July 24, 2025 (Columbus, Ohio) -The Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) is proud to announce the 2024-2025 IEA National Hippology Academy Overall High Point Award goes to Kathryn Wolff from New Braunfels, Texas.
The IEA National Hippology Academy (NHA) is an online series of horsemanship knowledge tests covering a wide range of equine topics including anatomy, health and nutrition, identification, tack and equipment, behavior and confirmation, and more. Tests are released twice a month beginning September 2025 for IEA members to complete on their own time. During the 2024-2025 season, a total of 1,760 youth riders and 40 Junior Education Members (non-riding members) took part in the NHA program.
A final test is given in May of each season which incorporates information from across all of the topics and helps determine overall winners and test scores. Of the total number of participants, the final top two placing student riders competed in a tie-breaking oral test to determine the overall winner.
“Providing youth members with unmounted educational activities has been a long-time goal of the IEA,” states IEA Membership Marketing Coordinator & Education Chairwoman, Jennifer Eaton. “We have been so fortunate to have the new AccessIEA database provide a better way to communicate this long-standing educational program to all of our members. Our participant engagement exploded last season ten-fold.”
Clinching the top spot and the Arena Saddles prize package is Kathryn Wolff, a senior Hunt Seat rider on the Victory Stables Equestrian Team coached by Cory Valenzuela. Wolff is a 2-year member of IEA and one of two participants who scored a perfect score on the final test. She will take home a $500.00 cash scholarship, a brand-new Hunt Seat or Dressage saddle of her choice, a new girth and stirrup leathers, add a travel bag. This whole generous prize package is courtesy of IEA new sponsor Arena Saddles.
“We were thrilled to have Arena Saddles come on board this season as a National Finals sponsor,” says IEA Sales and Sponsorship Coordinator, Megan Taylor. “In addition to providing 4 saddle certificates to our champion and reserve champion teams at our IEA Hunt Seat and Dressage Finals, they were especially interested in and excited to support this unique educational aspect of IEA and to reward riders outside of the traditional competition arena.”
The Reserve High Point award goes to 8th grader Gwen Selgert from Bristol, Wisconsin who rides on Team Bel Canto and is coached by Suzanne Warmack. Selgert is also a 2-year IEA member and will receive a $100 gift Amazon certificate.
IEA also presented recognition prizes to the highest score in each NHA quiz category, and those placings are as follows: |
