By HALEY VELASCO
Sports Editor and 10 Questions columnist Haley Velasco sat down with equestrian juniors Georgiana de Rham and Sofia Steinberger to talk about everything from Dunkin’ Donuts to teleportation.
1. You are both juniors on the equestrian team. What has equestrian meant for you both over the last three years?
S: The equestrian team has meant everything to me in my Cornell experience. They are my best friends. They are the people that I rely on the most. They are the people that I spend the most time with.
G: The team is such a huge part of my life. I feel like since day one when I got here and tried out for the team, I knew that I wanted to be a part of it. It has been a community and a learning experience. All of my good friends are from the team.
S: It also means a lot of early mornings and a lot of food. We joke that we are an eating team first and then an equestrian team. Our food bill has been very high at horse shows.
G: We could, like, enter a contest.
What’s the thing that everyone likes to eat? What’s the favorite?
S: Dunkin’ Donuts before every horse show. That’s a tradition?
S: Yeah.
G: We don’t limit ourselves to donuts alone. Like the egg sandwiches. There was like a weird NCAA thing for a while where you couldn’t order donuts. Everyone flipped out but we were like it’s okay, there are other options … I feel like pretzels are always a big thing.
S: Mike & Ikes.
G: Gatorade.
Any specific flavors of Gatorade?
G: Lots of purple and orange. Todd is kind of anti-bagel.
S: Yeah, I brought bagels to practice yesterday and he was jokingly unhappy.
G: He’s a slim and trim kind of guy.
2. So Sofia, I heard that you drive to class a lot?
S: It’s really cold and Cook Street is really steep. Bartels is just a lot closer to the Ag Quad.
3. Georgi, I heard that you are a big biker? People see you on a bike a lot?
G: Yeah, I had a really dorky bike helmet for a while but luckily it broke, which is probably a blessing in disguise. I bought my bicycle over the summer after my summer job ended, and it has revolutionized my efficiency because if I could have super powers, one of them would be teleportation, and the bike is a little bit closer to teleportation.
Have you ever fallen off your bike?
G: No, but I have had many near incidences. My bike seat is really high and I can’t get it to adjust lower so I can’t touch the ground while sitting on my bike. So if I am at an intersection and there is a red light and there is not a curb, I have to awkwardly throw myself off the seat. It’s really embarrassing.
4. What is your most embarrassing fall of a horse story?
G: There are so many.
S: I was at a horse when I was like 14 and at horse shows, the camera men have cameras that will take six shots right in a row over a jump. But my horse like ran out and didn’t jump the jump so I started to fall. There are six shots of me on the side of the horse — getting lower and lower and then on the ground and then her stepping on me. I bought them all.
G: This one time when I was trail riding a horse and we were going down this steep hill and my saddle didn’t fit very well and me and the saddle fell off the horse’s head.
5. Georgi, I heard you are the busiest person that your friends know. What are you up to?
G: Well, last year, I was busier because I rode off campus too. This year, I haven’t been riding off campus because the gas is crazy. I am busy going to school; I am big about going to my classes. I have a lot of reading which I guess comes from being a French and English major. And I have my job and then I have riding.
6. Sofia, I heard you get a little silly during horse chores; I heard you might occasionally sing. Can you tell us about that?
S: Yeah, whatever mood I am in, I go along with that. I sing, ‘There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza.’ I sing that one a lot. Sometimes, I break out the Shakira.
G: I have heard some TSwift from you. Adele.
S: Repping girl power. The Spice Girls.
G: Sofia is actually a song writer.
S: Yeah, Mary Beth and I, every year at Ivies, we make up a song to a tune. Freshman year, it was “Rolling in the Deep.” Last year, it was “Trouble” by Taylor Swift. We perform it for everyone on the way.
Is there dancing involved?
S: No, it’s more like we are so embarrassed that we are actually doing this that we look down.
G: We are just mesmerized by their voice.
7. Who is your favorite horse to ride in the barn?
S: Chloe. I leased her last summer. I call her Chloe-isha. She is, like, too fancy, so we have to bring her back down. She’s my favorite because I spent a whole summer riding her.
G: I love Calumet. He was kind of a bandit when he first came but he kind of settled down. We had this joke last year that he was half Chinese and I am half Chinese so we are connected on a deeper level. He’s just amazing.
8. What’s the funniest story that you guys have?
S: I called our old coach ‘a big fat poopy face’ by accident.
G: To his face.
S: It was all in good fun. We were joking around and we were at Nationals our freshman year. We were all joking around and he said something and I was like Chris, you are just a big fat poopy face. And the second I said it, I was like, I just crossed the line but I couldn’t stop laughing. I wanted to cry. I was so scared that he was going to get really mad at me.
G: Our whole trip to Nationals was really funny. We tried to have an entire evening without saying the letter S. So we substituted the letter Z.
9. Where is your favorite place to eat on campus?
G: Whoa. I feel like Synapsis or Trill maybe.
S: I am a fan of Trill.
G: We call it Club Trill.
S: But I actually don’t even like it that much but it’s just convenient. I think Synapsis because we always go there post lift and we have so many memories.
10. If you could trade places and be on any of the men’s athletic teams here at Cornell, which one would you pick?
G: I am not very hand-eye coordinated so I would probably go for something like running or rowing. I am not very good at catching or kicking things.
S: I could be a heavyweight wrestler so I could just eat a lot.