Nine riders have helped the MTSU Stock Horse Team earn a Division II national championship for the second time since 2016.

The Blue Raider team, which is coached by Andrea Rego, earned the title in early April at the American Stock Horse Association Collegiate and National Show in Sweetwater, Texas.

Nine MTSU riders celebrate capturing the American Stock Horse Association Collegiate and National Show Division II championship earlier in April. Team members include, from left, graduate assistant Lucas Brock, Caroline Blackstone, Jenna Seal, Patricia Wingate, Taylor Meek, Kylie Small, Jennifer Dowd, Mary Wade, Lindsay Gilleland, Hunter Huddleston and coach Andrea Rego. Seal and Huddleston earned first-place awards; the national champion trophy is directly in front of the MT logo on the MTSU Stock Horse Team sign. (Submitted photo by Andrea Rego)

Students and their horses competed in cow horse, pleasure, reining and trail events, Rego said.

In cow horse, the rider’s horse works with a live cow, performing specific maneuvers that include circling the cow, turning it in a specific manner and performing a reining pattern — requiring skill, coordination and timing — as the rider guides the horse through a precise pattern of circles, spins and stops.

Division II schools including MTSU show in two divisions, Limited Non-Pro and Novice, and are typically smaller teams, Rego said. MTSU finished ahead of Reserve Champion Clarendon and third-place Missouri State.

Individual national show results leading to the team title included:

• Jenna Seal, a senior from Meridian, Mississippi, was the Limited Non-Pro Champion riding Catsafire.

• Patricia Wingate, a junior from Hazelpark, Michigan, placed third overall in Limited Non-Pro, riding Izzie Tronado.

• Hunter Huddleston, a freshman from Franklin, Tennessee, was Youth Champion, riding My Favorite Remedy.

• Taylor Meek, a freshman from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was Youth Reserve Champion, riding Dunnits Smokin.

• Kylie Small, a senior from Dallas, Georgia, was Novice Reserve Champion, riding BC Pennys from Tari.

• Mary Catherine Wade, a junior from Germantown, Tennessee, was fourth overall in Novice, riding Hay Now Sunshine.

• Caroline Blackstone, a junior from Douglasville, Georgia, was sixth overall in Novice, riding Shakers Cowgal.

• Jennifer Dowd, a senior from Unionville, Tennessee, was eighth overall in Novice, riding LC Jack Handcock 101.

MTSU senior Jenna Seal of Meridian, Miss., rode Catsafire to the individual championship in the Limited Non-Pro category. (Submitted photo by Andrea Rego)

Division I schools show in three divisions — Non-Pro, Limited Non-Pro and Novice — and typically comprise larger competing schools, Rego said. Three Texas schools — champion North Central Texas College, Reserve Champion Texas Tech and third-place Texas A&M — earned the top spots in Division I.

To learn more about the Horse Science Program at the MTSU Horse Science Center on West Thompson Lane, call 615-898-2832 or visit www.mtsu.edu/programs/horse-science.

Horse science is part of the School of Agriculture, one of 11 departments in the College of Basic and Applied Sciences.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)

Riding My Favorite Remedy, MTSU freshman Hunter Huddleston of Franklin, Tenn., earned a first-place award in the Youth Champion category. (Submitted photo by Andrea Rego)

Senior Kylie Small of Dallas, Ga., rode BC Pennys from Tari to Reserve Champion in the Novice Reserve category. (Submitted photo by Andrea Rego)