Somerset Sporthorse Equestrian Center, Inc.

01/15/2025

Team Somerset had a great time at the Ledges January A Show!

Angie & Nova - ⚡️New Partnership ⚡️
🥈Puddle Jumper Classic
So excited for this New Team!

Madisyn & Charisma 14
🥇Junior Hunter Handy
🥇IHJA Junior Medal
🥈NHS Medal
85 in the Junior Hunter Classic

Legend Hill’s Lela & Miles along with trainer Liz Hamilton joined the team for the Junior Hunters & Equitation! Way to go!

Our very own Pancho made it a Party in the First Ever Showplace Dog Dash, coming in 2nd place!

Way to go Team!
Looking forward to a fantastic February!

01/10/2025

Preach!

Things your riding instructor wants you to know:
1. This sport is hard. You don't get to bypass the hard…..every good rider has gone through it. You make progress, then you don't, and then you make progress again. Your riding instructor can coach you through it, but they cannot make it easy.

2. You're going to ride horses you don't want to ride. If you're teachable, you will learn from every horse you ride. Each horse in the barn can teach you if you let them. IF YOU LET THEM. Which leads me to…

3. You MUST be teachable to succeed in this sport. You must be teachable to succeed at anything, but that is another conversation. Being teachable often means going back to basics time and time and time again. If you find basics boring, then your not looking at them as an opportunity to learn. Which brings me to…..

4. This sport is a COMMITMENT. Read that, then read it again. Every sport is a commitment, but in this sport your teammate weighs 1200 lbs and speaks a different language. Good riders don't get good by riding every once in awhile….they improve because they make riding a priority and give themsevles opportunity to practice.

5. EVERY RIDE IS AN OPPORTUNITY. Even the walk ones. Even the hard ones. Every. Single. Ride. Remember when you just wished someone would lead you around on a horse? Find the happiness in just being able to RIDE. If you make every ride about what your AREN'T doing, you take the fun out of the experience for yourself, your horse, and your instructor. Just enjoy the process. Which brings me to...

6. Riding should be fun. It is work. and work isn't always fun.....but if you (or your rider) are consistently choosing other activities or find yourself not looking forward to lessons, it's time to take a break. The horses already know you don't want to be here, and you set yourself up for failure if you are already dreading the lesson before you get here.

7. You'll learn more about horses from the ground than you ever will while riding. That's why ground lessons are important, too. If you're skipping ground lessons (or the part of your lesson that takes place on the ground), you're missing out on the most important parts of the lesson. You spend far more time on the ground with horses than you do in the saddle.

8. Ask questions and communicate. If you're wondering why your coach is having you ride a particular horse or do an exercise, ask them. Then listen to their answer and refer to #3 above.

9. We are human beings. We make decisions (some of them life and death ones) every day. We balance learning for students with workloads for horses and carry the bulk of this business on our shoulders. A little courtesy goes a long way.

Of all the sports your child will try through their school years, riding is one of 3 that they may continue regularly as adults (golf and skiing are the others). People who coach riding spend the better part of their free time and much of their disposable income trying to improve their own riding and caring for the horses who help teach your child. They love this sport and teaching others…..but they all have their limits. Not all good riders are good coaches, but all good coaches will tell you that the process to get good is not an easy one.

*thank you to whoever wrote this! Not my words, but certainly a shared sentiment!

12/30/2024

Team Somerset’s Holiday Party was a Blast!
Great Food! Great People! Great Presents!

Happy Holidays and Cheers to 2025!

Special thank you to the Sperando/Szymczak Family and Jan Stading for making the night EXTRA special!

12/22/2024

IHJA 2024 Awards Gala: A Night to Remember for Team Somerset and the Szymczak Family!

Madisyn and Charisma 14 were honored for their dedication and hard work this season with the following prestigious accolades:

- *3'3" Junior Hunter Champion*
- *3'3" Junior Hunter Grand Champion Trophy*
- *IHJA Junior Sportsmanship Award*

We are also incredibly proud of Angelina Foley (not pictured) and Tap Dance, who earned **two 5th-place finishes** in the highly competitive .80 Jumper Divisions! Great job, Angelina and Tap Dance!

We can't wait to see what the future holds for these talented riders.

A huge thank you to Showplace Productions and the IHJA for a memorable evening and an incredible show season.

Here’s to an even brighter 2025!

12/09/2024

Such a great weekend for everyone at Ledges this weekend!🎉🎉

Zuzia makes her debut into “horse” showing as she moves out of the pony ring with Sporthorse Imports “Cuba Libre” aka Cuban finishing with a Reserve Champion and a clean sweep in the flats! ❤️🤍💛

Madisyn and Charisma had a great start to the show season in the Junior Hunters laying down consistent rounds and finishing 4th in the Classic!! 🤍💚🩷

Looking forward to heading back to ledges in January with more of the crew!

11/02/2024

🎃Happy Halloween from Team Somerset🎃

Best Family Award
The Weldon Family & Piper
Mary Poppins

Scariest Award
Madisyn & Charisma
BeetleJuice

Best Homemade Costume
Angie & Nova
Racecar

Best Little Kid Award
Viv & Scarlett with Taffy
Little Bo Peep with her Sheep and Spooky Sally

Most American
Alissa & Archie
Captain America

From Team Practice to Creative Costumes, Tug A War, Sack Races, 3 legged races and relays, the night was topped off with a great food, amazing horses and incredible people!

11/02/2024

Such a fun Halloween here at Somerset Sporthorse!!🤍

Everyone had a great time with tug of war, three legged races, relays, and sack racing! The costume parade was so creative and everyone looked great!! 👻👻

Happy Halloween!!🎃🎃🎃🎃

10/15/2024

High School CHAMPIONS 🏆
Middle School 3rd place🥉

It’s always a WIN when the team gets together for another great show! Even on the chilly days 🥶

All smiles for our kiddos AND adults. GO TEAM!👏🏼

10/06/2024

Happy international Coach appreciation day! We all love our trainers so much for everything they do for us inside and outside of the barn! We couldn’t be more grateful for you all! Have the best day to all trainers!💕

10/02/2024

🦄 Congratulations to Willa on her lease of Padme!🦄
🚀 Congratulations to Angie on her lease of Nova🚀

The future is SO bright with these two! We can’t wait!

09/29/2024

How do I know if I bathed my horse good enough? Well, if they dry with crusty tiger stripes, you did a poor job!

A horse carries the majority of its dust/dirt on the top of their butts, so if you’re not rinsing and scrubbing there, this is what it’ll look like as you body clip! No groom wants to see this for your horse. A clean horse is a happy horse!

09/29/2024

🏆High School Champion🏆
🏆Middle School Champion🏆
🥇Madisyn overall High Point Rider AND overall Open High Point Rider🥇

Lots of smiles and ribbons today at Invictus Equine! Awesome horses and happy riders! Can’t get any better than that. Don’t forget Pancho!

05/08/2024

Wow! What a trip to IEA Nationals in Tryon!
We had an amazing weekend, with incredible views and great people! Congrats to:

💙❤️💛💙❤️💛💙❤️💛💙❤️💛
Ava Coutre
2024 ADULT NATIONAL CHAMPION
💙❤️💛💙❤️💛💙❤️💛💙❤️💛

💞Maya FioRito💞
Top 18 finish in the country!
Congrats on making it to Nationals in your first year of IEA!

🤎Amora Tirado🤎
8th Place - Future WTC - Top 8 finisher in the country! Way to Go!

❣️Alissa Lessner❣️
Nationals Attendee to represent Team Somerset and the IEA Youth Board for Zone 5!

To put these results into perspective, with over 14,500 riders involved in IEA these riders qualified in the top 1% of their division to make it to Nationals! Can you say WOW!

We are so proud of Team Somerset all season long!!! Your hard work, dedication, sportsmanship and TEAMWORK, has not gone unnoticed!

Can’t wait for the 2024-2025 season!

04/14/2024

💙❤️💛Extra! Extra! Read all about it! 💙❤️💛

Today Team Somerset’s Joie & Drisco along with Lauren & Piper took on the Summer Schooling Series at Fox Valley Saddle Association! Together they pulled a hat trick!

🥳Lauren & Piper🥳
CHAMPION in the Beginner Hunters
WINNER of the Beginner Hunter Classic

🥳Joie & Drisco🥳
CHAMPION in the Beginner Equitation
WINNER of the Beginner Equitation Classic

Thank you to Alexa Maiello and Kimberly Goodman for putting on a great horse show!

04/08/2024

Team Somerset had a great weekend Showplace Productions Final Indoor A show for the 2024 season!

Angelina & Tap Dance were blazing fast and double clean in all classes in the Puddle jumpers earning them Reserve CHAMPION in the Division and 2nd in the Puddle Jumper Classic!

Madisyn & Charisma 14 had a stellar weekend winning a Performance Hunter round, the IHJA Junior Medal, and a class of the JR Hunters landing them Reserve CHAMPION in the Division and 2nd in the Junior Hunter Classic!

And last but not least Maddalena & Beaverwood’s Monarch moved up to the Children’s Pony Division and closed out the weekend with a Reserve CHAMPION in the Division AND and a 1ST PLACE finish in the Childrens Pony Classic!

As always, thank you Showplace Productions for an incredible indoor show season! 💙❤️💛