Photography by Keagan Phillips
Photography by Keagan Phillips
Photography by Keagan Phillips
Photography by Keagan Phillips
Tucked across the parking lot from Top Golf, a national championship-winning team takes the saddle almost daily.
Based in the Dallas Equestrian Center, Southern Methodist University’s equestrian team is coming off two consecutive NCEA National Championship wins. The program has close to 40 riders, with 20 appearing as competition starters.
The team cruised to a 10-4 record in the regular season, clinching the number one overall seed in the postseason. Riders, split into jumping saddle and Western disciplines, will compete individually and be awarded points as a unit for a team score.
At the end of the regular season, we caught up with first-year Head Coach Brad Kearns and a few of his athletes to learn more about the program.
Head Coach Brad Kearns
(1st year head coach. Assistant coached on the national championship-winning teams)
What was that like?
You just don’t even believe that it’s happening at the time. And then you don’t even believe that it really happened. I look back at the pictures, and I can remember how it felt in that moment, but it was so unbelievable, but so exciting.
What kind of culture are you looking to build?
I want to build a team that has a strong work ethic, that wants to come to practice, to work on the basics and improve. I want them to come with the intent to improve. And I think that that comes from each one of the ladies on the team having that mindset of wanting to improve. On our team, everybody practices so everybody’s getting opportunities to try to get into the starting lineup and make themselves known for what their strengths are. I really want that culture to be where everyone has the opportunities, and everybody’s working towards improvement.
What is the key to long term success for the program?
It’s a lot of different things that have to line up. I think you have to have good coaches that can inspire and communicate to the athletes as to what they need to do to improve. I think that you have to have good recruiting. You have to be able to recognize talent, whether it’s out there competing successfully, or maybe a little bit of a diamond in the rough, where it’s a little bit of a raw talent that you can develop, and you have to be able to find the mental attitude. You have to find the people that will work well within your dynamic and your group setting.
How do you like practicing in the neighborhood?
We love the Dallas Equestrian Center. We have a really nice setup with our stalls and our tack rooms, and our locker room is right here in the center of the barn, where we’re close to our horses. So when the girls come from school, which school is only, like, three and a half miles away, they can change out of their leggings or whatever they wear to class into their practice gear and get the horses out and practice and be done and head back to school. And it’s a short 10-minute drive drive by the time you walk to your car, go, and get to drive to campus and park. It’s very, very user-friendly for them to be able to go to school because, at the end of the day, they’re student athletes, and student, it’s the first part of student athletes. So they have to be able to be successful as a student and as an athlete. And we have wonderful arenas that we can ride in, and it’s just right beside Top Golf. So when the dads come to visit, and they don’t want to watch, they can head over next door and hit some golf balls.
Augusta Iwasaki
(JR | Jumping Seat | 2X First Team All-American)
Why SMU?
I heard a lot of good things about SMU when I was a junior competing. And I knew I wanted to be on a riding team, at least since throughout all of my high school years. I just heard such great things about the team and about SMU in general. I came here and visited. I met the coaches and a few of the girls, and I had known a few girls that were on the team. It just seemed to right for me. I loved the school. I think the academics here are really great.
Elli Yeager
(SR | Jumping Seat | 1X Second Team All-American)
The team has had a great regular season, what was the key?
I think our schedule for the first half of the year was very difficult, but I’m almost glad it was like that because it’s always good to be put back down a few levels, and then we really had to work to get back up to where we are now. So I think that’s always good. I think if you have an easier schedule, and then you go into nationals, you’re like, ‘Oh, well, I haven’t faced any of the really hard teams yet.’ Well, we know we can do it because we faced them twice this year.
Nya Kearns
(Grad | Western | 3X First-Team All-American, 2021–22 NCEA Horsemanship Rider of the Year)
You’ve accomplished a lot in your career, how did you stay focused?
You kind of get in the groove and you get a routine going, and being successful, or having success, pushes you to want to keep doing it. I think that achieving makes you want to achieve more, if that makes sense. And I think that it’s just a mindset that you have to adapt to constantly pushing yourself to be better.
