By Janette Dragvold
From a young age Zoey Case, of rural Canton, Minn., loved horses. Her parents got her her first horse, a sorrel quarter horse named Reba in 2017. The next year at the age of nine she started showing. Now 17, she currently has two quarter horses, an appaloosa and a POA (Pony of the Americas) pony. She attends, on average, between 10 to 15 shows a year. Those shows range from one- to four-day events. She typically competes in six classes per show which can vary depending on the classes offered at each show.
“I do what’s called the all around events,” she explained. “Some are judged on the horse, some of them will be judged on me, and some of them will be judged on a combination of me and the horse.”
Three of her horses participate in the all around events with her while one horse is learning the ranch and reining events. She also participates in 4-H and is the vice president of the Minnesota Quarter Horse Youth Association.
This fall Case will be heading to the University of Minnesota Crookston to be a part of their National Collegiate Equestrian Association program. The NCEA is the equestrian part of the NCAA and is only offered at a limited number of colleges in the country. In order to be considered for the NCEA, a student needs to be competing at the highest levels of horse showing.
“I show on the quarter horse circuit, which is considered one of the highest levels of showing,” explained Case. “Showing on these big circuits can get you noticed by different college coaches.”
Case started reaching out to college coaches the summer after her sophomore year of high school. She sent them a link to her YouTube channel showing videos of her riding, her bio, who she trained with, who she worked with and what experience she had. Then she waited for responses.
The University of Minnesota Crookston coach contacted her but since she was in the middle of the horse show season she didn’t visit the college until October of her junior year. During the visit she was offered a spot on their fall 2026 equestrian team. After taking time to visit a different school, she accepted U of M Crookston’s offer two months later.
In the NCEA there are four different events. Equitation on the flat, fences, horsemanship and reining. Case will participate in horsemanship and possibly reining. Students do not bring their own horses with them to college but will be riding and showing various horses that they do not know.
“You go to college, draw a horse and have four minutes to go ride it and show it and be scored on how it goes,” said Case. “It’s definitely not for everybody. You can’t change or fix a horse in four minutes so you have to be adaptable to that horse. I think it’s super fun to ride a random horse and prove to yourself that you can ride it successfully.”
When it comes to college horsemanship goals, Zoey Case is focusing on improvement. She hopes to improve her riding skills and is looking forward to connecting with more people.
For those interested in following a similar path as her with the NCEA, Case is more than happy to give advice.
“You want to get on the college coaches’ radars as soon as possible,” she advised. “You need to get really good videos of yourself riding, not just your personal horses but a wide range of horses. College coaches want to see how adaptable you are to other horses because that’s basically what you’re going to be doing. Reach out to college coaches, introduce yourself as soon as you can and also having a good training background is important.”
The Case family also greatly appreciates all the support Zoey has received from Fillmore Central teachers and staff who graciously work with her showing schedule.
“They have been amazing and we thank them repeatedly,” said Zoey’s mom Bridget.
In addition to the NCEA there is also a collegiate equestrian club sport available at many colleges called the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association (IHSA) which is beginner friendly. For those in high school, the Minnesota High School Equestrian Association (MHSEA) offers a varsity equestrian letter program through participating schools.
A wide variety of equestrian scholarships, not just for those interested in showing, are available through different equestrian groups as well as many horse breed associations.
High school and college equestrian references: NCEA www.collegiateequestrian.com
- College NCAA Equestrian Team
- Recruitment and scholarships IHSA www.ihsainc.com
- College equestrian clubsport
- Beginner and advanced
- Widely available MHSEA www.mhsea.clubexpress.com
- High school equestrian program
- Equestrian lettering opportunity
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