Hello Everyone!
La Vie Equestrienne recently donated a halter and LVE logo tote to the silent auction held by the UMASS Amherst Equestrian Team at their February horse show in which many other college equestrian teams attended. Below are pictures of the UMASS Equestrian team and a writeup from the team. LVE wants to raise awareness to the recent budget cuts to the equestrian program - please be generous donate to their equestrian team!
Special thanks to Lauren Kolodzinski for coordinating the donation to the auction!
Thank you, Sara Kellner, Owner of La Vie Equestrienne
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"After placing second in their region this year, the UMass Equestrian Team had a successful run at the regional horse show this past weekend with individual riders who qualified. UMass has six riders looking forward to competing at Zones on April 10th, hosted by the No. 1 team, Mt. Holyoke.
The Equestrian team came into the 2010 season behind Mt. Holyoke, competing first at a horse show hosted at the UMass farm in Hadley. UMass finished second that day, only losing by two points. Mt. Holyoke hosted the next show where another second place was earned, followed by the final regular season show hosted in Connecticut where Mt. Holyoke officially qualified to go to Nationals in Kentucky as a team. UMass qualified for Nationals two years ago in 2008, where they traveled to California and placed fourth.
However, UMass still had 17 competitive riders “point out” of their divisions, meaning they received enough points and won enough ribbons in their divisions to meet the requirements for moving onto Regionals as individual riders. For the walk-trot division, Sara Collins, Michelle Dewar and Kimberly Montague moved on, along with Jennifer Sears, Catheline Froehlich, Sarah Dickstein and Erica Seidenberg for the walk-trot-canter division. In the novice division, co-captain Molly Bettencourt, Lauren Kolodzinski (over fences), Catherine Adams and Meghan Laprade represented UMass. Amy Donahue, Lauren Kolodzinski, Kristen McDermott, Elena Serkin and Stephanie Van der Kaiij competed in the intermediate division, while co-captain Kate Lawrence and Amanda D’entremont showed in the open division. UMass had the most riders out of any team qualify for Regionals.
At Regionals, the qualified riders had a strong showing and placed high in all divisions. In order to move on to Zones, the final step before Nationals, a rider must place 1st or 2nd in their division. UMass had six riders do so; Jennifer Sears for walk-trot-canter, Catherine Adams for novice flat, Elena Serkin (fences) Lauren Kolodzinski, and Stefanie Van der Kaiij for intermediate flat, and Amanda D’entremont for open. UMass also had a number of riders extremely close to moving onto zones who placed 3rd in their division, such as Molly Bettencourt, Michelle Dewar, Erica Seidenberg, Amy Donahue and Kate Lawrence.
UMass would like to greatly thank those who donated to the program and the raffles held at horse shows. At the home shows this year, a lot of success has come from silent auctions, raffles and 50/50 raffles, which are vital to keeping the Equestrian team alive. At our last regular season home show held on February 27th, 38 donations were made and, combined with a food booth, UMass was able to raise an impressive $1,400 dollars that will greatly help the riders moving onto Zones and Nationals, as well as the entire program.
At Regionals this weekend, the UMass team also held a 50/50 raffle to raise money to offset the costs of the surgery that will be incurred by the program for one of our school horses Dawson. Dawson is a rescued PMU foal who was donated by her former family to the UMass Equine Program at the Hadley Farm. Now a beloved member of the program at ten years young needs surgery to remove a large tumor in her reproductive tract. The team raised several hundred dollars to contribute, but if anyone is interested in making further contributions you can contact our co-captain Molly Bettencourt at mollybettencourt@gmail.com."
Picture Descriptions:
1. The 2007-2008 Team
2. The 2007-2008 team after they won the region and qualified for Zones and Nationals
3. The team that competed at Nationals in Burbank, CA. Right to Left: Our coach Jerry, Stefanie van der Kaaij (intermediate flat), Elena Serkin (intermediate fences), Kate Lawrence (open flat and fences), Molly Bettencourt (novice flat and fences), Ariel Spuzzillo (walk trot canter), Hannah Deutsch (walk trot), Assistant Coach Tracy, Bob Cacchione
4. Photo taken at College of the Holy Cross show on March 27th, posing with Catheline Froehlich and her blue ribbon. Photo courtosy of Steve Maxwell via campusequestrian.com
5. Jill Bourne posing with Denny one of the UMass school horses before warm-up riding at Regionals on April 3rd
6. Preparations at Regionals
7. Lauren Kolodzinski and Stefanie van der Kaaij, placing first and second in Intermediate flat at Regionals qualifying for Zones on April 10th
8. UMASS Equestrian Team horse "Dawson."
