The final farewell will be tough — and bittersweet.
But it will be the music that seven Fresno State senior equestrian riders will be closer to facing today at the Student Horse Center in their home finale — a double-header against New Mexico State (9 a.m.) and South Dakota State in which the seniors will be honored beforehand.
Possibly the toughest goodbye the seven seniors will be forced to say is not to the teammates they’ve shared wins and losses with, but rather the horses they’ve won and lost by.
“I think one of the saddest parts is that we’ve been taking care of these horses for four years,” said Lauren Carr, an English rider.
“We have to say goodbye to not only our teammates that we’ve bonded with, but also all the horses we’ve taken care of and grown to love over the years. I think that’s really sad because that’s our last time to show them and compete with them.”
Carr, Sydney Coletti, Lisa Beach, Christa Beezley, Kimberly HewsonBudnik, Lanie Madrazo and Marisa Mohn will each compete at home for the last time today.
And, after four years, the common belief goes something like this: every rider has a favorite horse.
For Carr, it’s Olivia, whom she bonded with her freshman and sophomore years when she rode her in almost every home competition — quite the contrast from this season, in which the two have yet to team up.
And when she didn’t get to ride Olivia in home competitions (riders randomly draw which horses they will compete on beforehand), she felt it “was kind of different because then I’d hear it and be like, ‘Really? I didn’t get Olivia?’”
“It would kind of throw my game plan off because I was just used to riding her,” Carr said.
For Coletti, it’s Kenny the English horse — an unlikely pairing given that she cannot compete with him during Western competition.
“He’s an English horse, but I’m a Western rider, so it’s kind of weird because usually you like a horse in your discipline, but I like this English horse Kenny,” Coletti said, who was an honorable mention for NCEA Academic All-American honors last season. “He’s the biggest one here.”
As for Beach, her favorite horse is Ditto, whom she rode in her first practice at Fresno State thinking to her herself, “What am I getting myself into. This horse is crazy.”
But the favoritism — the symbiotic relationship between horse and rider — is a side effect, a mere inevitability of spending four years with a horse — in practice, during competitions, behind the scenes — to the point where “they become your life,” Beach said.
Each rider is assigned a horse to look after. Some of the duties include cleaning their stalls and grooming them daily, making sure they are medically sound, body clipping them during the winter and giving them their supplements.
“Riding horses is more than just a sport — it’s a lifestyle because they can’t take care of themselves,” said Beach, who scored a career-high 78 in Equitation Over Fences on Ditto.
“They’re athletes just as much as we’re athletes. Our job is to just make they’re living as happy and healthy as we are. We can’t compete without them.”
It’s been a tough season for the Bulldogs, who are 0-8 in dual competitions this season.
“As a senior, it’s been rough having this record just because being here all fours we’ve had an extremely strong team. It’s been kind of hard to swallow,” Beach said.
Parting ways with their horse companions will be a challenge of its own for this season’s seven seniors, who will compete in two more competitions on the road this season.
“I think its bittersweet,” Carr said. “It’s the end of one chapter and we’re moving on to another chapter in our lives.
“But at the same time, we’re not only saying goodbye to all of our teammates and our coaches, but all of the horses we treat as our own.”