By Rachel Baldauf
Grace Gerberry has been riding horses since she was big enough to sit up on one. When it came time to choose a college, a Google search led her to St. Andrews University in North Carolina.
After talking with the roughly 40 members of the school’s equestrian program, which boasts a 300-acre facility, nearly 70 horses and a reputation for success, Gerberry was convinced. She packed her belongings and moved from Arizona to the small Scotland County town of Laurinburg.
“Just the horses and the atmosphere that everyone creates out here, it’s a very welcoming facility,” said Gerberry, 21, now a senior at the private school.
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Casual observers probably wouldn’t expect St. Andrews University to have a world-class equestrian program. The school, which has roots dating back to the late 19th century, has long struggled financially. Webber International University, a Florida private school, acquired St. Andrews in 2011 — a deal that many supporters say saved the school.
But critics bemoaned the cut in liberal arts courses and worried about student athletes, many of whom obtain student loans and are attracted by the school’s rising number of sports teams. The school’s enrollment has shrunk to about 500 on-campus students.
Despite larger debates about the university’s future, the equestrian program has thrived. Students come from all over, from Pennsylvania to Alaska, from Norway to Sweden, to join the program that has won six American National Riding Commission championships.
When Peggy McElveen became the director of the school’s equestrian program in 2000, the team was small. The school didn’t have its own facility, so students rode horses at a private barn down the road from the school.
McElveen, who grew up riding horses in Columbia, South Carolina, helped build the program from the ground up.
Carla Wennberg, the head coach of the western team, has been at St. Andrews for 18 years and has watched the program grow.
“I moved here with two horses and my western saddles and bridles,” she said. “And that’s all that we had.”
Today, the facility has multiple barns including a veterinary barn and a barn that houses horses used for therapeutic horsemanship.
“This is definitely one of the largest equine facilities for a college,” said Conner Smith, the program’s assistant equestrian director.
Bridgett Marin, a sophomore, said the facilities were a big factor in her decision to come to St. Andrews. The barns are close enough to campus that she is often able to ride horses between classes.
“A lot of schools, they don’t have facilities like this,” she said. “They have to travel 30 to 40 minutes off campus.”
Many students come to St. Andrews to study niche majors like equine business management and therapeutic horsemanship that can be hard to find at other schools, Smith said. Others are drawn by the array of horses that St. Andrews houses.
Marin, who is in the school’s pre-veterinary program, said the number of horses allows students to get experience that couldn’t get elsewhere.
“At a lot of schools, you don’t get to be as hands-on with the animals like you do here,” she said.
Chase Summerville, a junior, transferred to St. Andrews from Midway University in Kentucky. At St. Andrews, he is able to ride almost every day.
“Most schools aren’t able to offer that because they don’t have enough horses,” he said.
McKenna Downing, a sophomore, said she sometimes rides as many as five different horses a day.
“The riding opportunities are absolutely insane,” she said.
At competitions, St. Andrews often outscores larger schools with more funding, Wennberg said. The university competes in the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association alongside larger schools like N.C. State University and Duke University and has gone to the national championship multiple times.
“We’re small, but we’re really strong,” Wennberg said. “We beat colleges that are four or five times as big as we are.”
St. Andrews provides full scholarships to some of its riders, Smith said. Others receive partial scholarships that cover the cost of riding lessons. Smith scouts new students at horse shows across the country.
Cailey Culp, the assistant coach of the western team, is also a St. Andrews graduate who rode on the school’s western team. She said the program feels like a family.
“I obviously love the horses, and now I really love the kids and helping them grow as horsemen,” she said. “And I know as we teach them and they grow as horsemen, it makes them better people.”
Many say the program has changed their lives.
“I actually feel like I have a purpose,” said Lily Roman, a senior on the school’s western team. “I didn’t really ever feel like I had a purpose before I came here.”
