MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Despite hanging up her saddle at Middle Tennessee State University almost a decade ago, Anne Brzezicki, the university’s prolific former director of Equestrian programs, equestrian team coach and horse science instructor, has not pulled back on the reins — inducted into the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association Hall of Fame this past weekend.

“I spent about 54 years engaged with the IHSA as a rider, coach, regional president, zone chair and director at large,” said Brzezicki. “To have helped bring the next generation (of riders) in, helped them find their way, and then seen them help the next generation of riders to do the same has meant everything to me.”

Brzezicki officially joined the elite group of inductees at the induction ceremony on Friday, May 1, during the IHSA’s National Championships weekend at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring, North Carolina. Inductees “exhibit outstanding competitive achievement, honors, or contributions to the IHSA and/or success in the equestrian community,” according to the association’s website.

Originating in the late 60s, the organization was launched as a nonprofit to make the sport of horse riding more accessible and equitable for the collegiate community.

“Horses are expensive, but students do not need to own a horse to compete in IHSA competitions,” Brzezicki said. “Member institutions host competitions and provide both horses and equipment to competitors. It provides any student interested in riding at these institutions with the opportunity and resources to get involved.”

This also makes the contests more balanced by standardizing equipment quality and focusing on the rider, with competitors assigned a horse via a lottery system moments before heading into the ring.

Rhonda Hoffman, professor and current director of MTSU’s Horse Science program as well as Brzezicki’s colleague of two decades, said, for Brzezicki, teaching horsemanship was not a job but a “passion and a calling.”

“At MTSU alone, Anne gave freely and without accolades to support students and provide opportunities,” said Hoffman, who attended Brzezicki’s induction with the MTSU equestrian team and coaches participating in this past weekend’s championships. “Whether that was helping finance the team; hauling horses and kids with her truck and trailer; providing her gas, her tack, some MTSU horses and some of her own horses; and her limitless hours of time and effort with the unequivocal certainty that it mattered.

“Those students, now adults, some of whom have sent children of their own back to Anne, have no doubts they are better off for having had those experiences and remember them fondly. It matters to them to be one of ‘Anne’s kids,’ and they love her for making that difference in their lives.”

Expanding horsemanship on campus and beyond

Brzezicki began her coaching career in the early 70s at the University of Connecticut, quickly jumping at the chance to join the IHSA’s board and ushering in her first sweeping contribution to horsemanship expansion.

“The IHSA only had riders competing in what is known as ‘hunter seat,’” said Brzezicki, a style of riding with a lightweight saddle and a forward-leaning, active posture to prepare for jumping. “We saw how beneficial the IHSA competition was for our hunter seat team at UConn, so we pushed the association to make it available for western-seat riders, too.”

Brzezicki successfully petitioned the board to adopt the western discipline, a more relaxed style of riding with a heavy saddle for long hours and stability, opening up the industry to thousands more students. With western riding especially popular in the Midsouth and Midwest, Brzezicki’s vision would soon help the association incorporate these untapped regions.

Her arrival on the MTSU campus in 1976 was marked with the same passion and eye toward fostering student opportunity that had already marked her early career — she launched MTSU’s equestrian team, persuaded the IHSA to create a new region that included Tennessee, and hosted the university’s first IHSA National Championships on campus, her master’s thesis due the morning after wrapping up the competition.

“It was an immense project for us to take on, and it included the very first time regions and team competition were incorporated in IHSA Nationals, as well as — in a full circle moment — the first time Western Horsemanship classes were held in Nationals competition.”

As Brzezicki’s industry accolades continued to mount, her philosophy of bringing students and the university’s programs along for the ride never wavered. She included students in everything from 4-H, a youth-development organization based on hands-on projects that often center on agriculture and livestock, to the Tennessee Quarter Horse and American Quarter Horse Associations, to the Certified Horsemanship Association, and beyond.

“All these associations and their missions were very compatible with our work at MTSU, and their events were a great learning lab and complementary training for our students, whom I generally dragged along to events far and wide,” she said.

“These allowed us to be active in volunteer work in our community, help support statewide events and gain connections to national issues and groups that guide the future of horses and their people. They also opened doors for so many students through connection to professionals looking for young employees, associations looking for summer interns and valuable experience in the industry.”

Ariel Higgins, who studied under Brzezicki, stepped in as director of MTSU’s Equestrian programs when Brzezicki retired in 2017.

Lasting legacy

Rhonda Hoffman estimated that Brzezicki’s decades of tireless dedication to the industry have impacted at least two thousand students.

“Actually, more likely, even more,” Hoffman said. “All of the MTSU horse science students in 35 years of teaching. All of the MTSU equestrian team students, many who were not horse science majors, over 35 years. Every 4-H horse kid who participated in Tennessee 4-H horse shows or horse judging contests. Every kid who attended an MTSU-hosted youth horse clinic that Anne helped organize and teach.” 

At the recent celebratory weekend, Brzezicki did not look forward most to another well-deserved honor or to the well-deserved praise for her years of work, but to what has kept her passion alive for all these years: the people and the horses.

“I was excited to see so many old friends from nearly 60 years of our work, and that it continues to develop,” she said.

“Horses and horse sport are unique: horses cannot be put on a shelf like sports equipment to wait for the next season. They require a lot of care and give back so much to those who care for them. I just want anyone who has felt called to or wanted to find a place within this industry to have the availability, the chance to get started.”

Learn more about MTSU’s Horse Science program at https://www.mtsu.edu/program/horse-science-b-s/ and equestrian team by emailing Higgins at Ariel.Higgins@mtsu.edu.

— Stephanie Wagner (Stephanie.Wagner@mtsu.edu)