Middle Georgia Equestrian Center YEDA Team Preps for First Ever Nationals

The YEDA team will be heading to Nashville May 31st for the Nationals Competitions

COCHRAN, Georgia – (41NBC/WMGT) -The Middle Georgia Equestrian Center predominantly does show teams. One of their new show teams is the YEDA team. YEDA, or Youth Development Equestrian Association, allows riders grades four through twelve to compete as a team in separate events preparing them for collegiate show team competition and beyond.

Owner and YEDA equestrian head coach Allie Arrington is already a coach for the MGA Knights equestrian team, so making this transition was easy. Plus, with several talented youth riders already interested in the program, how could she say no?

Now, what started with no one having a membership, has now blossomed to this ninth through twelfth grade team being the first Georgia team ever to make it to the Nationals Competitions.

Coach Arrington thinks “the really cool thing about YEDA is, some of these kids don’t have horses at home, but they get to compete for their team in Georgia and when you go to the hosts colleges, they ride horses there. So you don’t have to take a horse and compete” said Arrington. “The ball you are playing with is an animal and that makes it extremely difficult, and also challenging to coach, because that person has to develop a lot of sportsmanship and having a really good strong work ethic in that sportsmanship, and also having really good horsemanship.”

That makes for a humbling experience to coach, according to Arrington. While equestrian is an individualized sport, this requires everyone to work as a team because they compete together for points.

“When you go to college, say you are a really good rider and you aspire to ride in college” said Arrington. “You have to immediately learn how to ride as a team player and how to function as a team, being your whole life shown individually with yourself and your parents or your trainer. So, this youth version of the collegiate prepares that rider to go in and compete at a collegiate level too. I noticed a lot of YEDA riders go in and compete really well immediately at collegiate level because they know how to ride as a team.”

One rider, Kaila Stinehelfer, is glad she has teammates having her back thru the ups and downs. “If its just you an your horse showing, its really easy to get frustrated by one bad class, but when you have all these other people around you encouraging you, it makes it a whole lot easier” said Stinehelfer.

That experience has actually shown a couple young riders that they too can go to college, when maybe they thought they couldn’t before. Arrington explained “the YEDA nationals, they have loads of colleges come and recruit there. So they’re looking for riders from that nationals, so they’ll have the opportunity too to showcase themselves.”

Now as this young team prepares to head to nationals for the first time, they will compete in Horsemanship, Reining, and Ranch Riding, each earning points in different divisions with different skill levels. Arrington said “you don’t have to all be at the top of your game, you can have that intermediate level, with a more beginner level too. So I really like that about YEDA as well. You don’t have to be an expert to do this. You can come in and learn and still show.”

YEDA rider Chloe Biron said “it feels amazing that we have the opportunity to be the first ever Georgia team to ever do anything like this. I expect a big competition with all these other states, but I think Georgia can keep up with them.”

Another YEDA rider, Allie Ramey thinks it’s great they can start something for younger generations to come to look up to. “It’s pretty awesome to think that we are the first ones” said Ramey. “We’re the ones creating this for younger kids to be able to come up and do this because this is a good thing for younger kids to be able to do because it does accept all grade levels of school.”

Being the first time at Nationals, Coach Arrington wants them to have fun and take it all in. However, according to Arrington it is a very stressful environment. “I think that the biggest aspect, I have great riders, but if you’re not mentally tough, and able to go in there and say ‘you know what? I’ve got this’ and go in there and show like you’re riding at home like they’re doing today, then that’s gonna hurt their performance” said Arrington. “But if they can go in, and that’s why we talk a lot about sports psychology in practice because a lot of this is sports psychology.”

That mental toughness means no horsing around, especially when practicing without one before the big competition. “We run the patterns of foot, so we have to pretend to be riding, and I have to walk through these patterns with these riders, as if they were riding” said Arrington. “We cant say, ‘okay, lets get on and practice before you go in’ there is no such thing.” Stinehelfer added “its really interesting, I’ve been showing for 12 years, 13 years this fall, but I’ve always show on my own horses. So I know how to ride, but its definitely different going into a show not knowing what you’re gonna get.”

In these times, that’s where leadership can have a lasting impact. Ramey said “everybody on this team, I feel a very close bond with because we do work together on so much stuff. We are here every Tuesday, every Thursday riding together so I hope to be able to lead them to victory. I hope that we can win something good for these people because this all of us, our first year doing this, so I want them to be able to feel that win and feel how good it feels.”

At the end of the day, making it to Nationals has been an accomplishment in itself. No matter what happens, Arrington is happy with the work these kids have put in. “I’m just really proud of them” said Arrington. “I think they are just amazing kids. They give it all they’ve got. They come to practice every week and I’m just really excited to take them next week.”