Anne Brzezicki. Photo by Kimberly White
Gladys, Va.- Jan. 9, 2026 - The Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association (IHSA) has announced that Anne Brzezicki will be inducted into the IHSA Hall of Fame. The induction ceremony will take place during the IHSA National Championship, held May 1–3 at Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring, North Carolina.
Established to honor individuals and horses who have made lasting contributions to the Association, the IHSA Hall of Fame welcomed its inaugural class in 2020, followed by a second class in 2024. The third class will recognize distinguished coaches, founders, riders, and horses whose impact has shaped the organization.
For Anne Mather Brzezicki, it’s simple: when there’s a problem, you solve it.
Take her undergrad experience. While studying animal science at the University of Connecticut, she helped form their IHSA team, and when their coach left before her senior year, while the university had a hiring freeze, she and fellow student Duncan Peters took it upon themselves to take over coaching the squad. They won the national championship that year, and she continued as coach after graduation.
Duncan Peters and Anne Brzezicki were co-coaches of the University of Connecticut IHSA Equestrian Team. Photo courtesy of the University of Connecticut
When her husband, Michael Brzezecki, took a job in Tennessee, they headed west, and after one semester teaching riding at Middle Tennessee State University, she knew she wanted to start an IHSA team. But there was a problem: IHSA hadn’t yet expanded to the Midwest and Midsouth, so even if MTSU had a team, they wouldn’t have anyone nearby to compete against. So, she called every school with a riding program within driving distance and invited them to a meeting to learn about IHSA, becoming the force behind the association's expansion to states across the middle of the country.
“Anne literally opened up Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, Iowa and Michigan,” said IHSA founder Bob Cacchione. “These kids were coming out of the woodwork to do this. And Anne never stopped. She just kept rolling forward and rolling forward."
Anne Brzezicki and IHSA founder Bob Cacchione at the 2013 IHSA National Championship. Photo by EQ Media
Anne was a driver behind the addition of western to the IHSA while she was at MTSU, arguing successfully to East Coast skeptics that the discipline was popular in the states they wanted to expand to, and that adding it would just expand opportunities for collegiate riders. She helped craft the first set of rules for the western discipline after it joined the IHSA in 1977.
She did a stint coaching at Virginia Tech, founding an IHSA team there, before returning to Tennessee, where she spent several more decades at MTSU, contributing to the design of the school’s Miller Coliseum—which has hosted IHSA Nationals three times so far—before retiring in 2017.
“She is that person you could count on,” said longtime friend and IHSA coach Carla Wennberg. “She’s always a visionary in everything she does. She’s a great leader, but she’s not the leader who tells you what to do; she creates the environment, so you work together well, and everyone has something to contribute.”
Anne has achieved plenty of accolades as a coach and trainer, including 18 IHSA National Championships as well as multiple reserve championships and Top-10 awards, with other students earning American Quarter Horse Association world championship titles out of her Tag Along Farm. She was awarded the IHSA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 and was inducted into the Tennessee Quarter Horse Association Hall of Fame in 2017. She’s also a master instructor with the Certified Horsemanship Association, which honored her with its Volunteer of the Year award in 2022. In 2024, she was named a Wrangler AQHA Woman of Influence. Throughout her five-decade career, she’s been active with U.S. Equestrian Federation, AQHA and 4-H.
These days, Anne lives with her husband in Merritt Island, Florida. She’s still giving back to the horse world through her work on the boards of AQHA, TQHA, and CHA, and she served as a steward at IHSA National Championships in 2025. And she’s still committed to spreading the gospel of IHSA and its mantra of inclusivity.
“It is my belief that the most important people in the horse industry are the ones who are maybe going to stick their toe in,” she said. “We've got to keep them and draw them in and help them and develop them. They are so important because the rest of us are already addicted.”
Additional IHSA Hall of Fame honorees will be announced in the coming weeks. Members, alumni and fans are encouraged to watch their inboxes and follow IHSA on social media for updates.
Anne Brzezicki and her successor and former student Ariel Higgins and the members of the MTSU Equestrian Team at the naming of the MTSU Anne Brzezicki Arena. Photo by Rhonda Hoffman