Equestrian
Equestrianism is a popular sport, with many university students riding at exceptionally high levels, competing both for the university and their nation. There are opportunities at the universities to take part in both competitive and non-competitive riding and most importantly you don’t need your own horse as clubs meet at local riding stables. For the non-competitive segment there are weekly lessons and rides organised by each individual university as well as activities such as beach rides and socials.
The competitive equestrian university competitions are run by BUCS and SUS. The aim of the competitions is to test solely the riders’ capability, by seeing what the rider is able to achieve on the horse in a defined period of time. The competition consists of a combination of dressage and equitation show jumping. The dressage starts at British Dressage Novice standard and progresses upwards to Elementary throughout the stages, the show jumping starts at 90cm and also progresses through the stages. The BUCS league competitions take place from November to February with the Scottish Regional’s in March and the British National Finals in June. BUCS has two leagues, the Championship, which consists of 1st teams only and the Trophy league which consists of 2nd, 3rd and 4th teams. Teams consist of 3 or 4 riders, with the best three scores to count. Scottish universities have a good record of success in the BUCS competitions with RGU winning the Championship National Finals on numerous occasions.
In addition SUS organises an annual competition for a team of 3 riders from universities across Scotland.
SUS are hopefully looking to develop their involvement further with the idea of arranging more friendly and competitive events between the universities. All ideas and suggestions for broadening the SUS Equestrian programme are always welcome.