All-aboard the equestrian express: Poly’s unknown spectator sport

By JORDAN SMITH
Sports editor

Once reserved for royalty and the extremely wealthy, equestrianism as a sport has pervaded into high school athletics in the form of the Interscholastic Equestrian league. The league, a non-profit organiza­tion and the governing body in the world of high school riding, orga­nizes four shows a year in which 69 Southern Californian schools compete against each other in an array of equestrian styles, classes and divisions. The IEL describes its primary goals as being “to sup­port and develop athletes for regional and national com­petition in equestrian sports; to encourage a knowledge of horsemanship; to encourage teamwork in fair and friendly competition,” as well as sev­eral other aspirations of en­couraging the skills of young riders.

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Athlete of the issue: Ricky Neal

By BRIAN HOLMAN
Student contributor

While he may not get the at­tention that athletes in football or basketball do, junior Ricky Neal works just as hard. He spends two to three hours Wednesday through Sunday training for an equestrian event called show jumping, in which he and his horse must race to hurdle a course of several ob­stacles at a height of 1.4 meters (about 4.6 feet.)

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