05 Aug What in the World is AEL?
Henley Adkins is the head coach of Elvenstar’s newest barn team: the Athletic Equestrian League Team. The AEL began on the East Coast to help make well rounded riders, but has now found it’s way west to California, where the first barn to form an AEL team was Stanford. Stanford’s trainers, suggested to our head coach, Jim Hagman that Elvenstar joins the organization and creates a team of it’s own.
The Athletic Equestrian League focuses on the rider as a whole. This means that at each horse show there are three different tests: a flat phase, a jumping round, and a horsemanship test. Each of these sections has different levels so that from beginners to the most advanced of riders can participate. AEL may be confused with IEA (Interscholastic Equestrian Association) because in both you ride a randomly selected mount, not the horse you are comfortable riding. However, riders in the IEA shows are not judges on practical horsemanship. So, if you are interested in expanding your riding abilities to show on any horse and you would like to learn more about horse care and management then AEL is the team for you!
Henley is encouraging anyone who is interested to contact her athjafromca@gmail.com for additional information and to get all of your questions answered. Henley is very excited to start this program and wants to bring her IHSA experiences to all of our riders and we can’t wait to watch Elvenstar’s newest team grow and advance, good luck AEL riders!