text: Loveland's Carly Lombard signs equestrian scholarship with Texas Christian University – Loveland Reporter-Herald
  Loveland's Carly Lombard signs equestrian…
  Loveland's Carly Lombard signs equestrian scholarship with Texas Christian University
  Photo courtesy of Carly Lombard
  Loveland High School's Carly Lombard performs a sliding stop with her horse, Mel, during a reining competition. Lombard signed a national letter of intent with Texas Christian University on Wednesday.
  Her journey didn't exactly follow the same path as most talented high school athletes.
  College athletic programs are usually out searching for talent across the country depending on their size, leaving no stone unturned in an effort to find the perfect match. It's grueling work which never really stops.
  Where there's talent, they find you.
  Loveland High School's Carly Lombard didn't have that luxury. She needed to do a bit more.
  Lombard competes in a western equestrian style called "reining," an event designed to show the athletic ability of a ranch-type horse within the confines of a show arena. It's far from the mainstream, which meant she needed to do the legwork if she wanted to compete in college.
  So Lombard sent out videos to schools with an equestrian program (there are only 23 in the country), but one in particular stood out — Texas Christian University. Her work paid off and Lombard signed a national letter of intent to TCU on Wednesday.
  "In some ways I'd say it's more challenging than being in the regular high school sport as far as the recruiting aspect because all the recruiting fell on me to contact coaches and do stuff like that," she said. "But it's really fun to get honored, especially through the school, for a sport that usually doesn't get honored.
  "It was very stressful, but at some point you just got to figure out where you belong. From the start I knew that TCU was special, and I loved the coaches and the atmosphere of Fort Worth, so it all kind of fell into the place."
  The perfect fit didn't just work one way. TCU values the student as much as the athlete, so potential scholarship winners must make the grade outside competition. That was never going to be an issue for Lombard.
  The Horned Frogs are coming off their most successful season yet, reaching No. 2 in the polls last season, with six All-Americans. Lombard was an eager addition.
  "Carly kinda found us and we were immediately impressed with her strong academics and strong equestrian background," said TCU's Director of Equestrian Haley Schoolfield. "At TCU, we're looking for the package deal as far as our athletes go. We want to recruit young women who are just as strong in the classroom as they are in the competition arena on the horses. Carly just had very strong academics and we think she has what it takes to make it on our reigning team."
  Schoolfield said sometimes they know of kids and actively recruit them, but a lot of times they find athletes just as they did with Lombard. With just the 23 universities offering equestrian, the competition can be high for spots.
  Making it is quite the feat and certainly one to be very proud of.
  "Oh, absolutely," Schoolfield said. "The NCAA limits us to 15 scholarships in our program, and with only so few schools offering, there's just hundreds and hundreds of young women who are very qualified wanting to go to these schools, so we might be in a little different situation than sports with 200 schools offering at the NCAA level."
  It's the chance to continue spending time around something Lombard loves. Growing up with a horse, she didn't starting showing with her mount, Mel, until her freshman year of high school. Just a few years later, Lombard has the opportunity to make a dream reality.
  "I had been riding all my life, but I finally decided reigning is what I wanted to do," she said. "I did a lot of local shows and then I started moving up, so I kind of grew with the competition. It got to the point where I decided I wanted to pursue it in college.
  "I'm just so excited. It's always been a dream of mine, and for it to come true is just a blessing."