FINDING FAITH AND FAMILY
2/19/2026 2:00:00 PM | Equestrian, My Baylor Story
EQ’s Lauren Stebbins is serving as SAAC president in her final year at Baylor
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
For her first three years at Baylor, the closest Lauren Stebbins got to the competition ring for Baylor equestrian was a demo ride at the Big 12 Championships at the end of her junior season and warm-up rides before home meets to get the horses ready.
"It was something that I never really expected," said Stebbins, a fifth-year senior from Atlanta, Ga. "With the team so big – 60-plus girls for the first four years, and there are only five spots in each event – I never really expected to compete, ever."
It's not like she was averse to competition. On the show circuit, Lauren had qualified for the 2020 Maclay Regionals, Maclay Finals, Dover Medal Finals, Gladstone Cup, NCEA finals and NHS Medal Finals.
But she found her niche as a warm-up rider, being able to "contribute to the team without actually putting points on the board, because I got him ready and got to warm him up to make sure he was ready to compete. And you form that special bond with him and spend a lot of time with him on meet days. I felt like I was able to make a difference, so it felt fulfilling to me."
It wasn't until the fall of '24, her first senior year, that Lauren heard those magical words from then-assistant coach Grace Bridges: "We want to put you in."
"I was shocked. I said, 'To start?''' Lauren said. "And she just said, 'Yeah, we think you're ready.' That was just the coolest surprise ever. And it's been a blast."
In her first collegiate competition, Stebbins got the final ride in the flat discipline against No. 3 TCU, recording a 72.0-point ride and defeating the Horned Frogs' Ashleigh Scully (70.5) to pick up the Bears' last point in a 12-8 loss at Bear Creek Farms in Fort Worth.
"That was so special, because I just had so many people behind me, supporting me, encouraging me," said Stebbins, who had a 6-4-1 record that season with three wins over top-five opponents. "It was so special to kind of be on pattern and hear my teammates just cheering and loving me from the sideline. And then, after I won my point, everybody ran up and gave me a big hug. It was one of the best moments of my whole life."
Lauren's start in horse riding was actually on family trips every summer to a dude ranch in Colorado. From there, she started taking riding lessons in the third grade and did Western riding, "which was super fun."
But when her mom encouraged her to get more involved in school, Lauren switched to English riding for the middle school IEA riding team and "hasn't stopped since."
"She had me try out and kind of completely switch from what I was used to doing," she said. "And I was so reluctant to do that at first. But I did that all the way through high school. And my junior year in high school, I started taking it seriously and started competing a lot more. I had a couple of horses at the time, and I just fell in love with it."
Lauren hadn't given much thought to riding for an equestrian team in college until going to a few camps during the summer before her senior year. On a random tour of schools in Texas, she stepped on to Baylor's campus and absolutely fell in love."
"It sounds so cheesy to say, but I knew the moment that I got onto the campus, this is where I want to spend the next four years," she said. "It really just all worked out perfectly, and it's been so much fun."
An already difficult freshman year got even tougher when Lauren had a horse die unexpectedly. But as she's continued to be that rock over the next four years, Baylor head coach Casie Maxwell "was there for me."
"I feel like she is there for me, no matter what I need," she said. "Whether it's in the ring or out of the ring, she's there to help me as much as she can to be a better rider and definitely become a better teammate and a better person. She has been so impactful and encouraging throughout my journey."
After not being that connected with the team during that freshman season, Lauren decided that she had nothing to lose, so "I'm going to try and put myself out there."
"I was super quiet my freshman year, so I decided to start talking, and everything got so much better," she said. "I made a lot of great friendships, got super connected with my team and made some on-campus friends, outside of athletics. I felt like I had created community that I had been missing a lot during my freshman year."
After initially struggling with "imposter syndrome" as a competitive rider, Lauren said she has seen her confidence grow "the more that I competed and the more time I had in the saddle, on our horses and away horses, too, and especially the more points that I won."
She is 2-1 in flat this season going into Saturday's 11 a.m. Senior Day matchup against seventh-ranked TCU at the Willis Family Equestrian Center and earned her first Most Outstanding Performer award in the fall against Fresno State.
"I feel like I'm known as the girl that loves Baylor, around the team and even at school," Lauren said. "I'm always saying 'Sic 'em!' or 'Go Bears!' I even do it when I'm at home. And people are like, 'What are you doing, Lauren?' But it just shows much I really love this school. To be able to do the sport that I love and that I've been committed to for years and be able to represent Baylor while I'm doing that is just so special to me."
On top of adding the competition piece, Lauren is currently the president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
"I've always been a lead-by-example kind of leader, more on the quiet side," she said. "I'm not going to be the first to speak up and share my opinion. So, it's been really different having that title and standing in front of a room full of people. It's just a very different style of leadership that I had to adapt to and learn about. I feel like my experience as someone who's quiet has helped me to have a different perspective. I can see who's engaged and who might need a little more encouragement."
Although she grew up going to church with her family, Lauren said she didn't "truly know what it meant to have a relationship with the Lord until I came to Baylor."
"When I lost my horse my freshman year, I think through that hard time, I was pushed and realized that nothing in this world is going to sustain me like the Lord," she said. "You really need Him to get through the hard times and to help you with the good times, too. I think the people that I've met and that have encouraged me, and the experiences that I've had, they've all helped shape my faith and have a living faith and an active relationship with the Lord."
After earning her undergrad degree last year in psychology, Lauren is currently pursuing an MBA and hopes to go into a career in wealth management.
"I really love talking to people and building relationships and creating connection with people," she said. "And I'm also super interested in investments in the stock market. So, wealth management feels like the perfect place for me. I'm also hoping to stay in Texas. I never thought that I would. I always thought I'd go back to Georgia, but here we are. I love Texas too much."
Baylor Bear Insider
For her first three years at Baylor, the closest Lauren Stebbins got to the competition ring for Baylor equestrian was a demo ride at the Big 12 Championships at the end of her junior season and warm-up rides before home meets to get the horses ready.
"It was something that I never really expected," said Stebbins, a fifth-year senior from Atlanta, Ga. "With the team so big – 60-plus girls for the first four years, and there are only five spots in each event – I never really expected to compete, ever."
It's not like she was averse to competition. On the show circuit, Lauren had qualified for the 2020 Maclay Regionals, Maclay Finals, Dover Medal Finals, Gladstone Cup, NCEA finals and NHS Medal Finals.
But she found her niche as a warm-up rider, being able to "contribute to the team without actually putting points on the board, because I got him ready and got to warm him up to make sure he was ready to compete. And you form that special bond with him and spend a lot of time with him on meet days. I felt like I was able to make a difference, so it felt fulfilling to me."
It wasn't until the fall of '24, her first senior year, that Lauren heard those magical words from then-assistant coach Grace Bridges: "We want to put you in."
"I was shocked. I said, 'To start?''' Lauren said. "And she just said, 'Yeah, we think you're ready.' That was just the coolest surprise ever. And it's been a blast."
In her first collegiate competition, Stebbins got the final ride in the flat discipline against No. 3 TCU, recording a 72.0-point ride and defeating the Horned Frogs' Ashleigh Scully (70.5) to pick up the Bears' last point in a 12-8 loss at Bear Creek Farms in Fort Worth.
"That was so special, because I just had so many people behind me, supporting me, encouraging me," said Stebbins, who had a 6-4-1 record that season with three wins over top-five opponents. "It was so special to kind of be on pattern and hear my teammates just cheering and loving me from the sideline. And then, after I won my point, everybody ran up and gave me a big hug. It was one of the best moments of my whole life."
Lauren's start in horse riding was actually on family trips every summer to a dude ranch in Colorado. From there, she started taking riding lessons in the third grade and did Western riding, "which was super fun."
But when her mom encouraged her to get more involved in school, Lauren switched to English riding for the middle school IEA riding team and "hasn't stopped since."
"She had me try out and kind of completely switch from what I was used to doing," she said. "And I was so reluctant to do that at first. But I did that all the way through high school. And my junior year in high school, I started taking it seriously and started competing a lot more. I had a couple of horses at the time, and I just fell in love with it."
Lauren hadn't given much thought to riding for an equestrian team in college until going to a few camps during the summer before her senior year. On a random tour of schools in Texas, she stepped on to Baylor's campus and absolutely fell in love."
"It sounds so cheesy to say, but I knew the moment that I got onto the campus, this is where I want to spend the next four years," she said. "It really just all worked out perfectly, and it's been so much fun."
An already difficult freshman year got even tougher when Lauren had a horse die unexpectedly. But as she's continued to be that rock over the next four years, Baylor head coach Casie Maxwell "was there for me."
"I feel like she is there for me, no matter what I need," she said. "Whether it's in the ring or out of the ring, she's there to help me as much as she can to be a better rider and definitely become a better teammate and a better person. She has been so impactful and encouraging throughout my journey."
After not being that connected with the team during that freshman season, Lauren decided that she had nothing to lose, so "I'm going to try and put myself out there."
"I was super quiet my freshman year, so I decided to start talking, and everything got so much better," she said. "I made a lot of great friendships, got super connected with my team and made some on-campus friends, outside of athletics. I felt like I had created community that I had been missing a lot during my freshman year."
After initially struggling with "imposter syndrome" as a competitive rider, Lauren said she has seen her confidence grow "the more that I competed and the more time I had in the saddle, on our horses and away horses, too, and especially the more points that I won."
She is 2-1 in flat this season going into Saturday's 11 a.m. Senior Day matchup against seventh-ranked TCU at the Willis Family Equestrian Center and earned her first Most Outstanding Performer award in the fall against Fresno State.
"I feel like I'm known as the girl that loves Baylor, around the team and even at school," Lauren said. "I'm always saying 'Sic 'em!' or 'Go Bears!' I even do it when I'm at home. And people are like, 'What are you doing, Lauren?' But it just shows much I really love this school. To be able to do the sport that I love and that I've been committed to for years and be able to represent Baylor while I'm doing that is just so special to me."
On top of adding the competition piece, Lauren is currently the president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).
"I've always been a lead-by-example kind of leader, more on the quiet side," she said. "I'm not going to be the first to speak up and share my opinion. So, it's been really different having that title and standing in front of a room full of people. It's just a very different style of leadership that I had to adapt to and learn about. I feel like my experience as someone who's quiet has helped me to have a different perspective. I can see who's engaged and who might need a little more encouragement."
Although she grew up going to church with her family, Lauren said she didn't "truly know what it meant to have a relationship with the Lord until I came to Baylor."
"When I lost my horse my freshman year, I think through that hard time, I was pushed and realized that nothing in this world is going to sustain me like the Lord," she said. "You really need Him to get through the hard times and to help you with the good times, too. I think the people that I've met and that have encouraged me, and the experiences that I've had, they've all helped shape my faith and have a living faith and an active relationship with the Lord."
After earning her undergrad degree last year in psychology, Lauren is currently pursuing an MBA and hopes to go into a career in wealth management.
"I really love talking to people and building relationships and creating connection with people," she said. "And I'm also super interested in investments in the stock market. So, wealth management feels like the perfect place for me. I'm also hoping to stay in Texas. I never thought that I would. I always thought I'd go back to Georgia, but here we are. I love Texas too much."
Players Mentioned
JS
/ EquestrianBaylor Equestrian: My Baylor Story - Lauren Stebbins
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Baylor Athletics Hall of Fame: Samantha Schaefer Induction Speech
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The Sic 'Em Podcast (Ep. 82): Lauren Reid
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Baylor Athletics: Sam Schaefer Interview
Thursday, October 16
