MARION, Ala. (ABP) — When Jennifer Hoggle first visited Judson College, she didn't care much about touring the campus. She didn't even really care about seeing the dorms.
“I just wanted to see the barn. The barn looked fine to me, so that was all I needed,” said Hoggle, a 1994 Judson grad who now directs the equestrian program. “Just give me a room facing the barn.”
Recently there's been a run on the school's barnside dorm rooms. In the last decade, many students have been drawn to the nation's fifth-oldest women's college by one of its best recruiters — a dark, lanky thoroughbred named Hunt — along with 15 of his friends.
“We're beginning to see more women choose Judson for the horses,” said David Pott, president of the Alabama Baptist school. “The equestrian program is a wonderful presence on our campus.”
“I passed up free college to go here,” said Maggie Audley of Bell, Fla.
“I could have had school paid for too if I had picked a public school, but I chose Judson,” echoed Christy Spearman of Semmes, Ala.
Why? Both will tell you it's the horses.
The equestrian program is not new. It has been around since the early 1900s, surviving through a few fits and starts to become a more consistent and vital part of the college in the 1970s, Potts said.
Now it's as much a fixture at the small college as the senior girls' rose arbor and the school's china, used for special occasions. On any given day, some of the school's 385 girls on the way to class might walk past a walk-trot class or a jumping lesson on the quad-like area at the center of campus.
“It never really seems to be old hat to them, though,” Hoggle said of the students who pass on their way to class. “They'll stop and watch for a while a lot of times, especially when we're playing broomstick polo.”
“And especially when Susan's on Java,” Audley said, the rest of the equestrian team stifling laughter. It's an inside joke, and Susan Guider of Utica, Miss., rolled her eyes. The last time Guider rode Java — a horse they all know by experience is more challenging than the other 15 steeds — he didn't take too well to the broom and, in turn, didn't take too well to Guider.
But she didn't seem to mind too much. In fact, the broom joke — at her own instigation — came up several more times as she and the others headed out for their afternoon riding class April 10.
“As you can see, these girls don't get along at all,” Hoggle teased. “You should see them on a long van ride. It's a lot of fun.”
She speaks from recent personal experience — some members of the team had just returned early that morning from a trip to Georgia, where they competed in an Intercollegiate Horse Show Association regional championship show.
Spearman came away with a fifth-place ribbon in the individual walk-trot-canter equitation class — Judson's first rider ever to compete in the show in a hunt-seat division.
And teammate Lauren Stephens of Mountain Brook, Ala., won second place in individual intermediate western horsemanship, qualifying her for the national championship show May 5 in Harrisburg, Pa.
Stephens' appearance will make this the second year in the history of Judson's IHSA team that the school is represented at the national show. Last year was the first. And Hoggle will serve as a steward at the national show, an unusual honor since Judson's only been there once.
“Jennifer deserves a lot of praise. She's done a wonderful job, and the program just gets better and better,” said Janice Palmer Williams, an adjunct riding instructor and 1983 Judson grad. “We never traveled as a team when I was here. But the program is much different now, and the horses are much higher quality. We didn't have the team experience they have now.”
In the decade since Hoggle came on staff, Judson joined IHSA and started going to shows, something Potts said gave “serious momentum” to the program.
“The intercollegiate show team got our name on the map in the horse world,” Hoggle said.
The school also added to its academic repertoire several interdisciplinary majors that combine an equine science minor with biology, business or journalism — a stepping-stone into veterinary medicine, equine business management or horse-related publicity.
“The program offers a lot of opportunities for young women, and it builds confidence and ability,” Potts said. “It also is an enormous benefit to those going into veterinary medicine, giving them large-animal experience that is very valuable. That's one reason Judson has a high acceptance rate into vet schools.”
Though not the only college in the state to offer equestrian classes — Auburn boasts a long-standing program — Judson is the only one that offers interdisciplinary majors with equine concentrations, Hoggle said.
Judson grads have received some top job offers, such as stable manager for the Biltmore Estate. And Judson students have received prestigious internships, like the Kentucky Equine Management internship program, a six-month paid internship during which students focus on specific equine tasks.
“They have been fascinated with all the people they have had come from Judson to the program,” Hoggle said. “They had no idea we were a small school, judging from the caliber [of] students they have gotten from us.”
Guider is one student who will intern this summer to work with a well-known trainer in Mississippi. Her mother said Judson “must be the best-kept secret in equine schools of the Southeast.” And she voiced concern that because of that, once the school builds its new regulation-size arena, Judson will grow too big.
“We don't plan to change,” Hoggle said. Gesturing to the class warming up their horses around the field, she added, “A smaller group gives us more opportunity for helping each other, team-building and togetherness.”
And that's not just among the eight members of the equestrian team. The equine spirit bleeds over into other areas of Judson's academia as well.
Students of any discipline can sign up for Beginning Riding 109 just like they might for Elementary French 101, and many of those students say they chose Judson for the horses too. Some 25 to 30 students take riding classes each semester, and probably 25 percent of those are new each time, Hoggle said.
“And working in the barn is the most popular work-study job on campus,” Potts said. “The young women line up to clean out stalls. They just love being around the horses.”
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