Intercollegiate Horse Show Association
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The Intercollegiate Horse Show Association or IHSA is an organization started 20 years ago by Bob Cachione. It was started in order to promote the ability to participate in horse shows no matter the rider's skill level or past experience. Currently, there are over 300 colleges and universities across the USA with over 6200 riders competeing within the IHSA.
Within the IHSA, riders can compete in either English riding or Western riding. There are 5 different levels within the two disciplines- walk-trot, walk-trot-canter, novice, intermediate, and open. In the English shows, the riders ride in a jumping class as well as a flat class starting with the novice level. In both English and Western divisions, the riders are judged on their equitation. This means that they are judged on their effectiveness as a rider, but also their ability to look as nice as possible, and make the task at hand look basically effortless.
The IHSA is unlike any other horse show. When teams go to compete with each other, only the host school's horses are used. The horses are warmed up by warm-up riders while all the competeing riders watch. Then, as the classes proceed through the day, a rider goes out to a bulletin board right before his or her class to find out which horse he or she is riding. The rider then gets on the horse and is immediately judged. There is no time allowed to warm-up and get used to the horse that an individual may be riding. Part of the goal of the IHSA is to give all riders an equal playing field. Making all of the riders ride the same horses and not allowing them anytime to warm up, really shows which riders can actually ride well instead of which have the nicest horses.
