Texas A&M equestrian looks to overcome two consecutive losses as they travel to face Oklahoma State at the Totusek Arena this Saturday.
The Aggies are currently 3-5 on the season, while the Cowgirls are 7-3. A&M’s two previous losses were to No. 4 South Carolina and No. 7 SMU.
Coming off the SMU loss and going up against the No. 2 team Oklahoma State will require a lot of hard work from the team, A&M coach Tana McKay said. McKay said the takeaway from the loss was the errors made that can be easily improved during practices.
“That’s easy to clean up,” McKay said. “It’s not so much lack of talent, it’s just a lot of pressure.”
Junior Alex Albright said the team is working together to correct those mistakes before this weekend.
“It’s a mental game,” Albright said. “We learned that each and every ride is important, we just have to ride smart and ride hard.”
McKay said the success of this meet will depend on how well the team mentally prepares to find its comfort zones.
“We’re trying to find a spot where they can zone in on themselves and that horse without worrying about outside elements,” McKay said.
Before the previous competition, the team hadn’t competed against SMU in three years and Oklahoma State has been two years.
“There’s some athletes that like to be comfortable with the facilities and their surroundings,” McKay said. “It’s a different mindset.”
Albright said although it’s been hard traveling many weekends in a row, the travel meets are what count the most.
“Those away meets allow us to have new experiences,” Albright said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for us to be able to travel and have that help right beside us.”
Albright said she doesn’t doubt Oklahoma State is going to put out a good set of rides, but she has confidence in the team’s success this meet.
“They’re very strong riders, but I think if we go out there and put our all into that there is no comparison,” Albright said. “It’s going to be a battle to the end, but I believe we can push ourselves to win this meet.”
Freshman Kaitlyn Lovingfoss said as a team they know they are more than capable of winning their meets. It’s just a matter of remaining positive throughout.
“We need to remember we can do it especially with losing the last couple meets so closely,” Lovingfoss said. “It’s important to make every point count and fight for every single one.”
Lovingfoss said she hopes to put her best foot forward and help the team as much as she can. Lovingfoss said she’s been practicing a lot on nailing the Flat and Fences patterns.
“I want to put in a solid performance and get my points,” Lovingfoss said. “But for the team, it’s about staying positive no matter the outcome. I’m doing flat end fences this week so it’s been a lot of prepping for both.”
Between the traveling of the last couple of meets, it’s been a quick turn around for the team. Lovingfoss said the priority of the team right now is to maintain stress free as much as possible.
“We’re also students so it’s important for us to keep on top of our school work so that on the weekends we can focus on the riding and competition,” Lovingfoss said.