The SIUE equestrian club mission is focused around equine education and was designed to help students/grad students/faculty learn about horses, horse management, various riding disciplines, safety and the ability to compete collegiately. It is not required that you have any previous experience with horses to be a part of the club or the competing team, as we are here to learn together and expand your knowledge and experiences.

Some of the club activities include: meetings once/twice a month, clinics, individual riding lessons, group lessons, trips to certain horse related events, club "hang out" nights, etc. Some highlights from the 2008-2009 year were Greenville Vet sponsoring a clinic on equine health and diagnosing health issues, a trip to SIUC for a collegiate show, visiting the Illinois State Horse Fair in March, our 1st annual tack swap in March, as well as numerous club dinners! 

Within the club we have a competing team. The team is a part of IHSA (intercollegiate horse show association) and college rodeo. Again, you do not need to have ANY experience to compete. The shows are designed for riders of ALL experience levels. The IHSA competes in English, hunter/jumper, western horsemanship, and reining; whereas college rodeo includes barrels, goat tying, bronc riding, bull riding, etc. We are trying to offer a variety of options to our team members. For the IHSA you do not bring your own horse (or even own a horse), a horse will be provided for you to ride. This association really emphasizes your riding ability. It is designed to make you a better rider and be able to ride horses of all different kinds.

 Our team coach is Phil Layton, and he's the owner/trainer of Phancy Pharm. It is a stable located approximately 6 minutes from campus. Phil has been a coach for other intercollegiate teams before, so he offers the team a wide range of collegiate show knowledge. If you are interested in competing, Phancy Pharm offers the equestrian team members lessons for $30/hour. This is by far the best rate in the area! You will NOT find another barn at this rate, unless it's a group lesson, which sometimes doesn’t offer as much individual rider focus. If you'd like to come to a lesson, we highly encourage watching other lessons! Phil welcomes visitors and you can always learn something by watching someone else!

 We also try to inform the club members of local shows and activities that are going on. For example during the winter months there are numerous Grand Prix’s in St. Louis that we try to attend.