UF students will gracefully ride horses for judges this weekend.
Five UF students will compete in the Intercollegiate Dressage Association’s 2016 National Championship in New Jersey. The students will ride as part of UF’s dressage team, on which the riders are evaluated by how they conduct the horses to be obedient, flexible and balanced.
Two students will participate in the individual competitions Saturday, and a four-rider team will compete Sunday.
Alexis Rossetti, a UF political science and international studies sophomore, competed in IDA’s national Upper Training class last year. This is the second-highest level participants can compete in.
She qualified to ride individually and will also compete in the team competition, the 19-year-old said.
One rider on the team will compete in each of the four levels: First Level, Upper Training, Lower Training and Introductory Level. She said horses and riders are matched randomly, and riders are judged on a 10-point scale.
“I like the commitment that it takes, and the relationship with the horse is really important,” she said.
Ashley Vickers began coaching the UF dressage team in August. She studied sport psychology in college, which has shaped the way she teaches the riders, she said.
She leads the women through mental relaxation exercises to help them focus and encourages her riders to do physical workouts.
Before the riders compete, she spends 10 minutes helping them warm up, she said. She asks how they feel while riding their horses.
“We are working together: the horse, the coach and the rider,” Vickers said. “Now we’re not just going to nationals — we’re going to do well at nationals.”
Alexis Rossetti, a 19-year-old UF political science and international studies sophomore, is one of five UF students who will compete in the Intercollegiate Dressage Association’s 2016 National Championship in New Jersey on Saturday and Sunday.
