Ready for the saddle again

Cavman is OK.

He’s a little tender after being tossed by his thoroughbred mare on the 30-yard line at Scott Stadium Saturday, but ready for another chance to charge onto the field to rev up football fans before Virginia home games.

“I’m fine. Obviously I’m a little sore,” Cavman said Monday.

The person behind the popular University of Virginia mascot is Albemarle County resident Kim Kirschnick, a contractor and longtime UVa sports fan who has charged, saber in hand, onto the field for about six or eight seasons now.

The pregame ritual — timed with an animated Cavman adventure on the stadium jumbotron — has grown into a popular routine that whips fans into a frenzy before kickoff.

And for Kirschnick, the routine typically goes off without a hitch.

For the team’s home opener against William & Mary Sept. 5, Lady Isla performed perfectly. It was the horse’s first ride on game day into the stadium. (Kirschnick retired Trinda, another thoroughbred mare, after last season.)

Saturday’s routine before the TCU game wouldn’t go as smoothly.

Kirschnick waited in the stadium tunnel to storm out at a time choreographed with the animated arrival of Cavman on the giant video screen.

As he always does, Kirschnick stood in the stirrups, urging the horse ahead as thousands of fans screamed for his arrival.

At about the 30-yard-line, Lady Isla hit the brakes. Kirschnick knew there was no sense trying to stay aboard.

He flew forward, hit the turf and rolled before springing up and trying to get back in the saddle.

Looking back, Kirschnick said, the horse may have sensed that the scene on the field was a bit different than the previous time. But it’s impossible to know for sure.

“She just got a little worked up and excited,” he said Monday. “At halftime she was fine.”

After climbing back up, Cavman made his usual rounds to the corners of the field to fire up the crowd. Fans wondering if the rider was injured were relieved to see him return at halftime for the second part of the routine.

This is not the first time a horse has bucked Kirschnick, who has played polo for 20 years. But it’s the clearly the biggest audience to see it happen. Video of the spill was on ESPN and uploaded to YouTube, where it had been viewed almost 16,000 times through Monday evening.

Kirschnick’s voice mail was jammed to the limit and not capable of taking new messages.

“Everybody wants to know if you’re OK,” he said. “After that, there’s an amount of good-natured ribbing that starts.”

The horse is fine as well. Kirschnick rides Lady Isla during polo matches and plans to work with her more for the Cavman adventure before UVa’s next home game on Oct. 10 against Indiana.

“I’m humbled and happy to be part of the gameday experience,” he said. “My whole goal is to get everyone excited about football.”

Kirschnick predicted rider and horse would be confident the next time.

“I’m gonna believe we’re going to do it. We are going to do it.”