MURFREESBORO, Tenn. —
Middle Tennessee State University was named reserve national champion — a second-place showing — at the
American Stock Horse Association collegiate championship show in Sweetwater,
Texas, earlier this spring.
This comes following MTSU winning the Division II national
championship in 2016.
The National Collegiate Championship brings together
collegiate and individual riders from across the country to present their versatile
stock horse. A stock horse is well suited for working with livestock,
particularly cattle.
Two students, recent May graduate Delaney Rostad of Maryville,
Tennessee, and junior Luke Brock,
a transfer from Franklin, Tennessee,
finished in the top-10 in the nation in their respective nonpro and novice
divisions, respectively.
“I felt good about how they performed,” said coach Holly Spooner, associate professor in
the horse science program, discussing the overall team effort. The program is
based out of the Horse Science Center
on North Thompson Lane in Murfreesboro.
The team competes in working cow horse, reining, ranch
pleasure and ranch trail, Spooner said.
In addition to Rostad and Brock, other team members included
Rachel Hutton, a graduate student
from Knoxville, Tennessee; Seneca Sugg, a grad student from Memphis, Tennessee; sophomore Jessica Starling of Cleveland, Tennessee; and senior Trevor Higgins of McMinnville, Tennessee.
Unrelated to the Sweetwater event, horse science has had
seven student abstracts accepted for the Equine Science Society Symposium May
30 through June 2 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Spooner said all of the MTSU students (a group of authors
conducting graduate thesis work) who had their abstracts accepted will attend
and plan to participate in either a poster or an oral presentation.
Spooner has been awarded the 2017 Equine Science Society
Symposium Josie Coverdale Award for
Outstanding Young Professionals.
The award is presented to an equine professional under the
age of 40 that has made meritorious contributions to equine science in
teaching, research, public service or industry.
Horse science is part of the School of Agribusiness and Agriscience, which is one of 11 College of Basic and Applied Sciences
departments.
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