Eddie Federwisch Has The Winning Formula For Virginia Intermont

Training a team to three major titles in the same year--at the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association's National Championship, the Affiliated National Riding Commission's National Championship and the Tournament of Champions Series--is rare. To do so while retaining the universal respect, admiration and affection of your students and peers is even rarer. But then, Eddie Federwisch is an extremely rare individual.

He is the kind of person who can brighten your day, make you laugh, and thoroughly enchant you while he politely snatches the trophy from your hands and leaves you cheering for his success.

Federwisch, of Virginia Intermont College in Bristol, Va., is also the kind of person who took a college riding and degree program that was on its last leg and turned it around so quickly and dramatically that it took everyone by surprise. And like everything else, he did it with a smile.

"I was at Virginia Intermont for a semester before Eddie took over in January of 1994," said deSaix Tankersley Hill, who graduated with an equine studies degree. "Eddie came in the door like a rush of fresh air. He made the courses tougher, required more hands-on work in stable management, training and schooling and show management. He worked our butts off. But he worked harder than we did. He put in ungodly hours cleaning the barn, making repairs, doing all the things you do when you run a 100-plus horse barn and college riding program."

Federwisch, 45, also took Virginia Intermont's IHSA team from the bottom of the region to the No. 2 slot, behind Zone 4 Region 2 powerhouse, Hollins University (Va.), his first year. "But more than that, Eddie made it all fun," said Hill. "He'd drive us to competitions on the team bus, and from the moment we got on board, until he dropped us back off at the VIC riding center, we'd laugh. It was great."

Ultimately, it took more than a good sense of humor to turn around a riding program in danger of shutting down. "I had a lot of help," said Federwisch in a drawl that is a mixture of Texas, Atlanta and a bit of East Tennessee. "I have good faculty."

His team includes Patty Graham-Thiers, who has her Ph.D. in equine nutrition and exercise physiology and oversees academics, teaches and conducts research, Lisa Moosmueller-Terry, assistant director, instructor and coach of the Intercollegiate Dressage Association team, Amy Sherrick, who coaches the international intercollegiate team and teaches riding and stable management classes, as well as Sue Glover and Teresa Slaupas, who instruct and coached last year's winning ANRC team. Jacob Haught, DVM, teaches several courses, and Margaret Jones runs the office.

"I'm also blessed with an administration that gives me support when I need it. And, I have support from people in the horse community like Kathy Paxton, Anne Kenan, Anne Cheatham and the late George Moore, who have loaned or donated outstanding horses to the program," said Federwisch. "Then there are students and parents who have contributed time, effort and money."

Chief among those supportive parents are his own, Raymond and Lydia Federwisch, who have supported their son's horse habit from the beginning and continue to support his efforts at VIC.

A Driving Force