25 years in, South Carolina’s Boo Major still views equestrian as a growing sport

The song “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” by Toby Keith played through small speakers during the flat, an event where equestrian riders execute a complex pattern of lead changes and turns with their assigned horse.

To an average onlooker, the event doesn’t have many eye-catching moments. For University of South Carolina head coach Boo Major, it’s her favorite of the four equestrian events to watch.

“I really feel like I can teach this to the incoming freshmen,” she said, motioning four athletes practicing the event. “I just enjoy this because I like to see the progress the horses make and the progress that the student-athletes make.”

The meticulous event is like a metaphor for how the Gamecocks have improved, Major said. So while it’s hard for an untrained eye to see the details, Major enjoys watching the riders grow older and become better riders overall.

Major has been the face of the Gamecocks’ equestrian program for 25 years, nearly the entire length of the program’s existence. She led USC to three National Collegiate Equestrian Association national championships, two SEC titles, and two national championships in hunter and Western riding. She’s won the SEC Coach of the Year honors and been named NCEA National Coach of the Year twice.

Major has worked under three different athletic directors. She graduated from USC and a native of South Carolina. She’s never left.

“Well, you know, I’m from Columbia, and my mother was from Columbia,” Major said. “But I just, I like the area.”

She’s now the longest-tenured head coach in South Carolina athletics, after former track & field head coach Curtis Frye retired in June. She’s already the longest-tenured female coach, too.

Major said she’s poured herself into her career as the Gamecocks leader, even before the job. She’s been determined to keep USC a premier program and be a leader in equestrian’s development as a collegiate sport.

“We are constantly evolving our format that we’re doing, but, you know, I think the biggest thing is being recognized,” Major said.

Starting at the beginning

Major became head coach of the USC equestrian program in 1998, replacing inaugural coach Janet Brown, two years after the team’s jump to varsity. Before then, Major worked locally as an equestrian coach.

There wasn’t a specific reason she chose to stick with college athletes, she said. Major spent most of her coaching career before USC working with high-schoolers or adults as a self-employed coach.

When the job at South Carolina opened up, Major said she was interested in it but knew the school wanted someone with a facility as well. So she and a friend, who owned the barn Major worked from at the time, applied and Major got the job. A few years later, Scott and Katie Peterson allowed USC to rent out their barn, which became One Wood Farm.

The Petersons have since sold the barn to South Carolina, and it’s remained the home of the Gamecocks since.

“The Petersons were extremely philanthropic,” Major said. “They donated part of the asking price of the farm. And they did a lot of important improvements for the collegiate program out here before they left, so that’s kind of how it all came about.”

But Major loved USC long before the job was an option. Her grandfather was a Gamecock football player, she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at South Carolina, graduating in 1981 and again in 1990.

Senior Western rider Emma Lane said Major’s knowledge of the sport as a whole has been beneficial. Major typically works with riders competing in the jumping seat, but she found ways to implement those skills toward Western events.

That’s even though Major said it’s rare to find someone who can compete in both Western and English-style events.

“Going into my last semester of my sophomore year and she truly became the Western coach,” Lane said. “She didn’t have a lot of experience but she tried her best. And she is very smart with any kind of horse, and she helps bring in a different perspective for sure.”

THE evolution of USC equestrian

Major said she’s been involved in the NCEA longer than any other head coach in the country — and she’s right. Most collegiate equestrian coaches haven’t been part of the sport nearly as long as Major.

Major can take credit in how much equestrian has changed in college. She’s watched the sport evolve into what it is today, both the format of competitions and how national investments from athletic departments around the country has grown.

“The coaches, we all got together and really created the new format,” She said. “Well, it’s not new anymore. But the format that we use now, it’s just like all the other sports: We take the best riders in the country and compete at the highest level.”

Originally, Major coached both the jumping seat team and the Western team — two entirely separate riding styles with drastically different events. Each team competes in two events, despite Major typically training riders in jumping seat events such as the flat.

Once USC hired a Western- and English-style coach, Major slowly transitioned from “day-to-day” operations to oversight of the entire program.

“As far as developing equestrian at the University of South Carolina, and in all of collegian sports, I think that’s become more of what I’ve put my focus on,” Major said.

New trends in college athletics like the transfer portal haven’t really caught on in equestrian yet, according to Major. So most of her recruits are around all four years before hanging up the saddle upon graduation.

With so few schools sponsoring equestrian, oftentimes there just aren’t as many options like there are for football or basketball players.

“I think we have 26 schools, right now,” Major said. “So that’s not a lot, right? You’re looking at the grand scheme of things. So most of them, these guys kind of turn into Gamecocks.”

The same Boo Major

Major still coaches South Carolina’s athletes, and gives corrections and notes throughout practices and meets. She’ll stand with the assistants, usually off to the side of the athletes, laser-focused, analyzing every step the horses make and every slight movement from the rider.

If any part of her coaching styles have changed, Major said she’s “probably softened a little bit.” Her personality is still the same, her competitiveness hasn’t changed. She’s still the same Boo Major the Gamecocks hired back in 1998.

“She is super funny and knows how to lighten the mood,” Lane said. “But she’s good, and she knows when to be serious.”

Major said being a college coach quickly became more than just instructing a rider how to ride. It also meant she had to assume an almost parental role for the athletes.

“When I came to visit, she established that she was going to take care of you, no matter what was going on,” Lane said. “Boo has always been the person to put things on a personal level.”

Major has seen hundreds of student-athletes come and go from the equestrian program throughout her quarter-century tenure at USC. She wears her NCEA Championship ring every meet, and she tells funny stories from previous seasons on bus or plane rides to different competitions.

“I always asked her about the national championships and I always love hearing those stories,” Lane said. “Whenever we have a meet I say, ‘I want that ring. Please, I want it so badly.’ ”

Even with the titles she’s won, Lane said Major hasn’t changed. She still gets the USC horses riled up for a treat when she walks into the barn. Major still lets her dog, Sputz, run around the grounds during practice, and she wants to continue expanding the sport.

And, she says, there’s still more work to do.

“This turned into the most ideal job I could ever ask for,” Major said. “So, it’s been a journey but I don’t regret any of it.”