Molly Kerr rides during her lesson at the UK Equestrian team practice in Lexington, Ky., on Friday, February 22, 2013. Photo by Tessa Lighty | Staff
By Lindsay Travis
UK’s equestrian team won the Hunt Seat high-point ribbon with 47 points on Sunday, Feb. 24, in the regular season finale at Lakeside Arena in Frankfort, Ky.
Roughly 190 riders competed in Sunday’s show.
Kennedy Ellingson, a sophomore at UK and a transfer student from Canada, qualified during the show to compete in the Cacchione Cup.
The Cacchione Cup is named after Bob Cacchione, the founder of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association in 1967. The competition determines the IHSA’s top individual Hunt Seat rider for the current season.
Ellingson is 1 of 35 riders who will compete in both jumping and flat exercises.
“I’m just really super excited right now. I wasn’t expecting it. Canada doesn’t have the horse shows like this, so I came into it this year brand new,” Ellingson said. “I really wasn’t expecting that to happen and I’m just really excited.”
Ellingson competes in the most advanced riding class in the IHSA, called the Open Division.
The sophomore was 1 of 4 riders who competed in four-person ride-off to determine the Hunt Seat high-point rider. Ellingson took second.
UK’s Equestrian Team travels to Morehead State Univeristy to compete in the IHSA Regional Competition on Saturday, March 2.
It would be nice to see the rider in the photograph. Otherwise, the accomplishment and the image are fine.