Pratt Equestrian Team to Ensure Its Future
Alin Kutan, a recently graduated co-captain of the Pratt Equestrian Team, says she sincerely hopes that future Pratt students can have what she had: “the same opportunity to experience the team’s unwavering support, commitment to academic excellence, and the strong sense of role modeling and leadership development that prepares them for the future.”
Why is she saying this?
Because the Pratt Equestrian Team is entering a new chapter and seeking support to help sustain its future. While the team’s funding model is changing, that doesn’t need to be the end of the team’s story. Unlike in other collegiate situations prominently featured in recent news, where team funding has been eliminated, family members and friends of this team are partnering with Pratt to launch an endowment campaign rather than be discontinued outright. The goal is to raise $1 million by the end of June 2027 to establish both an operating fund for the team’s immediate needs and an endowment that will ensure the team’s long-term and stable continuation.
This is a team that cares deeply about horses and cares deeply about the ability of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) to make riding in college a possibility for riders of all levels—without any college student needing to own a horse. “The Pratt Equestrian Team gave me back to horses: Kannon, Cisco, Lego, Seiger, Gryffin, Hercules, Hazel, Pearl, who nuzzled my hand and breathed hot clouds onto my face,” alumni rider and art educator Edy Tabor remembers. “The Pratt Equestrian Team gave me the coaches whose coaching changed not only my riding and horsemanship for the better but changed me as a person in so many ways, through their knowledge and guidance, their compassion, and the environment of mutual respect, accountability and growth they cultivated with the team.”
This team cares about its community, too. The team donates 250 hours per academic year to a therapeutic riding program and serves alongside Pratt’s other sports teams in a local homeless shelter. Twice the Equestrian Team won the Athletics Department’s Team Engagement Award, most recently for the 2025-2026 academic year. This award acknowledges the team that “has been the most active within the Athletics Department and the general Pratt community. They have had the most involvement in community service events, social events, and leadership, development, and wellness events.”
The leadership and development opportunities afforded by Pratt Equestrian Team membership are serious ones. As alumni rider and architect, Ayse Ozkan, explains: “I learned everything I know about communication on that team. The skills needed to communicate with horses and be an actual team member has pushed me to become the best version of myself. I continue to use these skills and mindset in every interaction both in my professional and personal life. . . . Investing in the team is investing in academics.”
Among those who’ve come forward to support the team is artist Shauna Fahley, herself an IHSA alumna. If you attended the Summer 2025 Longines Global Championship in New York City, you undoubtedly saw her incredible monumental equine sculpture on display there; you can see more of her equine-sculpture work at https://www.shaunafahley.com. Shauna Fahley has now donated her “Dual | Unsaddled Sentinel” for a raffle to support Pratt’s Equestrian Team.
If you’d also like to help support the team, you can purchase a raffle ticket for “Dual | Unsaddled Sentinel” until noon on November 15, 2026, at https://givebutter.com/save-pratt-equestrian, or make a direct donation at https://donate.pratt.edu/pratt-equestrian/?a=13443170.
