Riding
High
Katie Finley
BY NICOLE TAFE
Four middle school students from North Allegheny and
Pine‑Richland compete as part of the Candy Lane Acres IEA team
and place fifth in the nation at this year’s Nationals competition.
T
he members of Franklin Park’s Candy Lane Acres
IEA team have a lot to be proud of. Four local middle
school students—two from North Allegheny and
two from Pine-Richland—recently competed in the
2018 Interscholastic Equestrian Association’s (IEA) Hunt
Seat Nationals, in Syracuse, New York, from April 20-22. They
represented Zone 11, which includes teams from Pennsylvania,
New Jersey and West Virginia, in the Nationals competition
featuring riders from across the nation.
The riders who qualified for this year’s Nationals bested more
than 13,700 youth equestrians. Nearly 400 of the nation’s leading
middle school and high school equestrians traveled from across
the country to compete for top honors in Hunt Seat classes in
the IEA National Finals. Of the 1,560 high school and middle
school teams from across the country, only 200 teams qualified
for Nationals.
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The mission of the IEA is to introduce students in private and
public middle and secondary schools to equestrian sports and
to promote and improve the quality of equestrian competition
and instruction. A nonprofit organization, the IEA has over
13,500 members in 42 states across North America. Riders
competed in Hunt Seat Equitation classes, Over Fences and
On the Flat, throughout the weekend. The format required that
riders compete in unfamiliar tack on unfamiliar mounts, drawing
their horses the day of competition and entering the arena after a
brief—if any—warmup.
Jacqueline Chalifoux, 13, is the daughter of Thomas Chalifoux
and Sylvia Choi. She lives in Franklin Park and attends North
Allegheny’s Marshall Middle School where she is a part of the
orchestra, student newspaper and GOAL—Gifted Opportunities
for Advanced Learning.