Equestrian prepares to take on Fresno State
South Carolina’s Alexa Anthony participated sparingly during her first two years with the equestrian team. The junior compiled a 3–3 record in those two years while also collecting experience in exhibition rides.
Meanwhile, her older sister, Carly, was being named to All-American teams and winning MVPs at rival Georgia.
But Carly has graduated, and now, it’s Alexa’s turn to bring in the hardware.
South Carolina’s Anthony sister won both of her rides with the Jumping and Equitation on the Flat teams and earned her first career MVP with her event–high score of 87 on the flat against Kansas State last week.
Her performance helped carry the Gamecocks to a 15–5 win over the Wildcats in the season opener.
Anthony and head coach Boo Major are preparing for a Fresno State team that is looking to impress in its own season opener this Friday.
“We’re cruising right along,” Major said. “We’re kind of running around a little bit, just because of the short week. It makes it a little hurried, but at the same time, the girls having the weekend off last week just gave them an opportunity to catch their breath. Now everyone seems ready to go.”
The Gamecocks will have the upper hand against Fresno State because of the competition that is already under South Carolina’s belt.
This will help Major’s team because she already has a sense of how they perform.
“I think it helps us a lot,” Major said. “We’re more comfortable with where we are. We have to run the competition as well, so I think we were able to get a lot of the kinks out of the actual running of the competition last Friday. Everyone kind of knows what they have to do now.”
South Carolina is still dealing with the injury bug, but the team will get back Amber Henter, who will return to the Equitation Over Fences team after suffering a fall last week that injured her head.
Major said Henter was kept out for concussion–related purposes and she still helped out the team from the ground against the Wildcats.
Anthony took Henter’s spot on the Jumping team last week, but with the return of Henter, Anthony just has to focus on her flat ride.
Major was pleased with the performance of Anthony last week and even though Henter has returned to the Jumping team, it doesn’t rule out the possibility of Anthony playing again there this season.
“She definitely earned her way in and did a great job there,” Major said. “It’s a pleasure to see your alternate perform as well as Alexa did. It makes you feel very comfortable.”
Major said she tried to get the elder Anthony, Carly, to come to South Carolina, but the older sister did not take a visit to Columbia and went to Georgia instead.
Alexa said she misses seeing her sister at events against Georgia and said she is her “best friend.”
Alexa and Carly’s dad compared the sister’s playing against each other to Peyton and Eli Manning playing against each other, but Alexa acknowledged that they aren’t quite at that level. While that matchup never came to fruition, Alexa said she would have liked to compete against her big sister. But the siblings still found ways to help each other out.
“It was really fun because we would both encourage each other to do well for each other’s team,” Alexa said. “It would have been really fun if Carly and I were at the same school, but she had a calling to go to Georgia and I had a calling to come to USC, and I think it worked out well.”
A summer in Germany helped Alexa get ready for this season and she said getting on the different kinds of horses in Europe was a big learning experience.
That helped her into the starting lineup and she said she hopes to set an example to the younger riders throughout the season and help her team grow closer together.
“I think having a good relationship among the girls on the team is a huge part of success,” Anthony said.