CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M equestrian will look to win their 14^th straight Western Regional Championship this weekend at the WT Horse Center in Canyon. The Lady Buffs will host a pair of Western competition on Feb. 28-29 before hosting the regional championships on March 1 at 1 p.m. 
 
The Lady Buffs enter the weekend having won High Point Team honors in five of their six competition this season. Kendall Woellmer and Rayleigh Rowell have been two of the top riders for WT having been named High Point Rider a combined four times.
 
Rowell was named the High Point Rider in their first competition of the season on Oct. in Justin after finishing first in open horsemanship and fourth in open reining. Woellmer would win High Point Rider honors in three consecutive competitions including a dominant weekend in Canyon in November. The senior won open reining section A and B and open horsemanship on Saturday and Sunday to lead the Lady Buffs to a pair of team victories. 
 
Equestrian competes in both Western Horsemanship and Reining during Western competitions.  Equestrian offers five levels of Western Horsemanship and riders are placed in a specific level based on their accomplishments in their youth show career. Horsemanship is judged on the riders' ability to show and negotiate a pattern on an unfamiliar mount. Riders draw their horses at random, mount and are allowed no warm-up.  A rider is expected to ride the horse to the best of that animal's ability and show it as if it was their own. They are judged on correctness of pattern as well as overall horsemanship position.
 
In Reining, the pattern is more complicated and faster paced to involve sliding stops, spins and circles at the lope, showing a speed transition. Teams are awarded points based on placement of individual riders. The team with the most points at the end of the show wins.
 
A full recap and results will be posted on gobuffsgo.com following the completion of the competition.