'Dogs saddled with first loss

Equestrian places third in English class, dominates western class in home opener

By Joshua D. Scroggin

The English riders on Fresno State’s unbeaten equestrian team came into Saturday’s home opener at the Student Horse Center looking invincible—until the competition began.

The Bulldogs went without a first-place finish through the first four events in the English class Saturday and finished in third place behind UC Davis and Cal Poly-SLO.

Elise Kolp registered Fresno State’s first victory in the intermediate flat, and from that point on, the blue ribbons rolled in like the Stones—thanks to the Bulldogs’ novice English riders and the western team, which earned the high-point western title and still remains unbeaten.

Fresno State’s novice riders swept the remainder of the English-class events, but couldn’t erase the deficit the team built in the first half of the class when its big guns were shooting blanks.

Coach Chuck Smallwood blamed some unlucky horse and rider pairings for the poor showing, but said the team was due for an emotional letdown because of its early-season successes.

The Fresno State equestriennes were not only riding their hometown horses in a competition for the first time this season—They were riding a four-event win streak in English events too.

“ They were on a real emotional high of being undefeated,” Smallwood said about the English riders, who picked up high-point team honors in shows at UC Davis and Stanford in October. “There was a little letdown, but coming back with the western win made them very happy.”

The competition started ominously for the Bulldogs as Michelle Tonello, the team’s top hopeful for the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association English national championship, drew a horse that refused to jump in the open fence equitation class.

Tonello was allowed to ride again with another horse, but that one didn’t seem to be in the mood either. She did get the horse to cooperate and finished the course but failed to place. Fresno State’s other rider in the class, Katie Frost, finished fourth.

“ Part of what happened on the re-ride was my fault,” Tonello said after the replacement horse did not jump the first fence on the course.

The Bulldogs’ western riders didn’t have a bad word to say about their horses’ performances.

Fresno State took first place in five of the seven western-class events with a string of victories from Jessica Frazier, Kristen Marchesi, Amy Reed, Tiffany Washington and Taylor Mason—the top hopeful for a national championship on the western side.

The western team won high-point honors in the only previous event it competed in this season, and Smallwood said the western riders were eager to show what they could do.

“ They really wanted to prove themselves,” Smallwood said. “They were on a mission.”

Mission accomplished. The Bulldogs won the western class with a score of 34 points. The next closest teams were Cal Poly SLO with 21 and Stanford with 12.

In his first year as head coach at Fresno State, Smallwood said one of the focuses of the coaching staff this season is to improve the performance of the riders competing in the western class—a portion of the team that has had traditionally lower numbers of participation at Fresno State than the English class.

“ Both assistant coaches have worked diligently to improve that,” Smallwood said.