Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Auburn fifth-year senior Taylor Searles competes during a recent equestrian meet. The Tigers host the SEC Championship starting Friday in Auburn.
Taylor Searles has to forget the feeling.
Make no mistake: Auburn’s senior standout absolutely remembers what it was like to watch another team celebrate at the NCEA national championship last spring. It chapped her, and everyone else at the powerhouse Auburn equestrian program.
But it has to be set aside. That frustration can’t come boiling back to the surface when it comes time to ride, and that disappointment can’t fuel any new nervous jitters at the SEC Championship this weekend, because they say the horse can feel that energy, from rider to horse, from heart-rate to heart-rate, feeding off one another under pressure on the big stage.
Flesh and blood and thumping heartbeats come together again at the SEC Championship meet this weekend, and as it turns out, Searles and the Tigers are hosting the title chase here in Auburn.
“The home-team advantage is just really great with the crowd. It really helps you ride harder and honestly it just makes the team come together more,” Searles said this week.
“And we know this place. This is our home turf, so it just makes us want to defend it even more.”
Second-seeded Auburn goes head-to-head with third-seeded Georgia in the conference semifinal at 3 p.m. Friday at the Auburn University Equestrian Center.
Auburn is looking to get back to its winning ways this postseason. The Tigers won the NCEA national title in 2018 and 2019. In 2020, the championships were canceled as COVID-19 spread across the United States — then, after the long wait, when the Tigers finally got their chance to win back their title in 2021, they left the national title meet early with an upset lost, frustrated and disappointed.
Now the postseason is back again, and the Tigers are back to reclaim crowns again.
Here’s another storyline: Georgia was the last team to beat Auburn, in Athens back on March 4.
And another: This weekend is the last home ride for departing seniors like Searles.
“That’s why I’m sure excited that we have SECs here, because we had the Senior Day, but I didn’t really think of it as my last ride here because I knew we had SECs and I know we’re going to put up some really good rides and come home with the championship,” she said.
To start Friday’s action, top-seeded Texas A&M takes on fourth-seeded South Carolina at 10 a.m. in Auburn.
The advancing teams will square off in the championship final at 2 p.m. Saturday.
The event will be streamed on SEC Network+.
Auburn was undefeated this spring, winning seven meets including a huge win at Texas A&M on Feb. 26, before the upset loss March 4 at Georgia. Since then, though, Searles said the team has locked in and she said fans should expect to see good rides.
Auburn head coach Greg Williams said he wants to see the team ride to win instead of riding not lose — something he saw on that strong trip to Texas A&M.
The other part of it is managing those nerves.
“I watch Tiger Woods talk about golf and about how he would love to just throw passion in it, and just scream as he’s coming to the green, ‘You can’t stop me!’ and all, but you’ve got to be able to settle yourself down,” Williams said. “And, here, it’s not even a golf ball that you’re trying to calm your own nerves for, for a long putt: You’ve got to calm your own nerves, but also, that horse is feeding off your energy.
“They cannot feel you the least bit of overexcited or the least bit of fear or doubt or whatever. That horse has to have your security. So their mental and emotional control is extremely important in this, so they have to be on their game.”
Following the SEC Championship, the NCEA Championship will run April 14-16 in Ocala, Fla.
Get local news delivered to your inbox!
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
It’s a schoolday again here are Auburn. The field trip is over. Here at Toomer’s Corner, a girl is taking graduation photos.
It goes by in a blink, yet it lasts a lifetime.
The Olympic champion is an SEC champion.
The Auburn fans got on their feet. No, not because Auburn was winning: Because Auburn was losing.
Charles Barkley says he can’t fathom what it’s like being an Olympic champion on a college campus. But he’s proud Suni Lee is the one at Auburn.
Bryan Harsin is trying to get better.
Auburn quarterback Dematrius Davis is looking for a new start. The rising second-year player announced Wednesday on Twitter that he is enterin…
GREENVILLE, S.C. — Jabari Smith doesn’t want this dream to end.
Auburn’s road to nationals has been set.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Auburn fifth-year senior Taylor Searles competes during a recent equestrian meet. The Tigers host the SEC Championship starting Friday in Auburn.
Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.