At the beginning of each semester, fliers and spam cover Community, the sports center and dorms asking Wellesley students to come to information sessions about rugby, crew, Frisbee, diving, fencing and more, but the Wellesley Equestrian Team (WET) tends to remain a bit under the radar. Unlike most other Blue teams, the WET's shows that are at "home" are held in a stable off campus. WET members range from those who have been riding since they could balance on a horse to those who learned horseback riding as Wellesley first-years. The equestrian team has shows in both the spring and fall semesters and ride under all weather conditions.
On March 14, the team competed in a show hosted by University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth and Wheaton College. While the WET is a club sport, the majority of the competitors that the team faced at the show were from varsity collegiate teams. Facing a tough field of competition, WET earned a second-place finish, their best placing in three years.
Earlier, on March 6, WET hosted their only home show of the year and came in eighth out of 12 schools. Like swimming and diving or track, riding is a team sport made up of individual competitions. The riders who come in first through sixth in their division are awarded ribbons and corresponding points. Each first-place ribbon awarded is worth seven points. Second place gives the rider five points, and so on until the person in sixth is awarded one point. Though riders from the same school can compete in the same division, one representative is picked from each school before each show, and her score will count towards the school's overall score.
"Riders collect points individually to determine when they will be able to rise to the next division. Typically, it takes 35 points. Points are cumulative from year-to-year for most divisions," said Brianna Fitch '12, WET secretary.
Because the points from only one rider in each division count toward the team's total, one might think that breeds competition and pettiness within the team. However, Lucy Liu '13 said that, "for me at least, WET isn't cutthroat competition. We want to do well, but we also want to have fun and support each other." Liu showed for the first time on Saturday and won first place in the walk-trot division.
Rachel Insoft '13 agreed with Liu and said, "It's not the same as say, basketball, where you rely on your teammates to help you win. But the support from WET definitely gives me more confidence and I think that helps me do better, even if my teammates aren't physically with me in the show ring as I compete."
Insoft has been riding since she was eight years old and came in first place in her division.
Alex Curatolo '12 mentioned that the team spirit is something unique to WET and said, "To me [riding on a team] is really neat because it lets you do a sport which is traditionally individualistic but still get a team experience, which is something which is, generally speaking, missing from riding." Curatolo also said that with two first-years placing first in their divisions, the team is definitely improving overall and is looking forward to the rest of their season.
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