Authored By: Virginia Horse Trials – Edited Press Release
Texas A&M had school pride to spare, and won the coveted Spirit Award, presented by Virginia Horse Trials. Leslie Threlkeld Photo.
Lexington, VA — From the start of the 2017 United States Eventing Association (USEA) Intercollegiate Eventing Championship at the Virginia Horse Trials (VHT), the Texas A&M Eventing Team brought 110% to the experience. While the Texas A&M Maroon team ultimately earned fifth place overall out of 21 total teams, the group of eight ‘Aggies’ were awarded the coveted Spirit Award, presented by VHT.
The Spirit Award is given to the team that not only shows the most school pride, but also displays camaraderie and teamwork throughout the competition. Texas A&M students were hard to miss with matching overalls and brightly painted horses. They could also be heard chanting and singing fight songs during morning ‘yell practice.’ In addition, they helped out each other as well as the event, volunteering in their spare time. The Texas A&M students were exemplary examples of the meaning behind the Spirit Award.
“We are going hard for the Spirit Award!” said Kate Boggan, the Texas A&M Eventing Team President, prior to the announcement that they had won the award. “A&M has a reputation to uphold. We’re known for being a very traditional, very spirited school. We’re going all out for that. We weren’t quite sure how we would fare riding against all these East Coast teams, but we were going for the Spirit Award.”
The Texas A&M Eventing Team became an officially recognized student organization in January 2016 and has since grown to 32 enthusiastic members. “We really tried to make this a club that supports a team. We wanted it to be a social opportunity that supports a team because eventing is not that big in Texas,” Boggan said.
“It’s been a great way not just to bring all the eventers at our school together but also create new eventers. We have a girl here this weekend who has been a hunter/jumper all her life. She had never done an event until she joined the team and now she’s here at Championships.”
Boggan attended the 2016 Intercollegiate Championship as a summer intern with the USEA and left determined that her school would compete the following year. After a full year of fundraising, they packed up eight horses and all their gear and drove two full days from College Station, Texas to Lexington, Va.
“A&M comes with a reputation of being very horsey, and if we’re representing A&M, we’ve got to go to Championships,” Boggan said. “I fell in love with the event last year. I thought it was the coolest thing seeing all these colleges come together and represent their school. When I saw this I said there was no way we were not coming the next year.”
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via source United States Eventing Association | Farmers Fight! Texas A&M Wins Coveted Spirit Award at 2017 USEA Intercollegiate Championship
For more information regarding news from the Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M University, please contact Maggie Tucker at maggie.tucker@tamu.edu or (979) 845-1542.