The Goodrich Equestrian team rode into history last weekend by winning the schools first state championship in Division B.
From Oct. 11-14, the Midland County Fairgrounds hosted the Michigan Interscholastic Horsemanship Association (MIHA) state championship show. Forty high school equestrian teams from across Michigan qualified to compete in Division A, B, C or D. Divisions are based on the number of riders. Goodrich competed in Division B, the fifth straight year that the team has competed at states. The four previous years they finished seventh, fifth, State Reserve Champs (second), and third last year.
Goodrich was led by Juniors Cassidy Bartkowiak and Curtice DeSota, Sophomores Aubrey Stockwell and McKenize Melosh, Freshmen Carmen Gonzalez, Ellie Johnson and Cate DeSota.
“It was a long cold four days up in Midland with the most amazing people,” said Christina Desota, coach. The Goodrich Equestrian Team worked hard and kept plugging away and ended up state champions. After five years of coaching this team at a state level, Goodrich won their very first state championship. I am so proud to coach these teens.”
Teams compete for points in 17 class/events to determine the champion and reserve champion. Competition was judged by two judges in Showmanship, English, Western, Saddle Seat riding, trail, and jumping. There were four speed classes where points were awarded based on the best elapsed time. Each speed class ran twice with points awarded in each heat.
“Not only are they great riders but they are all great friends,” she said. “This has been such a fun year to coach. A special thank you to former coach Karen Abbey for paving the way for this championship team. Thank you to each one who helped us to get here. We knew coming into the year that our kids had the talent to pull this off but we were a very young team with no seniors and everyone had horses that were new to them. They worked tirelessly, conquered personal demons, grew in character, supported each other when things didn’t go well and had a ton of fun along the way.”
Goodrich was in a tight battle all weekend. By the end of Sunday Goodrich captured their first state title by edging out Bay City Western by 16 points in Division B. With the whole team returning, Goodrich will be looking forward to defending their title next year.