You might be chomping at the bit to attend a football or soccer game during Homecoming weekend, but hold your horses. Find out first about some student-athletes in another sport, who are just as proud as their peers to be representing Kalamazoo College.
K’s Equestrian Team is co-hosting a two-day meet beginning this Saturday, October 19, alongside Grand Valley State University at their home barn, Cedar Lodge Stables. The facility is near Lawrence, Michigan, about a half-hour drive west of Kalamazoo. Although sometimes dark horses when facing riders from bigger schools, the College’s representatives participate in meets through the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association (IHSA), a nonprofit organization supporting individuals and teams at a variety of equine sports experience levels.
Libby McFarlen ’26—a Kalamazoo native and Loy Norrix High School graduate—is one of K’s equestrian competitors. She got the bug to start horseback riding when she was 8 years old. Although her grandma wanted to buy her a pony for her birthday, grandma chose instead to provide her granddaughter with riding lessons after comparing the costs between the two options.
“I was only supposed to ride for a couple of lessons, but I absolutely fell in love with it,” McFarlen said. “I’ve been involved in riding hunter-jumper, so I joined the team at K because I wanted to continue to ride in college. I wanted to put all the effort I could into this sport because I’ve been in love with it for about 10 years now.”
McFarlen and her teammates—including Sydney Myszenski ’25, Shannon Dopp ’28, Emily Spelson ’28, and Ella Varnhagen ’25—participate in either showjumping—an event that includes the horses leaping over obstacles and fences—or flat riding, which includes walking and cantering. Divisions are split based on each rider’s experience level, usually with five or six students from around Michigan in each. The host barn provides horses, and riders are randomly paired with them through a method such as drawing numbered popsicle sticks, which can be an intimidating experience.
“If you’re not at your home barn, chances are you’ve never ridden the horse you get paired with,” McFarlen said. “The captain has a brochure with a list of the horses, their name, breed and height. Some of them will have distinctive characteristics, too. Some horses will need a riding crop and some don’t. Others might not like handsy riders who pull. The horses have as much personality as people do.”
For such reasons, McFarlen recommends students have a little background in horseback riding before joining the Equestrian Team. K offers an equestrian physical education class for beginning riders, although a cost is involved. McFarlen recognizes that costs also can be an obstacle for students wanting to participate with the Equestrian Team, with a $45 IHSA registration required yearly and competitions away from Kalamazoo typically involving the cost of an overnight stay.
However, K’s instructors will often lend team members the clothes they need to participate in shows—including boots, helmets, breeches, gloves and a navy blue or black jacket—and the team hopes they will have some fundraising efforts in the near future that will help more students join.
“We’ve started going out on Saturday morning trail rides, so it’s nice to have a chill time, too, without worry for whether your leg is positioned right or your hands are perfect like you would while competing,” McFarlen said. “It allows us to go around and talk together as a team. The solid group we have is what makes the club special to me and we would love to grow. Even though there are more standard sports, I think we’re just as cool because we’re unique. We’re valid student-athletes, too, and we do this because we love our sport.”
