Ashley Woodhouse Feels At Home Now In The IHSA

Ashley Woodhouse is one of a very few college students with grand prix ribbons hanging in her dorm.

The 21-year-old native of Minneapolis, Minn., competes her Belgian Warmblood gelding Pacifico in the high amateur-owner jumper division and grand prix classes at prestigious venues throughout the Midwest and the East Coast, including Florida's Winter Equestrian Festival.

She frequently finishes in the ribbons, and has come tantalizingly close to a blue with a second place in the $30,000 Country Heir Grand Prix in Lexington, Ky., during 2004.

But during the academic year, she puts her budding grand prix career on the back burner. From September to May, Woodhouse devotes herself to leading the Skidmore College equestrian team. She captured collegiate riding's highest honor, the coveted USEF/Cacchione Cup, as a sophomore at the 2005 IHSA National Championships.

She did actually select Skidmore, located in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., from her list of prospective schools because of its outstanding instructional riding program rather than its intercollegiate team. As a freshman, Woodhouse decided to try out for the team as a way of making friends in her new environment.

"I was really homesick and wanted to get involved in something. I liked the idea of being on a team--I'd never done that before," she remembered.

And she made the cut. But even with her extensive competitive experience on the A-rated circuit, she had quite a bit still to learn.

School Daze

"When she came to Skidmore, she needed to get into good physical shape and to get into an equitation mode. It took her the first year to figure it out," said coach Cindy Ford, at the helm of Skidmore's program for the past 14 years.

"I thought it was going to be a lot easier than it was, because the jumps were so small and the courses were relatively easy. But I quickly learned that it was nothing at all like I expected," said Woodhouse.

"You really had to be a rider, and not just look pretty. I had to learn to adjust to different horses, which was something I didn't have much experience doing. It definitely humbled me!" she added.

Her inaugural semester of showing for Skidmore brought the frustrations of "bad luck, bad draws, and bad ribbons," Woodhouse wryly recalled.

"Cindy explained to me that it would just take me a little while to get used to it, and I believed her, and I'm glad I stuck with it--but there were definitely a couple of moments where I wondered, 'Why am I doing this to myself?'" she said with a laugh.

Woodhouse struggled to adjust to the reality that her performance in the ring de-pended largely on the literal luck of the draw.

"So much is completely out of your control--that was really hard for me at first," said Woodhouse.

Ford's rigorous training program helped Woodhouse find her way through the foreign terrain of collegiate competition. As varsity athletes, team members consult with a nutritionist, follow a weight-training and fitness regimen, and take extra lessons in addition to their regular practice rides.

The results of this disciplined system speak for themselves; in the past 15 years, Skidmore teams have accounted for five national championship, and countless regional and zone titles.

Woodhouse has been very impressed by the improvement in her own form. "The difference has been amazing, especially on the flat," she said.