The IHSA riders at the University of Montana Western get out of the classroom in more ways than one.

Emily Cornell can vividly recall one of her most memorable lessons in horsemanship. She was riding
a 4-year-old, out foxhunting.

“The hounds hit on a hare in a huge field of sage, and everyone was flying,” she said. “I was burying my face in my horse’s neck, galloping flat out. And all of a sudden, my rein snapped in half—at a dead run, on a green draft cross.