Faith Academy grad makes champion Texas A&M stock horse team
JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF
COLLEGE STATION — Recent Faith Academy of Marble Falls graduate Zach Haydon decided taking a full course load and being a member of the Corp of Cadets wasn’t enough to keep him busy during his first year at Texas A&M University.
So he decided to submit a video and a biography to the Texas A&M stock horse team.
Last week, Haydon received word that he was selected to be one of 10 members of the reigning national championship team.
“There might be a few late nights and early mornings,” he said. “I’ll find time to study in between classes.
“It’s a big deal for me to be able to make the team,” he added. “For me, it’s a big deal to make the team and represent A&M in the equine industry.”
The team practices three times a week and competes in events, including:
- stock horse pleasure, which measures the ability of the horse to be functional and a pleasure to ride
- trail, which tests a horse’s ability to cope with situations riders would encounter during a ride
- reining, which is the ability of a horse to perform many basic handling maneuvers
- working cow horse, in which horses are directed to work a single live cow in an arena, perform specific maneuvers from circling the cow, turning it in a specified manner, and perform a reining pattern
Haydon said stock horse competitions are different from rodeos in many ways.
Stock horse teams work with the same horses, while in rodeos, athletes might be assigned a horse. Also, stock horse competitions have judges who grade on technique and grace. In rodeos, clocks are used to determine winners, and athletes might be penalized extra time for bumping into an object in the arena such as a barrel or a pole.
“We have to know the horse and show it to the best of our ability,” Haydon said.
The son of Kelly and Russell Haydon will major in biological and agricultural engineering.
During the first semester, the horse team will provide a horse to him. And Haydon said he looks forward to joining a national champion team.
“We’ll be looking to keep that crown,” he said. “We’ll all be competing against the best of the best.”
jfierro@thepicayune.com