Equestrian appears to be generating unusual interest in the Association's membership for the same reason that rowing did: The sport could provide the means by which an institution could add a significant number of female student-athletes and help it comply with Title IX.

The NCAA membership services staff currently is working with the collegiate equestrian community to develop a set of general NCAA rules and regulations (such as recruiting rules, contest limits, eligibility and financial aid limits) that would apply to the sport, as well as a time frame for the implementation of the rules.

A committee composed of individuals within the equestrian community has agreed to forward recommendations to membership services regarding the sport. Membership services will review the proposal and forward the committee's recommendations to the Management Councils in all three divisions.

Once 40 institutions have sponsored women's equestrian teams on the varsity level for two years, the sport may be considered for NCAA championship status. Once a championship is approved, an NCAA committee is then established for the sport to assist in the championships format and to determine additional competition rules for the sport.

A work in progress

As equestrian moves toward emerging sport status -- and perhaps one day to championships status -- there are many issues to be ironed out along the way.

Robert E. Cacchione, executive director and founder of the International Horse Show Association (ISHA), which has been in operation since 1967, founded the association on three principles, all of which have caused extensive debate as discussions continue about how equestrian might work as an emerging sport in the NCAA.

"I started it with the principle that, No. 1, it was for every and any level of rider to participate," he said. "Every team member is as important as every other. No. 2, men can compete against women in the same sport. And No. 3, junior colleges can compete against four-year colleges with no regard for size.

"We've grown to more than 260 colleges in 37 states and more than 5,000 riders -- and still growing -- so obviously we're doing something right."

Because the sport features men and women competing together, some in the sport have asked, "What will happen to the men if it becomes an emerging sport for women?"

"That was one of the initial discussions when the (IHSA) committee met," Harris said. "The entire committee favors retaining the current format where men and women can compete together. We also felt that it was up to the individual schools -- some could have mixed teams and some could just have women's teams if they chose to do that, and the women would understand that they may be competing against men."

Many colleges and universities that have equestrian offer "mixed teams" that have at least one male on them. Athena Yiamouyiannis, NCAA director of membership services, pointed out that mixed teams will not be counted toward the 40 teams needed to take equestrian from emerging sport status to championship status.

"If one person on the team is male, that team may count toward the 50 needed for a men's NCAA championship, but it cannot count for the purposes of meeting the emerging sports total," she said.

"Most of the participants are women, but men do participate," Harris said. "The situation that a lot of schools are in, equestrian is becoming more popular to them because they see equestrian as a way to increase participation for women."

How the issue of mixed teams and mixed competition gets worked out depends, in part, on what the equestrian community wants to do.

"You could have a varsity men's team and a varsity women's team," Yiamouyiannis said. "For those schools that want to provide additional opportunities for women, they have the option of having a varsity women's team and they may want to also have a separate varsity or men's club team. It's up to the institution. An all-women's team may compete in a mixed championship."

"The ultimate question is, what does the equestrian community want?" Yiamouyiannis said.

Cacchione envisions a system where the men compete as individuals rather than as members of a team.

"At the moment, you're only allowed one team per school, and at the moment, there are more women in the IHSA than there are men, but there are men who compete," he said. "We're not losing the men. If this were to be deemed a women's sport, the team members could be women, but the men could ride as individuals for the zone, regional and national championships. I think that's going to be worked out in time."

Another issue to be resolved pertains to beginning riders. Currently, the IHSA has a national championship that includes beginners. The NCAA, however, doesn't offer any kind of junior varsity competition at national championships.

"Personally, I like walk-trot (the beginning class) being a part of the team," said Naomi Blumenthal, a member of the IHSA committee, associate professor of equine studies and coach of the equestrian team at Cazenovia College (a Division III provisional member). "Perhaps we're going to begin to exclude those riders. I don't know where the line will be drawn. At this point, we're trying to investigate how the two organizations can work together for the good of the sport."

Yet another concern is competition without different classes relating to the size or NCAA division of the institution. Currently the national Hunt Seat Champion in the IHSA is Hollins University, a Division III all-female institution in Virginia with about 800 students.

"One concern a lot of people have relates to the fact that we have always been able to compete without regard to division or size or two-year or four-year status," Blumenthal said. "We have schools that have equestrian as a varsity sport and we have schools that have this as a club sport. We have teams with one member and we have schools with 80 to 100 participants, yet we all compete on the same playing field. I like that."

Other issues to be resolved include amateurism -- IHSA's definition of an amateur is very different from the NCAA's -- and practice time.

Some of these issues are similar to those already worked out in other sports, and some of them are very different. For example, if a student-athlete is grooming or cooling down a horse, does that count as practice time? On one hand, the student-athlete would not actually be engaging in physical activity; on the other hand, the student-athlete would not have that time available for academics or personal time, either.

Peter Cashman, director of equestrian at the U.S. Military Academy and chair of the IHSA committee assisting with the proposal, emphasizes that all of these issues -- and several more, for that matter -- are going to be worked out.

"We're a work in progress," Cashman said. "We want to make sure the NCAA is happy with the final product and that the equestrian community is happy. We're working to figure out how the IHSA can maintain its integrity and the NCAA can maintain its integrity. There may be teams that compete in the IHSA who compete against NCAA teams but aren't NCAA teams. We're still working on that."

Cashman also pointed out that his group continues to work with the American Quarter Horse Association, the United States Olympic Committee and the America Horse Show Association.

Cashman also acknowledges that not everyone may be happy with how equestrian eventually works as an emerging sport or as an NCAA championship sport, but he thinks the emerging sport status is an important step in the growth of equestrian.

"There's so much fear of the unknown," he said. "But we have to step out of our own boxes and look at what's better for all of us 10 years down the road."

Emerging Sports

Number of institutions that sponsor the following emerging sports for women:

Ice Hockey 40

Water Polo 37

Squash 27

Bowling 21

Synchronized Swimming 8

Badminton 3

Archery 2

Team Handball 0