An inside look at the IHSA Tarleton Equestrian Team

BY LINDSEY HUGHES

Art Director

The Tarleton State University Equestrian Team is a staple in Tarleton’s equine background, especially being in the cowboy capital.

The team is broken up into two subteams: one for Western riders, one for English. The English team also consists of both flat and over fences competitors.

MK Performance Horses hosts the over fences group for practices and lessons. Outside of over fences, practices happen at the equine center located on Tarleton’s agriculture farm.

The equestrian team competes through a program called the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA). This makes the team far more accessible for students from all backgrounds to gain horse experience and be able to compete without having to break the bank. IHSA has divisions for all experience levels.

At shows, the horse you will compete on is chosen by random drawing. Riders will draw for their horse and compete on that horse with no prior schooling.

​​Host colleges provide horses for competitors to ride, so rather than having to own and pay for a horse, IHSA allows riders who may not be able to afford horse ownership an outlet to compete.

Lexi Carpenter is a junior business management major at Tarleton. She is the president of the equestrian team and testified that one huge part of why the team, and IHSA in general, stands out from a lot of other equine-related sports is the affordability.

“We are a cheaper option to be in the horse world,” Carpenter said. “The horse world can get really expensive, but with us competing through IHSA, they pride themselves on letting collegiate students be able to compete. … We get to learn about the equine industry, and our organization helps us grow as team members and leaders.”

Carpenter’s role on the team is extensive. She oversees team operations, hosts team events and manages the rest of the executive team, all while being a national-qualifying rider.

While her roles on the team are demanding, she has also been able to gain amazing experiences and has made memories that will last a lifetime.

“This past spring season, I qualified for Nationals,” Carpenter said. “When they announced that I qualified, I remember turning to my coach and seeing her crying and hearing my teammates screaming in the stands. I jumped in my coach’s arms, and she was spinning me around. Yes, Nationals was fun, but knowing that I had worked two years to qualify really stuck out to me because it was like, ‘I finally made it.’”

Michelle Mohr, the team’s coach for the past nine years, said that up until about 2020, they had never had a full team. The team has grown from roughly 20 riders to about 50 this year, an impressive increase.

Mohr has been coaching the team since 2017 and got her master’s at Tarleton. Her graduate research focused primarily on the skills that students learn from being on an equestrian team, saying that, statistically, many students gain significant leadership and verbal communication skills from being on a team.

Mohr has high hopes this year with such a large group of riders and is excited to meet some of her long-term goals for the team.

“I’m really hoping that this year we can sneak in and start to dominate,” Mohr said. “Every year we’ve taken one or two girls to Nationals, but I definitely want to be able to take three or more kids to Nationals for sure.”

Nationals is a big deal in the IHSA world. Not only do riders have to first qualify for Regional Finals, they then need to get top placings to move on to Zone Finals. The top two competitors at Zones then qualify for Nationals.

Last year, the IHSA National Finals were held at Tryon International Equestrian Center in North Carolina.

While not all shows are located as far as Tryon, competing with the team does demand quite a bit of travel. The riders, however, have said that sometimes the quiet moments together on long road trips, or fun moments in the hotel room after shows, are some of the best memories.

Carpenter said that it truly is the little moments spent with teammates that make the best memories.

“Yes, competing is so fun, but it’s the dinners or time spent in the hotel rooms getting to know them that are my favorite parts,” she said.

Hannah Lee, a senior agricultural communications major at Tarleton, holds the public relations executive position on the team. She is primarily a Western rider and has been on the team for all three years she has been at Tarleton.

Being on the team has shaped almost all of Lee’s college experience. Being from Houston and coming to Stephenville was a bit of a culture shock and a huge change from big city life.

“When I first moved here, I was really thinking about moving back to Houston, that this wasn’t for me,” Lee said. “When I joined the team, those were the first friends that I made, and the friends I made on this team my freshman year are still my very best friends. They're like my family. Those are my people.”

Resoundingly, but unsurprisingly, the competitions seem to be a favorite amongst the riders – not only because they get the opportunity to showcase their hard work and skills, but because it provides the team a space to bond, connect and ultimately form friendships that last a lifetime.

Mohr fosters a coaching environment that supports all the things the riders love and enjoy, and the competitions are just a small portion of what the equestrian team is. There is a lot of learning, lessons and hard work that happens behind the scenes.

“Growing up, I had a few not-so-great trainers,” Mohr said. “They really tore my confidence down. I got it into my head sometime in high school that I wanted to do better. I wanted to teach people, but I didn’t want to break them down the way I had been broken down.”

A good coach can make or break the equestrian experience, and Mohr knows firsthand just how negatively a bad coach can affect a rider. She also knows what it’s like to have to work hard just to be in the equestrian world.

“I didn’t grow up with money, didn’t grow up with horses, and I see a lot of those kids come through our program,” Mohr said. “They may not be the richest, may not own their own horse, may not have a fancy horse, but everyone deserves to feel included and confident. That is what I wanted to instill in everyone, because that’s what was lacking when I was younger.”

The Tarleton Equestrian Team will compete in 10 shows for the 2025-26 season and hopefully follow them up by qualifying riders for the National Finals. The English competition will be OU Hunt Seat on Oct. 4-5, followed by SNU Western on Oct. 18-19. The schedule can be found on the team’s Facebook page, Tarleton Equestrian Team.