Naomi Dachis, a Sweet Briar College senior from Franklin Lakes, NJ, has earned a myriad of NCEA awards and accolades throughout her career. She is 17-5 in fences and has a total of 5 Most Outstanding Player awards, with half of her senior year left to strive for more. Naomi will be graduating in May 2026 with a Bachelor of the Arts in Business and an Equine Management Certification. This is her story.

For as long as I can remember, riding has been my whole world and the source of my true happiness in life. Horses and the sport as a whole taught me strength, resilience, drive, organization and grit, and they have shaped me into the person that I am today. I ended up making my college decision solely on my potential to ride and be challenged, so I only looked at NCEA schools. The format, horse selection, and fellow competitors offered the environment that I craved to keep myself riding well while I was at college. As I have aspirations of becoming a professional equestrian once I graduate, keeping fit while I was at college and away from my personal horses was very important to me. 

Note to all the readers out there, if you take your kid for a pony ride, there is a high likelihood that they will turn into an avid equestrian. At least, that is how it went for me. My parents sat me on a little chestnut pony at 5 years old, and I was sold. I am a first-generation equestrian, and was your typical barn rat, spending entire days working and playing at the barn from a very young age. I was happiest if there were horses, no matter what that involved. 

My early riding career started at local lesson barns for the better part of 5 years before I moved to my first real show barn. I had multiple ponies over the years who took me from the lead line through the large green ponies, Winship Wily Fox, Simon Says Dazzle Me Starbuck, Glenhaven Work of Art, So Stinkin’ Cute, and Instant Gratification. They were the foundation of my beginning, before I was told that it was time to get a horse. This was somewhat against my will, seeing as I was 14, 5 feet tall, and could’ve very easily kept riding ponies until I aged out of them. But alas, it was time to get a horse. I later found out that my coaches from my first real show barn had scouted me to be a 3’6 Big Equitation rider when I was just in the mini stirrup. They saw potential in me and helped me strive to achieve it.

The first horses of my career were Eurythmic and Real Time. These boys took me around my first 3-foot fences, the children’s hunter and the junior hunter 3’3 divisions, and my first 4-foot fences. My time was short lived with them, however, before I got my first equitation horse. Independence M, a horse that I imported and brought up myself for the equitation, is the reason I am the rider that I am today. This horse gave me wings and took care of me, taught me how to take care of him, and we learned everything that we know from each other. During our time together, we ribboned at every horse show we went to, qualified for any final we put our minds to, and even earned a few ribbons at the equitation finals. He is my heart horse, and I will forever be grateful for him.

Independence M was actually the horse that kickstarted my business, Dachis Sporthorses LLC. My family and I founded DSH to set me up for a career after college, as I wanted to do sales and leases. We have sourced and sold several horses, though Independence has stayed with us as a lease horse to bring in income every year. That is the one horse that I will never sell, no matter what. 

As a high-level equitation rider that was setting herself up for a professional career, looking at college became my next step. All that I cared about was getting to ride through college, so I was advised to look for a school with an equestrian team, and the NCEA format seemed best for me and the level that I wanted to ride and compete at. I toured the various schools, rode at recruitment clinics, and applied to my top picks. I was getting scouted by most of the top schools, and even had a spot offered on several teams. I was so close to achieving all that I had worked for, until I got seriously injured. 

In November of 2021, I became a survivor of a traumatic brain injury that resulted in an emergency craniotomy, severed artery in the epidermis of my brain, my heart stopping and needing to be resuscitated, and 6 months of intensive rehab and recovery. I had been working at my barn, leading a horse in from the field, when I was kicked in the head. I don’t remember exactly how or why, nor were there any witnesses, but the shape of the fracture in my skull was that of a horseshoe. While I was in the hospital, doctors warned me that normally people with my injuries didn’t fully recover, that I might never be able to live normally again, let alone ride and compete. I thought I would never be able to ride again, let alone ride for a collegiate team. But long story short, I wouldn’t accept that, and here I am today. 

Unfortunately due to my injury, I lost some of the interest from certain teams, but Sweet Briar welcomed me with open arms. Deciding to become a Sweet Briar Vixen was wonderfully easy, and though my tour took place while I was still unable to ride during my recovery, Coach Mimi Wroten and Coach Lizzie Fisch expressed interest in still having me on their team after watching me compete for years. 

My first year of college, I was finishing up my junior career by going to USEF/Dover Saddlery Medal Finals and Maclay Finals. I had managed to qualify to both finals between May and August, making a swift and full comeback from my injury. In addition, I was already put in as a point rider for my team. To say that I was grateful for the opportunity would be an understatement, and I ride every round with a hunger to win each of my points. My long red hair became my calling card, my walk out song became Fireball by Pitbull, and everyone started calling me “Big Red” and “Fireball”, along with anything else pertaining to my hair, as they cheered me on. 

My sophomore year was much the same, filled with earning my first MOP awards, career best scores, and multiple conference and national recognitions. In fact, some of my favorite memories from my time as an NCEA rider were during my sophomore year, including when I literally flew to win my point, win the meet for the team, and earn MOP over fences in February 2024 against Sacred Heart. I had had a really nice round aboard SBC’s Phantom and the last fence on course I found out of a nice gallop, and we soared, landing to hear the crowd going crazy. That day I scored a tie for my regular season career best: an 88, which earned me the MOP for that day. 

Junior year wasn’t my best. I had taken a hard fall during the beginning of summer break and sustained a right clavicle fracture. After my repair surgery, I was grounded for the entire summer and only able to start physical therapy and riding again right when the school year started back up in August, so I felt a bit behind. I was out of shape and needed to train myself back up, as well as build back my confidence after my fall. It had been caused by a tack malfunction, so I had to keep telling myself that it wasn’t going to happen again. The whole year, I was riding well, considering I was still recovering from injury. The fall semester Pink and Green scrimmage earned me a win and the MOP, but most of the year resulted in my great scores being beat out by only one point. An 83 to my 82. I was proud of my riding, but disappointed that I was letting my team down, and didn’t know what to do to get my edge back. 

And now we are here, in my senior year. I spent the summer between junior and senior year training myself hard as an adult equitation rider. I had imported a new horse to sell back in the spring and was using him - DSH Now You See Me - to get my groove back. And so far, it seems to have worked. It has been a long time since I have felt as sharp as I do now, and I have been earning great scores and most of my points again. So far for the 2025-2026 season, I have 1 MOP award and am 3-2 going into the spring semester. The year so far has flown by, and it is kind of surreal that I will be graduating in a few short months. 

The beginning of the season saw the Vixens mostly on the road, unfortunately falling at all of our away meets so far. We did claim the victory at both of our home meets though, against the Centenary Cyclones and Sewanee Tigers. Sweet Briar is 2-3 going into the spring, and I can’t wait to see my team come even closer together and support each other through the rest of the season. 

Younger me would never have guessed that I would be here today, a part of a nationally ranked NCEA team with All-American and All-Conference titles. Honestly, if you were to tell my younger self that all this would be my future, I would’ve thought you were insane. Watching myself develop into the horsewoman and person that I am today has been a privilege. I am incredibly thankful to have been given this opportunity, to say that I did all of this. I am also so proud of myself for achieving what once seemed unachievable, I can’t really put it into words.