Lang combines equestrian, academics at SMU

~ The Dallas school has a unique appeal, coupling academics with an equestrian team.

Brittany Lang's desire to pursue her hobby severely limited her college choices.

Only 14 schools offered what she wanted.

Southern Methodist University provided the best of both worlds. She could compete in equestrian at the Division I level while pursuing her foreign languages and psychology double major, so she decided to make the journey to Dallas for college.

"I remember talking on the phone with my coach, Jenny Passow, and she got to know what I wanted out of a team and I got to know what she was expecting," said Lang, a Jackson High School graduate. "The next thing I knew, I was down here having an interview with her at the barn and seeing the facilities. And here I am now, with 30 other girls."

Lang is finishing her freshman year with the Mustangs. She competed in Advanced Walk-Trot-Canter, which doesn't involve any jumping. She needs more training before she can compete in events with jumps. Passow said she's impressed by Lang's ability to learn the nuances of the sport.

"It's very, very rare to find someone who's willing to do a lot of grunt work and not be one of the people selected to go to a show, but she is the first person in the stands screaming her guts out for her team," Passow said. "Even if she never rises to the level of a national champion, we're going to make a very, very good equestrian out of her because she has got that potential in her. It's something she'll be able to use for a lifetime."

Lang is only 5-foot-1, but packs a bundle of energy on her diminutive frame. Her positive attitude is one of the main reasons Passow wanted Lang on her team.

"I'll take attitude over aptitude any day," Passow said. "Because with the right attitude, you can teach anyone anything. I could tell right off the bat she was going to be an incredible team member. Luckily, my instincts were right on."

Lang's best finish of the year came at Trinity University's Intercollegiate Horse Shows in San Antonio in November. She took first place on the first day in Advanced Walk-Trot-Canter.

Lang is no stranger to horses or barns. Her great grandfather and grandfather owned horses, and she said her family always goes for rides when it's together. But her time in the saddle with familiar horses didn't prepare her to compete collegiately. It was her time in France as a foreign exchange student that really helped.

"We go to different schools and you draw a horse's name out of a hat," Lang said about collegiate meets. "That's how they decide which horse you're riding. Really, by coming to a school where we don't know the horses, that's actually a challenge in our favor because we're learning to become better horsewomen and how to just get on a horse and go."

But she has time to get to know the horse and ride around before competition, right?

"You can pick up the reins and actually ride as soon as you hit the arena and that's when you're being judged," Lang said. "So you have nothing to go on. You really just have to feel the horse as soon as you walk in. If you can't feel it, then you're out of the running. So you really have to figure it out and quickly."

The skill that riders are being judged on is the ability to handle a horse they know nothing about. Lang spent a semester in France during high school, and that experience helped prepare her to ride unfamiliar horses.

"If you can get on a horse and ride anything, that's really where the talent comes in," Lang said.

She tries to spend as much time as possible during the week in a saddle. The problem is that the barn that the university leases is about an hour's drive. She heads there two or three times a week to practice and learn.

"I drive usually with a couple other girls out to the barn," Lang said. "We spend an entire afternoon just to ride with our coach. And sometimes, if I'm lucky enough, my coach will let me ride a few extra minutes because I like to get my extra minutes in."

There's twice-weekly appointments with athletic trainers at the university that the riders have to squeeze in. Lang, who is a double major, works as a nanny and is a member of a sorority. There isn't much time for anything else, but that's OK with her.

"When I ride, I don't think of anything else in the world," she said. "You're thinking about the positioning of your legs or whatever. Really it's my getaway, it's my utopia."