California Riding Magazine • September, 2008

Horse People: Kaitlin Spak
Enterprising collegiate rider leads Cal Poly Equestrian Team to new heights.

by Kim F. Miller

College for many marks the start of adulthood and the end of riding. Industry groups like the USEF and the AQHA are keenly aware that this transition truncates the potential for growth in equestrian sports. Consequently they are big supporters of collegiate equestrian programs throughout the country.

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo senior Kaitlin Spak could be a poster girl for their cause. She headed from her home in Grass Valley to Cal Poly four years ago without her horse. “I only lasted four days,” says the enterprising, Masters-bound engineering student who has kept her horse, Soren Sabre, with her at school ever since.

An accomplished member of Grass Valley’s Northern Mines Pony Club and a student with several hunter/jumper, eventing and general horsemanship coaches there, Kaitlin considered the chance to ride important as she perused college options. Because she loved to compete but did not have a show budget herself, finding a good school with an Intercollegiate Horse Shows Assn. team was ideal.
Most IHSA participants ride horses provided by the school. Modest fees pay for the horse’s board, feed and veterinary care and team members generally provide the labor involved. At competitions students ride the host school’s horses. Relative to the cost of maintaining and campaigning a privately owned horse, most college riding opportunities are financially feasible to both experienced riders and newcomers.



Visiting Pony Club coach Shirley Antrobus wisely counseled Kaitlin to choose a school strictly on its academic suitability. “If it didn’t have a riding team, she told me I could always start one.” Kaitlin didn’t have to start the team at Cal Poly, but she has been instrumental in its growth and success over the last four years.

“The team was a little disorganized when I started,” she recalls. Back then, Cal Poly’s Horse Unit, which oversee equines in the Animal Science program, cared for the team’s mounts. Kaitlin led the way in putting team members in charge of these horses’ care. She used the knowledge acquired while earning her “H” Pony Club rating, combined with that of her teammates, to design management plans for vaccinations, shoeing, worming and other aspects of their care.
When Kaitlin arrived at Cal Poly, few of her non-horsey classmates had any idea the school had an equestrian team. Thanks to regular articles in the school’s paper and on its website, and appearances in Open House parades and other activities, there is a much broader awareness now. A new board position, devoted to public relations, was added this past year. A big presence at the IHSA Nationals this year elevated the team’s profile on and beyond campus.

The IHSA annual championship is usually held in Kentucky, but when it came to the Los Angeles Equestrian Center this past May, Cal Poly jumped on the chance to make its mark. One of the CPET’s more advanced riders, Kaitlin qualified for Nationals by doing well in regional qualifiers and finished an impressive third in the Novice Equitation on the Flat. Although she is not a novice rider, Kaitlin’s show accomplishments were mostly at unrated competitions, placing her in the Novice division per IHSA’s system of categorizing exhibitors. Her yellow ribbon caught the notice of many back at school, including Cal Poly’s president Warren Baker. “He even sent me and our team a letter of congratulations,” Kaitlin relays cheerfully.
The team sent 17 members to volunteer for the Nationals and one of its horses. “I think one of the reasons the show was such a good experience is that everyone here on the West Coast wanted to make it great,” Kaitlin comments. “I think the show was pretty successful.”

Team On The Rise

The CPET’s growth in the last decade parallels that of collegiate equestrian programs nationwide. The team was started in the mid to late 1980s, and first as a club. It had no horses of its own and its only connection to Cal Poly was that its members were students there. Around 2000, the club acquired its own horses and moved to the Cal Poly Rodeo Unit. “That was a big milestone that greatly increased membership,” Kaitlin explains. The next milestone came during her tenure, in 2004, when the team moved its headquarters from the Rodeo Unit to the Horse Unit. Moving to facilities more suited to show horses increased both interest and membership, she says.



Each fall since Kaitlin joined, close to 80 students have turned out for the team, which is still technically a “club” in Cal Poly’s organizational structure. However, by the end of the first quarter, that number is typically weeded down to 40 or so individuals who love the sport enough to accommodate the considerable time commitment required. Members take turns feeding the horses and stall mucking chores go to whoever is scheduled the ride the team’s horses each day.

The next phase of growth rests on acquiring more horses. Right now, the squad has just three. An energetic Quarter Horse named Lady serves the team’s western equestrians. Mick is a former A circuit jumper ridden by the team’s more advanced english riders and Pete is a favorite among all of the squad’s english enthusiasts. The woman who donated Pete comes to cheer him on at several shows, including the IHSA Nationals, where he was a big hit with many competitors.
The team provides a great home for rideable horses, Kaitlin says. As to what the team does with a donated horse when it becomes unsuitable, Kaitlin answers with the stories of recent examples of such cases. When one horse developed an autoimmune disease, it was given the best care possible while the condition was researched thoroughly. When the horse’s organs began to fail, it was euthanized. Another horse had navicular. He was ridden lightly for a while, but when Kaitlin joined the team, she and others quickly determined that the life wasn’t right for him. A team member’s family offered to take him in and provide a great home on their 20-acre property.

As the team’s go-to girl for prospective donations, Kaitlin carefully considers the needs of both the horse and the team when looking at new equine members.

Having just three horses now limits the amount of members the team can accommodate and the number of shows it can stage. Even with its previous roster of six horses, the Cal Poly sought borrowed horses from the surrounding community when it staged its twice a year shows. However, the horse count won’t hold the CPET back too much. Schools in the IHSA program have a wide range of horses: Stanford, for example, has about 40, Kaitlin says, and Santa Clara University has none.

A Busy Life

Kaitlin typically carries a relatively heavy academic load of 15 to 18 units, par for the course for engineering students. She prefers early morning classes, mid-morning sessions riding and caring for her own horse at a nearby stable, then back to school for afternoon classes. Her already substantial commitment to the team increased when she was elected president this past spring. Delegation and enthusiasm have been critical to her ability to juggle it all.

Continuing her own riding in a competitive context and enabling others to continue or begin their connection to horses are among the gratifying payoffs from Kaitlin’s volunteer efforts for the team. And there’s been no shortage of life lessons. “I’ve always been the kind of person who, when I see something that needs to be changed, I’m going to change it,” she says. “Working with a University, you can’t always do that. Sometimes you need to talk to a lot of people and gather different perspectives. And in some cases, it’s a matter of talking to the right people.”

As she and her fellow team leaders prepare for a big recruiting push this fall, Kaitlin is enjoying a typically busy summer back home in Grass Valley. She is interning with an engineering firm and, of course, riding her beloved Sabre. “The whole reason I didn’t want to sell my horse (before going to college) is that I didn’t want to be one of those people that doesn’t go back to riding after school,” she explains. Given her track record with the team, it seems likely Kaitlin will easily fulfill that personal goal.