Southeast Missouri State University's equestrian team has entered its fourth year of competition and is showing continued growth.

Last year the equestrian team moved from Fox Run Stables in Cape Girardeau to its current home at the Remley Equestrian Center, which is also in Cape Girardeau. After the move the center made an addition to its barn and doubled the size of its indoor arena to help accommodate the number of riders and horses on the team. The team's coach SuAnne Remley owns the Remley Equestrian Center and gives daily riding lessons there.

The equestrian team nearly doubled its number of members this year with 27 members total. Remley said a number of team members are doing the traditional English, or hunt-seat, riding class, and some are starting the Western style riding class that is new to the team this year.

"We have some that are on both, some that are doing just hunt and some that are doing just Western," Remley said. "I would say 10 are on the Western team, and of those, I think four of them are going to do both."

Two new Western horses have been added to the center to help the team train for the season's upcoming meets. The center has 11 horses total that team members can use for lessons.

The Western style is new to the team this year but not new to all of its members. Meagan Smith, the team's historian and media coordinator, rode Western before she came to Southeast and started training in the English style. Smith said the Western style is like the horse-riding seen in old western films.

"The gaits are a lot smoother, whereas in English our fastest gait is the canter and in Western it's the lope. People describe it as broken-down. It is kind of a broken-down movement -- really slow, really smooth," Smith said. "You're looking for a completely different horse in Western than you are in English."

Remley said the team will have at least nine competitive Western riders this year and that the equestrian team is open to new members of all skill levels.

"We take members all year long, we don't just have a set join date," Smith said. "We're open to all levels of riders, people who love horses but have never had any experience with them, and we give them a place to come and to learn."

Members also can bring their horses and board them at the center for a discounted rate, along with receiving a discounted rate for riding lessons.

"I've always wanted to be on the equestrian team, and it's an affordable price here for a lesson," Jackie Miller, a sophomore member of the team, said. "It's something I can afford being a poor college student from out of state."

To help with affordability, Remley said the team has a show clothing bank of donated show clothes that members can borrow outfits from for meets. There is also a riding boot bank at the center with all different sizes for team members to borrow for practices.

"We try to make it as affordable for everybody," Remley said. "That way too if somebody is interested and doesn't want to shell out a bunch of money for clothes they can come and try it for a semester, see if they like it and then go from there."

Smith said the equestrian team will co-host a meet in Chicago in November.

"Since our move to the new facility, we don't quite have the horsepower to host our own show yet. We're hoping to do that in a couple of years," Smith said. "We would like to host a meet with Carbondale because they're so close. We'd host a practice meet here at Remley. We can accommodate that with our horses, and we'd love to have that and have it open for students to come out and watch, but we haven't solidified that yet."

The equestrian team will compete in a meet at Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo., on Saturday and Sunday.

A photo gallery of the team's recent volunteer event "Riding out Cancer" where students went to Parker Field and were able to meet two of the team's horses can be found at southeastArrow.com. The event helped raise money for the local charity "18 FORE Life." The "18 FORE Life" Foundation raises money for local families battling cancer in Southeast Missouri.

Additional information about the equestrian team may be found at redhawksequestrian.weebly.com.