The No. 2 Aggies started their season with a loss to No. 3 TCU Friday at the Hildebrand Equine Complex. The teams tied 10-10, with raw scores (1622.75-1630.5) determining the winning team.
The maroon & white started strong in Jumping Seat Flat. They held the lead for most of the meet until TCU caught up in the western events, Horsemanship and Reining. In Fences, fifth-year Haley Redifer had the highest score of 90. Redifer also was named MOP of Fences. In Flat, freshman Devan M. Thomas had the highest score of 90. In Horsemanship, sophomore Hanna Olaussen scored 76, the highest score for the Aggies in that event. Finally, in Reining, graduate student Lisa Bricker scored the highest score of 77.
Head coach Tana McKay said she knew TCU was going to be good competition. She said she is not surprised the teams tied.
“We had a lot of great rides, but we are never really satisfied,” McKay said. “We fight over recruits with TCU, so we know a lot of the athletes. We knew they were going to be good.”
The Aggies dominated the Jumping Seat events 6-4. They did best in Jumping Seat Flat with a score of 4-1. The Aggies fell short in Fences with a score of 2-3.
TCU dominated the western events Horsemanship and Reining with a score of 6-4. The score for I’m Horsemanship was 3-2, and the score for Reining was also 3-2.
McKay said the team rode well and this is a great place to start.
“There were a couple bubbles that led to penalties that we just can’t recover from,” McKay said. “However, there were some great rides too, but they didn’t get rewarded as much as we thought they should have.”
McKay said the riders came out with a lot of fire. However, she said they have a lot of homework to do and things to clean up before they hit the road next week.
“We’re going to look at film and do a lot of film work,” McKay said. “In practice, we’re going to go through those tiny details that we need to work on.”
A&M will take on Fresno State Sept. 30 at 1 p.m. at the Student Horse Center in Fresno, Calif.. For updates, follow the A&M equestrian team @AggieEquestrian on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or visit 12thMan.com for the full schedule.
Megan Wedhorn is a journalism sophomore and contributed this piece from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports, to The Battalion.