Team Membership Information
Thank you for your interest in joining the team! We hope this will answer most of the questions you might have, and help you decide to bring your riding and horsemanship to Pratt. Please do visit the official Athletics Department website after this, where you'll find well- organized links to all of Pratt's academic programs and financial aid opportunities in the Recruits tab. If you think you might like to join us, just fill out Pratt Equestrian's recruiting questionnaire, and we'll quickly get in touch with you to talk about the possibilities.
ABOUT THE TEAM
As a member of a varsity team of the college, you’ll be attending practices to help you progress in your individual riding and horsemanship, and toward our team's successful competition in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA). In our IHSA Region, there are generally five or six regular-season shows during the Fall semester and three or four regular-season shows during the first half of the Spring semester. Posts-season competition in Regionals and Zones, and at the National level, begins in late March for students who qualify. All regular-season shows are on Sundays, and all are in day-trip distance from Pratt's Brooklyn campus. All team travel is via one of Pratt's athletic vans.
Our Coaches:
Our Head Coach is JBRA's Jacobi "Jake" Pittari, our Associate Head Coach & Faculty Advisor is Pratt's Kathryn Cullen-DuPont, and our Assistant Coach is JBRA's Joyce Danza.
Our Practices:
The weekly training lessons that constitute our team practices are scheduled on Fridays, late afternoons though evenings. They take place at our home barn, Jamaica Bay Riding Academy (JBRA), with Pratt Equestrian having exclusive use of the JBRA facilities at those times. As a Division III college, Pratt prioritizes students' studies; all varsity team members receive priority course registration, so that they can arrange their class schedules in a way that accommodates team practices without any course conflicts. Riders are also able to arrange additional lessons at JBRA during the week. and to use their priority registration to accommodate this as well.
Intercollegiate Horse Show Association & IHSA Competition:
The mission of the IHSA is to provide equestrian competition for all undergraduate college and university students regardless of riding level, gender, race, sexual orientation/identity or financial status. The IHSA is dedicated to promote sportsmanship, horsemanship and academic excellence.
In promoting competition for riders of all skill levels, the IHSA includes riding levels ranging from Introductory (walk/trot) through Open (the most accomplished riders on the flat and over fences). and it even provides the additional opportunity to compete for one's college as an Alumni Rider after graduation. Since the IHSA is also committed to making equestrian competition as affordable as possible, its horse shows are structured so that no rider needs to own or transport their own horse in order to ride: each college hosts a home show at their own barn, and riders draw that barn's horses to ride in a "catch ride" format.
An IHSA career can extend to Regional, Zone, and National Competition - and Olympic gold-medalists Beezie Madden and Peter Wylde , both of whom rode on IHSA teams during their college years. are among the winners of the IHSA's highest honor, the Caccione Cup.
Community Service: :
Our team members have a strong commitment to community service. Pratt Equestrians sign up in pairs to volunteer two Saturday mornings per semester at Seaside 4 Therapeutic Riding, a therapeutic riding program that's certified by the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International to provide special-needs children with therapeutic and instructional riding lessons. Volunteers receive all the training necessary to be comfortable and effective during their very first session, and our current and past riders will be happy to let you know how truly rewarding they've found this volunteer work to be.
There's also an annual spring-time "Horses on Campus Day" at Pratt. For this, the Equestrian Team works with the Fine Arts Department and JBRA to bring equine models to the Brooklyn campus for this live-drawing day, and team members are asked, as their class schedules and abilities allow, to help hold and care for horses, staff a table to answer questions, and otherwise represent the Equestrian Team -- and the larger equestrian community in general -- to the Pratt community.
Interested in Joining Us?
If you're looking for an internationally top-ranked Architecture, Art, and Design college with a committed and truly close-knit equestrian team, we hope you'll follow up by completing a recruitment questionnaire for us.
Please also feel free and very welcome to follow us on Facebook or Instagram, to email us at [email protected], or to stop by our table should you attend the College Preparatory Invitational in Florida. (Note: For pandemic reasons, we've missed the past two, but we plan to be back at CPI Florida in January 2023.) However you choose to contact us, we'll happy to supply more information, answer any questions, arrange a day or overnight visit to the campus, or schedule an informal conversation for you with a current team member about their academic and athletic experience at Pratt.
With every good wish, and hoping to hear from you,
Kathryn Cullen-DuPont
Associate Head Coach & Faculty Advisor, Pratt Equestrian Team
[email protected]
