University of Georgia dominates weekend eventing championship at Aiken's Stable View
· Yahoo Sports
May 19—AIKEN — After a weekend of cross country, dressage and show jumping, the University of Georgia's eventing team came out on top at the U.S. Eventing Association's Intercollegiate Eventing Championship.
The championship was held May 15-17 at Stable View Equestrian Center in Aiken.
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Georgia walked away with the champion title with a total score of 75.420 followed by Randolph-Macon College in second place with 77.305 and the University of Kentucky's Wildcats team in third place with 83.085.
Champion team members Olivia Garza, Ella Kay Lane, Devon Tresan and Ansley Carroll spoke about their horses and their time with the Georgia team.
"I have been on the team all four years ... I fell in love with the eventing aspect and the camaraderie," said Garza, who just graduated from the college with her sights set on veterinary school.
"It's really nice to be able to come out and see Stable View, a championship course like this one, and have my horse just kind of have my back and take me through it like a breeze," she said.
Garza's horse, Hillbilly Willie, will follow her to Mississippi State this summer as she continues her education.
Lane, whose horse was Double Dare, spoke about the bond between rider and horse.
"Especially with horses, I think a lot of it is the bond you have together," she said. "You spend so much time with them ... our horses, they try their hearts out for you ... you want to give them the best ride that you can because they give you 110%."
Tresan shared that she has three horses with her at Georgia and takes classes at 8 a.m. so she can go to the barn for the rest of the day, typically spending six hours there.
The horse she rode this weekend, EPA Cullen, is her mother's horse. "He's just been great for her, he's been great for me ... it was a really great weekend for him. I wanted to qualify him for the American Eventing Championships and he came here and did just that.
Tresan said she plans to take EPA Cullen with her to the American Eventing Championships in Lexington, Ky., this August.
Carroll is also a new Georgia graduate and leaves with a civil engineering degree.
"Going into this season, my horse is getting a little bit older, and so we've worked really hard to keep his body happy this spring," she said of her horse, Sweet Georgia Brown.
"Overall the team has really been a sense of home, with the horses and all the friends I've both reconnected with and made new in my four years," she said.
The top eight teams were recognized during an awards ceremony on May 17. These include: Texas A&M's Revin' It team in 4th place, USC Aiken in 5th place, the University of Kentucky's Blue Nation team in 6th place, Virginia Tech in 7th place and Texas A&M's Gig Em' & Go team in 8th.