By Jeff Kenney Staff Writer
CULVER — Culver Academies played host over the weekend to its first local show since joining the Interscholastic Equestrian Association, a Willoughby, Ohio based, secondary level equestrian organization spanning 12 states.
Last year was the first year the school participated in IEA, according to Culver sophomore and competitor Lillian Hogan, and while the Academies co-hosted an event, this is the school’s first “solo” hosting of an IEA competition.

The event, which took place over Feb. 14 and 15 at the riding hall of the Vaughn Equestrian Center, included competition at four levels: varsity open, varsity intermediate, junior varsity novice, and junior varsity beginner. With the exception of beginner level participants, each group takes part in jumping competitions as well as walking, trotting, and cantering. Judges, says Hogan, evaluate participants on how well each maneuvers the horse and the overall appearance of horse and rider.
With about nine competitors in each class, Hogan says between 75 and 100 students from schools across the Midwest took part in this weekend’s competition. Hogan herself has been part of Culver’s IEA involvement over both years, but has been involved in shows outside Culver for about five years now. Culver, she says, participates in about five such shows at various locations each year.
One of the challenges of IEA events, she says, is that each rider is paired with a horse from the hosting institution, which means animal and rider are unfamiliar with one another at the outset of the event.
Culver sophomore Cricket Gullickson – a native of Rio, Wisconsin, concurs the mystery of an unfamiliar horse makes the competition all the more interesting. “It all depends on the horse you get,” she says. “They all have different personalities, like people. Some are cranky, some are gentle. We all get horses names drawn from a hat; it’s just random.”
Gullickson, who started riding in about six years ago, says this weekend’s show is the second she’s been to this year. Since Culver is hosting the event, she says, preparation began about a month ago, as soon as horsemanship participants returned from January’s much-anticipated presidential inaugural parade.
“We started working with the horses for this show,” she explains, “and getting them ready. This week it was about three hours every day. There was a lot of prep. As far as jumps, we had to get all the horses in shape, brush them and clip their manes…and polish our boots, wash everything. The stable hands and instructors did a lot of work. They were out here for like 12 hours every day.”
“The last couple of weeks,” adds Hogan, “we’ve been jumping the horse over things they’re not familiar with to make sure they don’t stop when people that have never ridden them jump them. We also put red bows on the tails of horses that kick.”
The hard work, it’s evident, is worth it for these students.
“It’s been a lot of work,” acknowledges Hogan, speaking as a circle of stately riders canters gracefully about the competition ring in the background. “But it’s all going pretty smoothly.”
“The best part about a show like this is when you get a really good ride,” explains Gullickson. “This is what you’ve been working for. It’s all payoff, even if you don’t place high. If you have that ride, it’s great!”