Members of the Maryland Equestrian Club care for and train six horses at the campus farm.
After weeks of patience and repetitive practice at the campus farm, Amber Wendland stepped back to enjoy the milestone she’d been waiting for — Taxi had cleared his first jump.
“He has come so far from when we first got him and it is a good feeling to know you had something to do with that,” Wendland, an architecture and planning graduate student, wrote in an email about her experience training the palomino, one of six horses owned by the university and cared for by the Maryland Equestrian Club.
Club members carry the responsibility of overseeing the well-being and training of the horses, which live at the campus farm and are leased by the club. Training six horses with diverse personalities and ability levels can be challenging, members said, but they take pride in the work, from tending to the herd around the clock to instilling on-ground and mounted training. The club has brought together about 80 students every year since adding new horses and advisors in 2001. The club hopes to continue growing and enhancing its training program for these six “sweethearts,” as they’re referred to by sophomore animal science major Isabella Newton, the herd health director.
“It’s sometimes hard to get the horses desensitized, but he doesn’t care if there’s a jackhammer going off next to his stall,” Newton said of Chico, the 18-year-old dominant leader and longest resident of the farm.
Ivan, on the other hand, is an ex-police horse, but club members said people are often confused how he ever served in the line of duty, as he’s skittish around unfamiliar objects and sometimes even familiar ones, such as hoses. Members trained the formerly overweight horse, who has lost more than 220 pounds and continues to build his muscles, Newton said.
Another police force veteran, Taxi, gained a reputation of being a “dumb blonde” shortly after his arrival in summer 2010, she said. After intensive training, he is now considered a beginner-friendly horse.
“I made it my mission that summer to whip him into shape, so we did all types of internal exercises, hill work, trail rides, and more,” wrote Wendland, co-head of the training program.
The club’s facilities got a boost this summer as well, as it has renovated its riding ring with funding from the agriculture and natural resources school and the animal and avian sciences department.
With the regraded ring, which allows for optimal water run-off, trainers no longer have to guide horses around uneven ground and they can ride to the edge of the fences and into corners.
Training and caring for the animals requires each member to commit a minimum of two hours to farm chores a week. The club also holds student-run riding lessons and frequent clinics on subjects ranging from nutrition to dressage. The first monthly organizational meeting takes place Sept. 6.
Members also make a point of bonding beyond the barn with annual visits to Medieval Times, equipment shop trips, Maryland Day horse shows, and western trail rides at Misty Manor Riding Stable.
Managing chore duties and the training and care schedules of six horses may prove demanding at times, especially as the herd has no shortage of characters. Merlot, a Thoroughbred with fast gaits, used to be hard to control, especially over jumps; a mouthy Appaloosa named Kid has a history of throwing off beginners and a habit of pretending to bite people, snaking his head around as they ready his equipment to ride.
But the responsibilities are worth it for this passionate group, said club president Hanum Wensil-Strow.
“It is simply amazing to start your day with walking a horse through campus,” said the senior animal science and environmental science and policy major. “It represents what the club is about — hard work, but a lot of fun at the same time.”
news@umdbk.com
