Albion College’s Equestrian Center contains a competitive club and varsity team. Any student can try out, whether they’ve been riding their whole life or have never sat on a horse before.
The Equestrian Center offers many opportunities to riders, such as lessons and horses, and now the center will be under the process of being renovated. Past construction work had caused leaks, damaging the trestles to the building. Only the riding arena will be torn down and rebuilt, and the stable and office complex will remain untouched.
While the damages do not fully affect practices, renovations will exceedingly be more convenient to the riders. Because of the damages, support beams are needed to keep the building intact.
“Sometimes when you’re doing stuff in there, you have to dodge a horse and a pole,” said Sadie Wayman, a first-year on the Hunt Seat Equestrian team. Fortunately, that is the only obstacle in the way without the renovations.
“The building won’t actually start until our students leave because … we want them to be able to continue to use it,” said Jerry White, vice president for finance and administration, “It will start sometime in early May.” White is involved in overseeing the facilities and building projects and is currently doing so for the Equestrian Center project.
The benefits to the renovations include a better facility for the students and a possibility of hosting shows. “I’m actually really excited for it,” said Wayman.
“We plan on using it for some show facilities during the summers and intermittently during the school year,” said White. The Equestrian staff hope to boost the recruiting effort from the shows and to help out the community of Albion overall.
“We’re really hopeful that by bringing in large groups during the summer that it’s going to help build Albion up as well,” said White. By hosting shows, tons of riders will attend Albion and need a place to stay, eat and get gas.
White said, “We are very hopeful that [the renovations] will be done before students come back in September.” By next year, a new facility should be available to returning and incoming riders with added benefits to the program.
Photo by Albion Communications Department
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