Pete's Clubhouse - OSU Equestrian Team

Ava Ramirez and Destiny Olaleye interviewed the captain of the OSU Equestrian Team, June Roberson (junior), shortly after her team clinched is fifth consecutive Big 12 Championship W (11th overall)! June answered all our burning questions about how the success of the Equestrian Team is built from recruitment to rigorous practice routines and community building. Give a listen to find out what horse June singles out as her favorite in the barn and how the Cowboy Family can better support one of the most winningest teams on campus. Congratulations, OSU Equestrian Team! We are so proud of you and happy to learn more about all the hard work and dedication that you invest into your sport.

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Transcript

STUFF OSU SHOULD KNOW

Pete’s Clubhouse: OSU Equestrian Team

PRODUCED & RELEASED: April 2025

[17:54]

Cast:

Destiny Olaleye, Ava Ramirez;  Guest: June Roberson

INTRO:  [OSU Band strikes up] This is Stuff [various voices chanting] O-S-U Should Know [drumroll]... [00:04]

[record scratching interrupts, silly jaunty music kicks in, and loud, clownish voice says] “Hey, kids, welcome to Pete’s Clubhouse!” [00:10]

Destiny: Welcome to the first episode of Cowboys Uncovered, the podcast where we dive deep into the stories, passions, and hidden gems of our campus community. My name is Destiny Olaleye and I will be one of your co-hosts today. 

Ava: My name is Ava Ramirez and joining us today we have June Roberson from the OSU Equestrian Team. We will take an inside look at their sport, their team, and how we can all bring more awareness to their hard work and success.

Destiny: So whether you're a horse enthusiast, a sports fan, or just curious about a team you don't hear about every day, this episode is for you. Let's dive in. [00:45] 

Ava: So June, can you go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background in equestrian? 

June: Yes, thank you. Hi, I'm June Roberson. I am currently a junior on the Equestrian Team at Oklahoma State. I ride in the western discipline, which is horsemanship, and I've ridden horses for my whole life. My parents are actually horse trainers, so I basically have been involved with horses since I was born. And so that's kind of how I got into it. And then obviously through the whole recruiting process and coming onto Equestrian Team is kind of how I got here.

Ava: That's awesome. So are you the captain?

June: Yes, yes.

Ava: Correct. Okay, perfect. What are some responsibilities that you hold as the captain of the team?

June: So, we have one captain for each discipline. So there's four of us total, which kind of helps to manage... Obviously we have fifty girls on the team, so there's a lot of people, a lot of personalities. It's kind of just our role is being a good example both in the sport, in the classroom, kind of showing the team how to represent us well. And also just guiding if there's any issues throughout the year or anything, whether it's team related, personality related, whatever. It's kind of our job to guide that and try to kind of remedy that before it's brought to any kind of coaching staff or something like that. So basically just trying to form a good team dynamic from a student level instead of relying on the coaches for that. [02:17]

Destiny: Okay, that's cool. I'm wondering like how does that process between like you becoming a captain. Like, did the coaches just pick, or are there audition courses?

June: Yeah, so after each competitive year, so we have Nationals next week. Once we get back from that, we will have like a team meeting and people can nominate captains on the team. The team does, the team nominates captains, and then we'll have a meeting and all the people who are nominated give a speech about why they would make a good captain, what they think a good captain looks like, that sort of thing.

And after that, which it's also kind of shown through the year, through actions, obviously things like that. But, and then after that, the team votes for captain of each discipline. And then we find out at our end-of-the-woods banquet, basically the team voted for. And so the coaches like to have the team vote because they feel like, obviously, we spend the most time with each other, we know who we trust to be in that position. So, yeah.

Ava: Nice. And then how many coaches do you guys have for your team?

June: We have one head coach, Larry Sanchez, and and we have two Western coaches, which are Jody and Laura Brainard and then two English coaches, which are Carter Anderson and Alle Durkin. So, there’s a head coach of each discipline and then they each have an assistant coach. So there's five total.

Ava [surprised a bit]: Okay, nice!

June [chuckling]: But, yeah.

Ava: And then I don't know too much about Equestrian. So what are the differences between the disciplines that you're talking about?

June: So there's two main disciplines, Western and English, and then subcategories. So, Western has horsemanship and reigning.

Ava: Okay.

June: And I do horsemanship. To put it short and sweet [laughing] (it could be a long explanation): Horsemanship is judged a lot on the rider and like how we look and how we present.

Ava: Okay.

June: And how we connect with the horse. The reigning is probably the Western discipline people know better, which is spin fast, run down, stop, slap.

Ava: Okay.

June: But it's judged - obviously, I connect with the horse - but the rider, how they sit and stuff doesn’t matter. And then on the English side, the jumping - self-explanatory, they go over the obstacles - and then the flat is kind of like the horsemanship in that it's judged on the rider and connection with the horse more than just, just connection with the horse. [Ava: Got it.] The maneuvers and the patterns, like we have to do different things in the arena.

Ava: Okay. Interesting. That's cool. [04:53]

Destiny: Can you share a memorable moment or an accomplishment from this season?

June [laughing]: So this is good timing. Just won Big 12s last week. 

Ava [enthusiastically]: Awesome!

June: It-It definitely a really big deal just because I feel like this is the closest our team has been since I've been here. 

Ava: Yeah.

June: We are very close genuinely. It's not catty. It's not drama. Obviously 50 girls, you would think it's hard to accomplish that. And so I think it meant a lot this year because we wanted to do it for each other, which sounds cliche and cheesy a little bit. But like, yeah, it was definitely really cool. And also just throughout the year, I feel like an overall accomplishment has been how good our team dynamic is and how helpful and like everybody wants to do good for each other.

Ava: Yeah. What does your practice schedule look like for the week? Like workouts, practices, everything?

June: So Monday and Wednesday, we have team lift at 6am. So we'll get there about 5:45: kind of warm up, stretch. And that's in the DIA or the Westin zone. And we lift from 6 to 7. And then usually girls will go to training tables, eat after lift and kind of refuel whatever. And then on Mondays and Wednesdays, Hunt Seat, which is the English discipline, has practice in the morning until noon. And then Western will practice after that.

And we kind of have blocks. So, like, she'll split the girls up into like practices of five girls per time slot. 

Ava: Okay. 

June: And then Tuesdays, after we do that (obviously class in between all of those things), we try to get to the barn like an hour early to prep the horses and all that stuff before practice. So we're usually there from like two to three hours a day. And then Tuesday/Thursday, we have cardio at any point in the day. We get to schedule it when it works for us and have assigned cardio run time. And then Western practices is in the morning on Tuesday/Thursday, so we'll go from like 8 to noon time slot.

Ava: Okay.

June: And Hunt Seat will come in later in the afternoon. And then Friday, typically we'll have like a whole group practice at least on the Western side. Usually try to do a scrimmage or just something to where we all are kind of in there together. But that’s usually in the afternoon also.

Ava: Got it. Very busy. [all laugh] Very busy. [07:21]

Destiny: If someone was interested in joining the team, like, how does the recruitment process looks like?

June: So, typically it starts in high school, junior year now. And coaches will go to shows to watch people compete individually. Because it's an individual sport before we get here. And kind of reach out after seeing them in their accomplishments and stuff like that. As far as people who are a little more under the radar - like, maybe they can't get that exposure - they can email the coaches, mail videos, things like that. We also have prep camps that people sign up for and come to. [Ava: Okay.] And both the fall and the spring, I think those are coming up after Nationals.

So, late May we have some. And a lot of girls, we usually have like at least 12 to 15 girls per discipline sign up for those and come. And they just ride with us and the coaches for like a couple days, kind of get the feel for it, both for them and for the coaches to see. So that's kind of the recruitment process. As far as, I guess you could put it, main recruits for years and stuff. It usually happens more at the shows,and the coaches will reach out to them.

Ava: Okay. Yeah. Makes sense. Where are you guys going for Nationals, and what does Nationals look like?

June: Yeah, so we get to go to Ocala, Florida [Ava (enthusiastic): “Oooooo!”] to the World of Questions Center. Yes, it's really fun. It's supposed to be really hot while we're there [laughs happily], so that's exciting. [Ava and Destiny: “Yes!”] Um… But, so we'll leave next Monday, the first flight out of Stillwater. And we get there, the horses leave Sunday, so we have to haul - each school that's going will bring like a set of horses, so that when we get there for each round it will be neutral like competition. So we'll fly out Monday; Tuesday, Wednesday is kind of like prepping our horses, getting them in the arena. And then Wednesday is eval day, so we watch all of the school's horses basically go through and the judges and like the board will basically decide which horses will go and which rounds…

Ava: Oh, okay.

June: Yeah, it's kind of complicated, but then Thursday, Friday, Saturdays we'll compete. So we go against, for example, A&M in the first round. So we will ride neutral horses so we could ride like TCU's horses or Auburn's horses. [Ava and Destiny (finally realizing what a “neutral” horse means): “Ooohhhhh!”] Yes, so throughout the year, like if we like were to go to Georgia, we would have to ride Georgia's horses. [Ava and Destiny: “Ooohhhhh!”]

Ava: So you don't get to ride your own horses? [09:55]

June: Yes, but if they come to us, obviously we ride our horses. [Ava: Yes.] So there's definitely advantages throughout the season as far as that goes, but then at conferences like Big 12 Nationals, it's all neutral. [Everyone agreeing, getting on the same page now.] Yes, so we'll get four minutes per person on the horse that we draw randomly, and then it'll be head to head. So each girl will get four minutes on the horse, show the horse, and then a point goes to the team depending on who is head to head.

Ava: Oh, wow. Interesting.

June: Yeah.

Destiny: So these are horses, some of the horses are horses you've never met before, never seen before. So how do you go about that interaction? [subdued laughter] Like leading the horse to get it comfortable with you?

June: Yeah, it definitely takes time to get used to, but like it's easy. Obviously, sometimes we'll have videos of horses from previous people who've ridden it or stuff like that, that we can kind of get an idea. If you go second, you can watch the first girl and see how she interacts with it: see what goes well, what doesn't go well. If you go first, it's kind of like just using your knowledge from all the different types of horses that we ride at home and that we have ridden throughout the year and just kind of trying to read: are they an anxious horse? Are they super lazy? Are they, you know… the type of approach that you have to take in general, and then from there just kind of adapting to what they're telling you in response to what you're doing. Which again, kind of complicated shortly, but yeah.

Ava: Yeah, it makes sense. How many like events or like competitions do you guys have a year and then like how many home and like how many away, how does that work? [11:38]

June: Let me think. I think we have… [pause] we have a shorter spring season than fall because I think we only have four to five weeks total in the spring before like Big Towns and Nationals. But in the fall, we have, I think more like seven to eight?, some of which can be double headers so we might fly to California and do like Fresno and then drive to UC Davis or go to South Carolina and then do Georgia the same weekend type of stuff. But then home meets in the fall like four to five max. And then in the spring, usually we only have two and we have one of those for like our senior day and stuff like that.

Ava: Okay, nice. 

June: So there's quite a few throughout the year. We start usually early October or late September, but usually early October and then go through end of November, like last weekend. And then we start again early February, end in April.

Ava: Okay, nice. [12:56]

Destiny: How can students on campus support the team? I feel like a lot of people hear about the Equestrian Team, but they're not really sure in ways that they can support y’all. So, what ways do you think are beneficial for students to support your team?

June: Honestly, the biggest way would just be like going to the meets. Like obviously we've actually had a lot more people in the last couple of years come to watch just because obviously friends with the girls on the team through other sports. Stuff like that has grown and, you know, other people who have heard about it, donors and whatnot. But honestly, the more people we get there, the better. I think that's… now that we have had success, people are more interested in coming. [Ava: Yeah!] Obviously, Equestrian isn't something everywhere that people really know much about or whatever, which I think we're really lucky here because people do know about us and care to a degree. But yeah, we just like when people come and support and obviously occasionally I've had conversations on campus with people who are really nice and really supportive and just things like that. Honestly, nothing huge, but yeah.

Ava: Yeah. And then what do you think your favorite part about being on the team is?

June: Probably just the fact that I felt really lucky coming in that I had a team immediately of girls just to like be friends with and go do things. [Ava and Destiny both audibly agree.] But it was already built in when I got here. And I think especially now being as close as we are, it's like you have an immediate fallback to people who get like everything that you could possibly be going through because it's like, whether it's team related, whether it's school related, everybody's dealing with the same kind of schedule and pressure and all of that. So honestly, just having a genuine support system, which again, a little bit cliche, but it's very helpful. And also the benefits we get from being on the team is amazing in an objective standpoint. We're SO spoiled [laughter] with the athletic trainer and our weight coach and all of that like - very, very good resources here.

Ava: Yeah.

Destiny: Okay, I'm going to ask kind of a fun question. Do you have a favorite horse on the team? And, if so, why?

June (laughing, a bit embarrassed): I do, and it's a hot take and nobody agrees with me [all laughing]. But my favorite horse, okay, so we just got one that actually came from my barn. So I'm not going to count that one because that's like cheating. Okay. But, yeah, my favorite horse is Rolex.

Destiny and Ava (surprised): Rolex?!

June: Yes, he actually just recently retired - against my will. He’s kind of a jerk. He has terrible attitude. Like, nobody likes him. This is like a really hot take. But I have gotten along with this horse like so well since freshman year. And he's just, he's my little, he's my little bestie. [everyone laughing sweetly] I can't even, I couldn't give a logical explanation to why I like the horse but,

Ava: You guys just bonded!

June: We did.

Ava: You just bonded.

Destiny: How did he get his name? If you know… [16:26]

June: I genuinely am not sure. I happen, accidentally, it's just super rare, but I ran into the people who donated him at Nationals last year.

Destiny and Ava: Oh wow.

June: Yeah! And he was donated a long time ago. Like he was old and they were explaining to me, like, his history and I guess he used to be really nice and all these things and then kind of got a little “show sour” towards the end. But yeah, I take it he was nice at one point. 

Ava: Yeah. Okay, If you could describe your team in three words, what would they be?

June: I would say hardworking, very family oriented. And I want to say like passionate. 

Ava: Yeah. 

June: Like we have a very passionate team. 

Ava: Yeah, that's good.

June: Yeah.

Destiny: This is the end of Cowboys Uncovered the podcast, featuring June. Thank you so much for taking the time to come here and answer these questions. We truly appreciate it.

June: And yes, thank you for having me.

Ava: Yes, I've really enjoyed learning about Equestrian. I didn't know anything about it. So thank you so much for coming [OSU band music strikes up] and stay tuned for our next episode. Thank you!

[OSU band music fades out]