EQUESTRIAN
Your scholarship in the USA
Equestrian is a tradition in the USA. Not because of the cowboys, but because of the colleges. Since 1998 the sport has been registered with the NCAA, the governing body of all US college sports, as an “emerging sport”. With that said, the sport should grow slowly until it can finally be accepted as a full member of the NCAA family. Nevertheless, even the US television network NBC reports on the biggest meets.
The most important thing for you: Sports scholarships are awarded for equestrian and enable you to combine your sport and your academic career at the highest level.
Equestrians studying at colleges in the USA
College teams in the USA
available full scholarships for college equestrians
Inspired
Equestrian sport
How many scholarships are there?
As of now, 23 universities have an equestrian team and offer up to 15 full scholarships per team.
In addition, the schools provides horses and equipment to their riders.
How is the training and the season structured in the USA?
Usually five riders from the university team compete against another team. On the day of the competition, pairs will be put together with one rider per university. They then have to compete against each other on the same horse drawn by lots in one of the following disciplines:
- Dressage: As in Germany, the riders must show a precise and harmonious harmony when carrying out the lessons. However, the horse is drawn to the rider.
- Show jumping: In this discipline, riders have to overcome a course of eight to ten obstacles with their horse.
- Horsemanship: Here the horse and rider show different lessons in different gaits of the horse according to a certain pattern.
- Reining: Reining is similar to horsemanship, only there are additional tasks such as “spins” (360 degree rotations on the horse’s hindquarters) and “sliding stops” (stopping the horse from galloping and sliding the hindquarters under) added.
The riding season at the universities takes place between September and November and between January and March. Depending on how well your team does in both periods, the season continues with playoff-like competitions to choose the national champion. In the USA there are almost exclusively so-called “dual meets”, where two universities compete against each other.
References
Requirements for your equestrian scholarship
In order to qualify for a sports scholarship in the USA, you don’t necessarily have to be a German champion. Nevertheless, you should have already participated in German championships and show development potential. We can better forecast your chances for a sports scholarship if you fill out our non-binding assessment of opportunities.