Colony High School graduate earns spot on Kansas State equestrian team

PALMER - This fall, there will be many Mat-Su Valley student athletes starting their college careers in a number of different sports.

Football, basketball, volleyball …

Even equestrian.

Yes, equestrian.

It's becoming fairly common for local athletes to earn a shot to compete at the college level in team sports such as football and basketball. But one recent Colony High School graduate has earned a truly unique opportunity.

Rhiannon Truax has scored a shot to compete for the Kansas State University equestrian squad.

Truax has been riding horses since she was 9, but until recently, she said she never really thought of combining college with the sport. A friend told her she should look into the possibility of competing at the college level, and to check out Kansas State. Truax did a little research, and began to correspond with the coaches. After she sent a video to KSU, the coaches offered her a spot on the team.

Now Truax is one of 75 members of the KSU equestrian team. She said, because of the size of the squad, only just a portion of the team is awarded a full-ride scholarship. But normally every athlete gets a little money to go toward their education. Freshman usually get about 10 to 20 percent of the fees taken care of, she said.

Truax also applied to Western State in Colorado.

&#8220They didn't have horses there, so Kansas State was more appealing,” Truax said.

Truax intends to pursue a degree in the medical field, possibly pre-pharmacy.

Athletes on the KSU equestrian squad compete in two different classes - English and western.

English is also called the hunt set. Truax said this is based on field hunting, and fence jumping is found in these events.

Western is also known as the stock set. There is no jumping in these events, and judges look more toward the rider's style.

Truax said she really likes the hunt set events.

&#8220Trying to make the horse look pretty,” she said. &#8220It's fun.”

On the college level, Truax said, the riders are judged more closely that the horses. Rather than just competing with one horse, riders are expected to perform with a number of different horses.

&#8220You use their horses. Draw a name out of a hat, and use a horse you've never ridden,” Truax said. &#8220It's pretty different. One you get used to riding one horse, it's hard to get on another horse.”

Truax got her first horse, a gift from her parents, just a few months after she first started riding as a 9-year-old. She had that horse for about four years, and now leases a horse.

Truax said it is pretty expensive to board a horse, and leasing is just cheaper. And she still gets to ride as much as she wants to.

Right now she rides at least four or five times a week. She also meets twice a week with a trainer. She's been riding with that trainer since she was 11, and started compete in horse shows a few years ago, she said. Now she competes in about a half dozen shows a year. The Alaska State Fair Horse Show Association hosts three. She also competes in Anchorage.

In the future Truax hopes to be in the position to have horses of her own.

&#8220I've been around it for so long, it's something I have to have,” Truax said. &#8220I have stuck with it for nine years. I pretty much know I'm not going to quit.”

Truax also rode the Colony Knights mascot during CHS football games last season. Every time Colony would score, Truax would ride up and down the sideline.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.