Seven years ago, several Elon students formed an equestrian club. After a rocky start, the organization had become a strong, ever-evolving club sport. The club has been so popular it has grown to almost 30 members this year, 16 of whom are freshmen.

The club is broken up into two teams; the Hunter team and the Dressage team. Sue Peltier and Colleen Kelly are the coaches for the Hunter Team, which includes walking, trotting, cantering and jumping fences up to thee feet high.

Members of this team travel 15 minutes to Millpoint Farms to use their riding facilities, which are also used by the university of North Carolina at Greensboro. "It’s fun to ride with UNC-G," said junior Melissa Jimenez. "It’s almost like we’re a double team."

Jimenez is the president of the Equestrian Club and is one of the club’s senior members. In addition to being involved in the Hunter team, Jimenez is one of two members of the club also involved in the Dressage team. "Its hard to be in both due to the time and financial commitments," she said.

Elon pays the entry fee into different events and competitions, but it is the students’ responsibilities to pay for everything else. However, they have several events raising money throughout the year to help offset the cost of having to pay for coaches, lessons and equipment.

Patrick Marley is the coach of the Dressage team, which travels to various stables to practice. "Dressage shows the different movements of horses’ gaits and does not involve jumping, " said Jimenez. "It shows the grace, function and athleticism of the horse and rider combined."

There are different levels of competition, from Intro to First Level. When wanting to join the team, potential members take a placement test in either Dressage or Hunter to see the level at which they should be practicing and competing.

Both the Hunter and Dressage teams compete in Zone 4, region 3, in the Inter-scholastic Dressage Association. The Hunter team competes in six shows in the fall and four shows in the spring. They are part of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association, which competes against schools in North Carolina and Virginia, including Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University and Virginia Polytechnical Institute.

"The Hunter team is doing a great job this year," said Jimenez. "We have only had one show so far this year but we had the high point rider out of all the schools competing and had three wins."

The Dressage team has three competitions in the fall and two in the spring. They had their first show on Oct. 5.

"We did very well; however, there is a lot of room for improvement," Jimenez said.

Right now, the team is run by Campus Recreation; however, the team is trying to become a varsity sport. ‘The team is going to shows and having a good season in terms of participation," said advisor Thomas Arcadio. "However, I am most excited about their long-term project. They are drafting a proposal for a grant to get funds for an Elon facility."

The proposal will encompass everything Elon would need to build and maintain its own facility, as well as how much it would cost. The proposal will mention what a riding facility would bring to the school and how many more students it would attract to Elon.

"It will pass eventually," Jimenez said confidently. "Maybe not in my years at Elon, but definitely in the future." Jimenez explained how important it was to go varsity to better compete against varsity schools.

The team is in the process of building a Web site, which would allow students to check out how the team is doing and see what the girls do. It will provide information for students looking to get involved.