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Heather Billings / The Collegian

The stereotype attributed to horseback riders is the John Wayne “howdy y’all don’t be a stranger nowâ€Â Western flick persona, but the Fresno State equestrian team are more professional then many outsiders assume.

The sport is extremely challenging and requires a lot of commitment, coach Becky Malmo said.

The team has practice for the 70 girls on the team almost every day throughout the day.

“We’ve actually had many girls join and then quit because they weren’t committed enough to put in the practice time and clean the stables,â€Â Malmo said. “Our varsity players come practice at the Student Horse Center a minimum of four times a week with me and the assistant coaches and many of them take lessons or have personal trainers as well, so it is time consuming and you have to be extremely dedicated.â€Â

The team competes in four different events that include two Western events, reining and horsemanship, and two English events, equitation over fences and equitation on the flat. The Western style of riding is derived from American trail riding and English riding is from the fox hunting games in England.

“In reining each rider maneuvers in a set pattern that includes spins, sliding stops, rollbacks and circles and are judged in the accuracy of the maneuvers as well as their speed and other variables,â€Â Malmo said. “Horsemanship also involves a predetermined pattern, but only has eight maneuvers and is judged mainly on how smoothly they’re performed.â€Â

Scoring is out of 70 points and each maneuver receives somewhere between -1.5 to +1.5 points.

The two English events are equitation over fences and equitation on the flat. In equitation over fences there is a course set up with eight to 10 jumps and riders are judged on their accuracy of predicting the distance and making the jumping with ease.

In equitation over the flat nine maneuvers are performed in a rectangular space and riders are judged on effectiveness. The scores for these two events are out of 100, with each maneuver worth 10 points and an extra 10 points for overall performance, Malmo said.

Riders need to practice various techniques and skills to not only accomplish different maneuvers, but make them look flawless. On top of this, all riders go into competitions not knowing what horse they are going to ride.

Each rider gets four minutes to practice with the horse before competing.

“The advantage of being on the home front is that I know all the horses here and I can direct my equestrians on how they should approach that horse,â€Â Malmo said. “Horses are like people and have different personalities and good days and bad days, and even when competing here it’s possible that a horse we have that typically is well-tempered will have a bad day and be disagreeable.â€Â