal meet, there’s typically only a single judge for each event, but in championship tournaments, three judges are used. All three judges’ scores are added together to make the rider’s final score.

Why are scores sometimes reviewed and changed?

Since the scribes are writing down the judges’ comments for them, sometimes a maneuver score or a deduction might get misheard by the scribe. There’s a review of all the scoring, so those kinds of errors can be identified and corrected before the end of the meet.

Also, the initial math is done pretty quickly, and sometimes there may be a simple calculation error. These calculations also get reviewed and corrected if needed.

And sometimes there’s a question of whether a rider went off pattern, usually by over-rotating on a spin or forgetting to do a maneuver. A judge can request a review of the video footage of the ride to help determine things like that, and make those scoring changes

If a rider got a score of zero, what happened?

If a rider goes “off pattern” they automatically get a zero. Going off pattern can happen for things like over or under rotating more than 90⁰ on a spin, or accidentally skipping a maneuver, or falling off the horse.

What’s it like to attend a meet?

I tell new fans that equestrian meets are like garden parties. It’s a laid-back atmosphere where you’re free to wander around and chat up other fans while the nation’s best riders perform for your entertainment.

Auburn will have some kids activities like an inflatable bouncy house, pony rides, etc.

There’s a concession stand with some of the usual stadium fare, but outside food and drinks are allowed, so many fans bring their own.

Seating is unassigned bleachers beside each of the three arenas, but many people will bring seat cushions, folding chairs, or just stand and watch.

There’s also a luxury, catered indoor viewing area called the Ladove Lounge. It’s pricey (about $150 a ticket per person), but some readers might be interested in those amenities.

There’s a merchandise trailer with licensed apparel and other keepsake options.

One of Auburn’s rings is covered, so riders and some fans can have protection from rain. Of course, if the weather becomes too unfriendly, the meet will be halted so the horses can be ushered back into the stables.

I’ve heard people mention “NCEA.” Is that different from the NCAA?

Yes, they’re different, but they’re related. After Title IX, the NCAA needed ways to provide more athletic opportunities for women. New NCAA sports require participation from a minimum of fifty schools to become a Championship Sport, so to foster new sport opportunities for women, the NCAA created the Emerging Sport category that allows for a smaller number of participating schools.

These emerging sports must govern themselves until they reach full championship sport status, so the National Collegiate Equestrian Association (NCEA) was created by the member schools to oversee the sport.

I’ve heard Auburn invented college equestrian. What's the story there?

Back in the late 1990s to early 2000s, Auburn Head Coach Greg Williams, along with late former assistant coach Herb Schneider, began forming the idea for an equestrian format that included head-to-head riding.

Before then, college equestrian was more individually-based with all the riders’ scores compared in one giant pool, with points awarded for placement within the pool.

It took several years to get other schools to buy into this new form of competition, but in 2005 it became the official format for the NCEA.

Is college equestrian a coed sport?

No. The NCAA’s Emerging Sport category is only for women’s sports. So all NCEA teams are women-only.

Who provides the horses for a meet?

In a regular season meet, the host team will provide the horses. It can get expensive to cart the horses around the country, so it’s usually only done for the postseason tournaments.

At the SEC Tournament, all four teams are bringing horses for competition, but horses will be grouped so that the riders in a meet are using horses provided by the teams not competing in that meet.

Do the schools own the horses?

Yes. Almost all of the horses in college equestrian are donated to the schools. Many private owners will donate horses nearing the end of their top-flight competition careers, but that are still able to perform in the less-challenging collegiate level.

Are the riders on scholarship?

As a varsity sport, many equestrian riders receive at least partial scholarships to reduce their college tuition.

Does Auburn go to the national championships after this?

Yes. The NCEA national championship tournament is being held at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Florida, April 14-16. The top-eight teams will be selected by the NCEA to compete in a single-elimination tournament that will crown the national champion. Auburn is currently ranked #2 by the NCEA, so regardless of their performance this weekend, the Tigers will be going to Ocala.

Where is all this happening?

At the Auburn Equestrian Center

1235 Wire Road

Auburn Univ, AL 36849

Will you be there?

Of course! I’ll be there making live updates about all the SEC action, as well as following the other equestrian conference tournaments going on around the country.

Stop by and say, “hello.” I love meeting folks in person.

Thankyouverymuch.