IHSA Scrimmage

By Tommy Brannon

Hunters Edge Stables, at 5610 Forest Hill Irene Rd, Memphis, TN, will host an Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) scrimmage on Sunday March 24, 2019. The competition will be between the hunter teams of Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Mississippi College. Beanie Cone, owner of Hunters Edge and coach for the Ole Miss Team, said that the scrimmage (show) would be an opportunity for anyone interested in IHSA to see how the Intercollegiate Horse Shows are conducted.

IHSA competitions are different from other horse shows. The competitors do not ride their own horses. Each rider draws the horse they will ride from a “herd” provided by the hosting team. Riders do not get to familiarize themselves with the horse that they ride prior to the competition. Someone else, usually a volunteer, warms up the horse, then the competing rider mounts up, adjusts the tack and enters the arena to be judged.

In an IHSA hunter show, there are both over fences and on the flat classes. In western shows there are pleasure classes, plus horsemanship, trail classes, and reining. All the classes are ridden on horses drawn at random and there is a new drawing for each class. The horses used will have varying levels of experience and temperament. Riders, as well, will have different riding skill levels. At most IHSA shows, several teams compete against each other at the same show.  All of the Mississippi IHSA teams are in Zone 5 Region 2.

Beanie said that in addition to the Ole Miss IHSA team, he plans to introduce an Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) team at Hunters Edge Stables. IEA shows are similar to IHSA shows, but are for middle and high school students.  No rider needs to own a horse and membership is open to public school, private school or barn teams for student riders in grades 4-12.  This would be the first IEA team in the Memphis area and Beanie said he would like to see other barns in the Memphis area host IEA teams as well. There are several teams in the Jackson/Madison, Mississippi area, as well as middle and east Tennessee. The southeast U.S. is in IEA Zone 4.

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