“The place to get close to horses” will host ‘the sport of scholars’ when the Kentucky Horse Park hosts the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association (IHSA) National Championships in Lexington May 5-8, 2016, and May 4-7, 2017, (when IHSA, the nation’s largest and oldest collegiate equestrian team association, celebrates the 50th anniversary of its founding).

The IHSA National Championships Hunt Seat division judges will be ‘R’ judge Carol O’Brien of Aiken, South Carolina, and ASPCA Maclay Finals, USEF Medal Finals and New England Equitation Finals course designer and judge, Julie Winkel of Maplewood Inc. in Reno, Nevada. 2007 AQHA Horsewoman of the Year Gretchen Mathes of Powder Brook Farm in Harwinton, Connecticut, and Quarter Horse trainer Kim Myers of Felton, Pennsylvania, will judge the IHSA Western divisions. Accommodations will be through Four Points by Sheraton Lexington on 1938 Stanton Way.

IHSA National Championships were last held back-to-back at KHP in 2011 and 2010 when, respectively, the Collegiate Cup High Point Hunt Seat Teams were Centenary (NJ) and Skidmore (NY) Colleges and AQHA Trophy High Point Western Teams were Berry College (GA) and University of Findlay (OH). While in Kentucky, Marissa Cohen (Centenary) and Lindsay Sceats (Mount Holyoke College) earned their USEF/Cacchione Cup titles, as did AQHA High Point Western riders Rebekah Irish (Black Hawk College) and Jason Romney (Utah State University).

The IHSA mission is to promote competition for riders of all skill levels, who compete individually and as teams at regional to national levels, based on the principle that any college student should be able to participate in horse shows regardless of financial status or riding level. Learn more about the IHSA National Championships and IHSA at www.ihsainc.com.