Like any other University-supported, organized sport, the Equestrian Club is made up of teams, holds practices and meetings and represents N.C. State when competing against other schools in the region.

But there is one distinct different between the Equestrian Club and any other sport.

“With basketball, your basketball doesn’t try to kill you,” club president Rebecca Effron, a senior in animal science, said.

Composed of two teams — hunt seat and dressage — the Equestrian Club has been a part of State since the early 1990s. This year, two members of hunt seat are competing in nationals in Massachusetts during the first weekend of May.

Senior Lauren Hill is riding in the open division, the highest level of competition. Kylie Bell, a junior in business management, is representing State in the advanced walk/trot/canter division.

“I’m really excited I made it to nationals this year,” Hill said. “Even though I’ve been in [the] top of my division every year, it’s the luck of the draw since you draw horse out of the hat. It’s how you handle what they give you. You don’t have time to warm up. It’s a test of skill, and it separates the women from girls.”

Based on a system of accumulation of points, Hill and Bell rose through regional competition and Zones to make it to nationals. In both hunt seat and dressage, riders collect points from judges, and those with the most points advance to the next level of competition. According to Hill, only the top three riders from regionals can go on to compete in Zones, and only the top two in each class go on to nationals.

“We’re encouraged to take as many lessons as we can in the upcoming weeks until nationals and ride on our own — as much riding and mental preparation as possible,” Bell said. “I’m just telling myself, ‘Relax, relax, relax and do your best.'”

The club competes against other schools that, Effron said, have riders who major in horseback riding at a school geared toward horseback riding.

Effron rides hunt seat and said the team has eight to nine shows a year leading up to regionals. According to dressage Vice President Nikki Schweizer, a junior in animal science, the dressage team competes in nine shows a year, divided into approximately four shows in the fall and five shows in the spring. Hunt seat has six different divisions and dressage has four, ranging from beginners to advanced.

During competitions, riders of both hunt seat and dressage pull a random horse to ride.

Dressage competitors ride pre-choreographed patterns, senior Bette Sumrell said.

“You’re judged on how accurate you are, how well you perform each movement, how well your horse responds to you and if your horse is pushing off the ground and moving forward,” Sumrell said.

While dressage riders perform choreography, hunt seat riders are required to be able to handle their horses on two different courses.

“They have a flat section with an announcer, and they’ll tell you what to do,” Effron said. “You’re judged on how well you do what they tell you to do in a group of six to 12 people on a horse that you’ve pulled out of a hat, and you have five minutes to get on and get in the ring.

“For the jumping section they have a set course that you have to jump in a specific order, and you’re judged on how well you execute the jumps, the number of styles in between them and how good your position and equitation is. You don’t get to warm up at all.”

Competing in dressage is based only on luck and the horse with which a rider is placed, Schweizer said.

“Some horses are better than others so they’ll compete better than others,” she said. “In dressage, there are easy horses and hard horses. You can get an easy horse one day, and a not-so-good rider can do really well. A really good rider on a not-so-good horse might not place that well that day. It’s just luck of the draw. And all schools in the region understand that. Some days you get it, and some days you don’t.”

Because the rider can only do so much based on the horse, competitions can get interesting. Club members pointed out that a horse set in its ways or a skittish horse can pose problems for the rider, regardless of how skilled she is.

One year, Effron’s ability to stay calm while handling a wild horse got her more points in the end.

“They asked us to canter in the first direction, and my horse literally jumped up in the air,” Effron said. “I’m like, ‘Oh god, this could be bad.’ When they had us change directions, he goes straight up, jumps up and down and goes sideways.

“We’re not allowed to get off — we disqualify ourselves if we just get off without somebody telling us to. They said, ‘You can get off.’ So I just walked out of the ring, and somebody had to take my horse. They were trying to get re-rides for everybody because when my horse went crazy, all the other horses went crazy.

“But I ended up winning the class, I guess because I handled that well. So it looked like I was sort of under control and not panicking.”

Effron said she likes being part of a club sport because riders can take competitions as seriously or as lightly as they want.

“When you’re in the ring, the number on your back represents your team and your school,” Bell said. “The girls on the team are always a bunch of fun. Whether you win or lose, there are always a bunch of smiles waiting for you.”

Because the teams travel to competitions, Sumrell said road trips are a fun part of the competitions.

“So many things happen along the way,” she said. “You stop at every bathroom on the way because somebody has to go pee.”

The dressage team, Schweizer said, is set at a maximum of 12 people, so the team becomes close-knit because of its size. The number of hunt seat riders who travel to competitions depends on how many slots are open.

Though members may not always compete due to the nature of competitions, anyone can take lessons, a form of redshirting, Schweizer said. Club members pay $40 per lesson.

“Intercollegiate teams are really formed to give people who don’t own their own horse a chance to ride” Schweizer said. “Every school has to have the horses to host the shows, so it gives people who normally wouldn’t be able to ride a chance to ride.”

Because of the teams’ success, Schweizer said she can see the club steadily becoming more competitive.

Some members of the club agreed they would like to see more support from the University, starting with a place to “house” it.

“Virginia Tech, as an example has this lovely arena and its own horses, and it’s so much easier as far as organization. We have such a big agricultural background. We have cow judging and poultry judging, and it would be great to see the University support us as a team, to have the land, to have the barn,” Effron said. “A lot of people don’t even know that there’s a riding team here. I would love to be more a part of the University, to have a home.”