Elliena Apollo, a Palmerton teen representing Apollo Farms Ltd, an equestrian center located on Summer Mountain Road in Palmerton, captured the Circuit Championship of the Wellington International Equestrian Festival in Florida earlier this year.

Elliena recorded the most victories in her class in the equestrian competition that followed six weeks of intense training and activities from January until the end of March.

The circuit champion received assistance and training from Victoria Colvin, the most talented/successful female hunter rider in history, and her mother, Brigid, of Victoria Colvin, LLC, in this year’s competition in winning over 28 other competitors in the festival.

According to her mother, Delia, for a second time, Elliena took a very green, young horse that had never shown and with the coaching of the Colvins achieved this victory.

Last year at the age of 15, she started training with Victoria, setting the stage for this year’s win.

In prior years, Elliena had been very successful with the green ponies she brought to compete. The year was the first time she had no ponies, just horses, to compete.

Elliena competed with “The Contender,” circuit champion in the USHJA 2-3 first year shown division. Named by Elliena, the 4-year-old Royal Dutch warmblood that she had only been working with for a month, came up with a small injury that required a 6-week rest. This meant there was no preparation time leading up to the event. Delia said, “It was a huge gamble even taking the horse because he had not been in training, and we had no idea if he would be able to handle the intense daily regimen. On a hunch, we decided to take the risk and it really paid off. Not only did the horse heal perfectly from the injury, but he was also more than ready mentally for the training.”

In addition, Elliena showed her other mount, “Apollo’s Gold,” in the small junior hunter division. This is another horse she started riding three years ago when he was 4.

At Wellington, she competed twice with “Apollo’s Gold” in the International Ring, where all of the top Olympic world renowned Equestrians compete. The first time, she placed eighth out of 30 competitors, and, the second time, she finished in sixth place out of 25 riders.

During the festival, training takes place six days per week, as participants train/show week runs Tuesday through Sunday. The horses are rotated each week, showing an average of 3 weeks in a row with one week off.

In addition to Elliena, members of Team Apollo include her mother, Delia Alvarez-Apollo, as the trainer/groomer; Caroline Huthart, transport; and the Colvins, trainers. All were kept busy during the 11 weeks of the competition.