Fresno State's equestrian team aims high

You don't have to spend much time with this group of Bulldogs to see that the equestrian team has a distinctive set of challenges.

Says Paige Barton, a junior western reigning rider: "Football, basketball, you know what your ball is going to do. It's never going to decide 'I don't want to fly that way today.' With our horses, they come out some days and they're like 'I don't want to do this.' I'm like 'Ok that's not really an option you kind of need to do this'."

The 'equipment' for the Fresno State equestrian team is a living, breathing, 1,000-pound animal.

"So you kind of have to deal with their personality, what they want to do that day, their capabilities," Barton adds.

But managing the fitness and personalities of 37 horses is a good problem to have.

"We mainly rely on donations of horses for our equine athletes," says Bulldogs head coack Eric Hubbard.

Donations from the college of Agriculture allow the team to compete.

Hubbard is still in the process of trying to turn this Bulldog team into one of the top programs in the country.

"We've always been in the top ten in the national rankings. We want to try and push up to that higher level a little bit versus kind of bouncing in and out of that top five," Hubbard said.

Big-time ambition for a program caring for some big-time animals.