2 riders from Wesleyan College Equestrian team place at Intercollegiate Dressage Association’s National Championships

Wesleyan College joined IDA in 2019 and has had riders appear in the IDA Nationals each year since.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — The Wesleyan Equestrian team sent two riders to the Intercollegiate Dressage Association’s National Championships, with both riders bringing home ribbons.

Freshman Nieve Leyne placed third in the First Level Dressage Seat Equitation Competition, which is the top division, while senior Taylor Kankowski placed eleventh in the Individual Upper Training Competition.

“It is really special to look back on how I was doing a couple of years ago; I could not have imagined being able to say I went to nationals my first year,” said Leyne.

Leyne, a Macon Native, has been riding at Wesleyan for some time now and gives credit to head coach Catherine Texter Baker and the community for really investing in the program.

“Coach Baker has really turned the place around. A lot of this stuff, our covered arena, was not here a couple of years ago. We got a really generous donation, and we got new fences, and she’s just really turned the place around,” said Leyne. “We’ve just gotten so many good horses donated to our program from members of the community and people all over the country.”

Wesleyan is one of the few programs in the country to have its stables on the college grounds.

“A lot of people don’t know the equestrian facility is back here. We get people in the barn all the time; they’re like, ‘I didn’t know Wesleyan had a barn back here,” said Leyne. “And it’s just from where we were five years ago to where we are now. We’re really just getting better and better every year. And we always are looking for support. So we encourage everyone to come and learn about Wesleyan and the history and the riding program because it is really something special.”

With the stables being on campus, Wesleyan College offers a hands-on Equine Assisted Therapy course for its students and several programs for community members. Visit https://www.wesleyancollege.edu/community/EquestrianCenter/ to see all the programs.