‘So much sweeter’: Auburn equestrian cherishes its chance to host the SEC Championship — and its chance to win it again
Top-seeded Auburn equestrian appears to be a collision course with second-seeded South Carolina — the team that broke Auburn's SEC title streak last year and beat Auburn in Carolina this season.
Trucks hauling horses in those familiar trailers have been coasting off of Wire Road and into the Auburn Equestrian Center this week, as Auburn gets set to host the SEC Equestrian Championships this weekend. Up the hill and around the pole barn where competition is set to begin Friday, the Tigers have been working to ready the venue.
Yes, the athletes themselves have had a list of chores this week. They’ve been cleaning fences, placing barricades, assembling bleachers, even cutting some grass there — getting the venue ready themselves even though you wouldn’t see any other athletes in the SEC from any other sport doing anything like that. They do it because they’re proud of their program, proud of their sport and want to grow it, and proud to host SECs.
And the Tigers do it because they want the weekend to go off without a hitch — all the way up to their plan to hoist the SEC Championship trophy at the end of it.
“I think it would mean a lot,” Auburn senior Caroline Fredenburg said Thursday, as riders from all four competing programs milled about the grounds and warmed up for the weekend, and as horses were led into competition areas for warmups.