Seen here with her Mother at 2004 IHSA Nationals, Sarah Phaklides became the first UCLA rider in team history to advance past Regionals. There is a catch: The bruin equestrian team is only one year old!

INSTANT CONTENDER: UCLA'S IMPROBABLE 2003-04 SEASON

(The saying "From Rags to Riches" does not apply. The UCLA Bruins were never rags. They wern't anything. They only started riding formally in Spring of 2003. They didn't enter an IHSA show until last Fall. However when the 2003-04 season was complete, the bruins had the fourth best hunter seat team out of nine within Zone 8, Region 2. Freshman Michelle Brownstein qualified for Regionals in open flat while intermediate rider Sarah Phaklides made it all the way to IHSA Nationals, placing second in the nation in intermediate flat. Now a junior at UCLA, Phaklides was asked if she could relate a story about the evolution of the bruin team. Phaklides responded to our request with a detailed account of the origins of the team, how the bruins caught a break here and there in 2003-04 and the prospects for the new season - Ed.)

I had no idea what kind of monster I would create when I decided to start an equestrian team at UCLA. Having had little experience at starting anything, I gathered a couple friends with no prior horse experience and went to submit the paperwork to become a part of the five hundred or more clubs on campus. After a couple weeks, we received news from a counselor on campus that someone else had submitted the paperwork for an equestrian team just two weeks before we had submitted ours! Surprised that two separate people had the same idea at the same time, we went about trying to join up with this other group of girls. This, I would find out, was the easiest part of starting this club.

Initially founded as the Bruin Equestrian Team, we went about the difficult task of getting a bank account. We had no guidance from any campus counselors and did not know anyone in our Region who could help us out at the time. We spent the majority of our first year doing paperwork and trying to figure out what exactly we had to do to compete in IHSA. By the time we had gotten everything together, we had just missed the last show of the 2002-03 season but had a much better idea of where we had to go from there.

Randomly through a non-equestrian friend, I was put in contact with Kate McComas, the University of California at San Diego captain and student leader of our Region. She invited me to a Regional planning meeting over the summer and everyone there tried to teach me the ins and outs of the IHSA. It wasn’t until much later that I realized I was extremely fortunate to be part of a very friendly region that wanted the best for everyone, regardless of school affiliation.

I spent most of the summer looking for a barn that had a decent lesson program for the riders who are not fortunate enough to have a horse of their own at college. I found this barn at the Hansen Dam Equestrian Center with a three day eventing barn known as 3D Farms. While not quite an equitation barn, they were willing to give us a discount on lessons and have a large lesson program with horses that are similar to the IHSA horses. The only problem is transportation. The barn is a minimum of half an hour away and parking is nearly impossible at UCLA. This is a problem we still have to sort out.

With a barn and a bank account, we were ready to go to our first show. At 5:30AM the Saturday morning of the first scheduled show I got a call from our Regional President saying that the show had been cancelled due to the rain. This gave us a little bit of extra time to make sure that we had everything together to show and compete but we were all a little bummed, nonetheless.

OUR TEAM

Our team was small, smaller than most of the other competitive teams in our region. We showed up to our first show with one open rider, Michelle Brownstein; one novice rider, Melissa Mueller; one walk-trot-canter rider, Anna Stone and myself in intermediate. Not knowing what to expect, my parting words to everyone going into the arena were “Just stay on and have fun.” I was pleasantly surprised by the success of our first show. Brownstein, a freshman who had only been at UCLA for about a month, placed second in both of her classes that day and Stone, another freshman, won her class. Mueller, one of the founding members, was second in her flat class and I was fifth in the Intermediate flat. This was enough to place our team as Reserve Champions for our very first show.

Our continuing trend was to have three or four riders at each show during the first part of the season. However, every rider was strong enough to show successfully. It wasn’t until Winter Quarter that another Novice rider, Sophie Gassee proved to be quite good at intercollegiate competitions and placed second over fences and third on the flat her second day of showing. Jacqueline Lopour, a senior, improved immensely from her first show to her last in the Novice over fences and Intermediate Flat.

Our main goal for our first year was to have fun (and stay on). All of our riders went much farther beyond what I had expected out of any of them. Many of us had never competed on a team and found the team atmosphere to be well worth the work. Michelle has been nothing but fantastic for our team. Her sense of humor and coaching ability helped our less experienced riders cope with their anxiety of riding and showing different horses. She would spend an hour going over the novice course with the novice riders and glance at her course just shortly before she had to get on. I remember Sophie commenting on how much she had learned about riding in general from showing and being coached by students at these intercollegiate shows. Our riders are unbelievably dedicated and supportive of our other members which makes showing with them and riding with them a pleasure I would have never expected.

Michelle is the epitome of good horsemanship. Even though she had a tough second half of the season from physical illness to mental roadblocks, she rode at every show and never complained even when certain horses were less than comfortable. She was upset when she placed fourth at Regionals but I expect that the coming show seasons will be more successful for her. She’s a beautiful rider and I’ve never been so impressed with how someone can quiet a horse and guide him around a course as well as she can.

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Our first goal is to get club 'sport' recognition from UCLA. We’re still operating as a recognized Club with faculty sponsorship from Linda VanValkenburg, which is a step up from the Independent Club status with which we began. Currently, we receive no money or support from UCLA and the club sport status would help us in fundraising and recruiting.

As everyone who rides horses knows, the sport costs money. We’re hoping to find some sponsors in the near future to help our program along. We’re looking to expand our western show team and possibly move into the Intercollegiate Dressage Association with some of our dressage riders. We have also started to develop a partnership with an NARHA group known as Special Equestrian Riding Therapy. Volunteering on a Saturday morning is not only emotionally fulfilling for all parties involved but is also a great way to build team unity.

We also have a new trainer for 2004-05. Olivia Reed at 3D is going to be teaching our lessons this year. Reed is just out of college herself and while her background is mostly in three day eventing, she is looking forward to being our coach. Olivia didn’t have an opportunity to compete on her school’s equestrian team so I think that this is going to be a lot of fun for everyone. This is also the first year that we are going to have team group lessons. Last year we tried to hold group lessons but scheduling was too difficult.

As far as competition goes, it looks like we’re going to have a full point card this season and I’m really excited about it. We lost Sophie Gassee to Stanford but her sister Marie is going to be a freshman at UCLA this year and will probably take Sophie’s place on the team. In addition, a group of enthusiastic freshman have arrived in all levels. Ideally, I would love to get our team to Zones but the most important thing is that our teammates are learning and having fun. If we can continue to have fun and learn then I know we’ll be successful.

There have been times when I wondered what I was doing and if I had gotten into something way over my head. But then I go to a show or ride with one of the girls on the team and realize that it was worth it. I talk to parents who are so happy that their daughter has an opportunity to keep riding through college and I talk to team members who are so happy that they have a place to ride. I realize that if I wasn’t fortunate enough to have supportive parents that I would die without the opportunity to continue riding throughout college. I’m also extremely lucky to be part of a Region that is so friendly and helpful because without their support, this would have been that much more difficult. All in all, this has been a wonderful experience that has been well worth the worry and the time.

--Sarah Phaklides