heresa Kiedinger of Virginia Intermont College scored 70.76 percent in training level, test 4, to win the high-point rider award at the fifth annual Intercollegiate Dressage Association championship held in Laurinburg, N.C., April 28-29.

Virginia Intermont also took home the team championship and the reserve high-point rider award, won by freshman Tiffany Dillon.

Kiedinger shared the team title with Dillon, Nora Harris, and Julianne Wilson, who also won the lower training level individual championship. The team finished 5 points ahead of 2005 IDA national cham-pion Lake Erie College (Ohio) and 12 points ahead of three-time IDA national champion Mount Holyoke College (Mass.). Hosted by St. Andrews College, the event attracted 77 riders from 23 teams across the country.

In this competition, riders draw lots for school-owned horses and are allowed 10 minutes to warm up prior to riding their test. The four levels are introductory, lower training, upper training, and first level. A college can qualify only one team, and each team provides four riders to ride at each of the four levels on Saturday. Colleges can also enter qualified individual riders for Sunday’s competition.

According to Kiedinger, riding at an IDA show is “totally different from a [U.S. Dressage Federation] or [U.S. Equestrian Federation] competition because it’s a team experience. Your goal is to ride your best test for the team. I like the group atmosphere; it’s a nice change from USDF competition and more fun, but you do have to represent your college and your team well.”

Kiedinger, of Madison, Wis., drew a St. Andrews horse named Celtic for training level, test 4. “This horse had done a lot of first level at their shows,” said Kiedinger, who watched Celtic go with other riders and talked to St. Andrews team members. “Nora [Harris] had ridden Celtic several times at other shows, so she was able to tell me what he felt like to her. He was really fancy, very uphill, with a pretty head and neck once you got him into a frame.”

In her warm-up she applied a technique learned from international dressage rider Kay Meredith, who gave a clinic at Virginia Intermont just three weeks before nationals. “He was stiff on his left side, so in the warm-up we put his head toward the rail, then leg yielded him down the rail to get him to use his inside hind leg and engage himself,” she explained. “That was the main exercise that Kay Meredith worked on at the clinic, and with this horse it was the magic trick.”

VI’s strategy at shows is a “long and low warm-up and figuring out which side is stiffer, then we work the components of the test, especially the double coefficients,” stated coach Lisa Moosmueller-Terry. “The value of IDA competition is to give students who might not have this opportunity otherwise a chance to show dressage. Plus it helps to develop the sport, because many of these students will continue to ride and show.”

Moosmueller-Terry made a practice horse available to Kiedinger this semester, and the senior rode almost daily.

“It took a lot of confidence building for me,” Kiedinger recalled. “It took me a long time to learn how to ride other horses and make them look good. I had to have confidence in myself, but also in my coach, Lisa, that she could help me figure out a horse in only 10 minutes.”

This year is likely Kiedinger’s last year of riding IDA, as she plans to graduate in December. “I pointed out of training level this year, and we already have several first level riders [on the team], but hopefully I’ll get to show some,” she said. The third-year student also finished with an individual reserve championship in upper training level.

Kiedinger won a Henri De Rivel saddle, two leather halters, saddle pad, silver bracelet and paddock boots, among other prizes. “St. Andrews put on a wonderful show; the horses were all very good. It was organized and run well,” she stated. “The judging was really close, with consistent scoring. On the second day, I had the exact same score from both judges [Tripp Harting and Sarah Geikie].”

VI has been in the top five at IDA Nationals the last three years. “We’re very fortunate that the school fully supports its riders,” stated Kiedinger. “VI supports our IDA and [Intercollegiate Horse Show Association] teams, so all our competition costs are covered; we only have to pay our membership dues to the organization.”

Kiedinger, who competes alone at USDF shows, said that she will miss the camaraderie of the dressage team. “We always helped each other, prepared together, shared information on the horses, and provided support to our teammates ringside,” she explained. “I’ll miss going [to shows] with four, eight or 12 other girls who want to ride and have fun together.”

The honors program student began riding while in Wisconsin’s 4-H program. “But I always knew I wanted to ride dressage,” she stated. “I’ve known that since I was 9 years old.”

While still in high school, she trained with Kathryn Bauman and showed a Thoroughbred in USDF competitions. “I took him to the USDF regional championships twice and took him through second level,” she said.

She recently found a home for her old show partner so she could buy a young horse. Nigel, Kiedinger’s 3-year-old Dutch Thoroughbred, was started last winter by trainer Bauman, now located in Auburn, Tenn. “This summer I plan on learning to ride him and getting him out to shows,” said Kiedinger.

An English major with an equine minor, Kiedinger has begun submitting her writing to horse magazines and would like to eventually work for a fiction publishing company.

The 2007 IDA Nationals will be hosted by Centenary College, Hackettstown, N.J., on April 28-29.