Wellington For The Rest Of Us
I have been a spectator at horse shows my whole adult life- from watching McLain Ward at the Dixon Oval in Devon, Penn., to the world’s best at winter circuit in Wellington, Fla. But I am by no means one of those independently wealthy individuals who travels the circuit the whole year. I am just a regular person with a regular job who lucked out when life took me to the “Winter Horse Capital of the World.”
Over the last ten or so years of living in and around Wellington, I have been able to experience the whole gambit of spectator experience, from the cheap seats
to some of the most expensive in the house. And the best way I can describe the whole thing is that it is weird. Cool weird, but also in many ways just weird.
As a spectator, you can pretty much just drive up to the show grounds at any time, and the only price of admission is $20 parking on Saturday nights. The main arena, where all the big classes are held, is the International Ring, which is surrounded on two sides by free stadium seating, one side by box seats, and the final side by a tented section with VIP tables. And these are very V.I.P.s in these sections. But the whole facility has a vibe that is a sports complex meets country club. The rings where mere mortals ride are behind the International Ring, with the training and schooling jumper classes placed the furthest from the main arena. Although on the up side, they are also closest to the barns.
The super cool part of being an equestrian fan girl of the sport is that I can and do regularly see the big-named trainers and riders as often as one sees a cartoon character in Disney World. On a hack through Grand Prix Village, I have seen John Madden trying a horse with a client. While on a work call, I have walked past Anne Kursinski leaning on a rail between rounds. I have spotted Rodrigo Pessoa and Laura Kraut warming up students before classes. And just this afternoon I saw not one, but two gold medal olympians – McLain Ward and Jessica Springsteen-
competing in the same 1.40m class.
But the part that is just strange is the crazy wealth that is apparent everywhere. I am not talking the kind of money that allows one to afford to ride. I am talking the kind of money that allows people to own a whole string of horses, build a mansion to stay in during twelve weeks a year, and a matching mansion in which their string of horses reside. All around the riding arenas are banners with advertisers, and not for companies which you would obviously associate with riding, like stables, breeders, and saddle makers. But private airlines and wealth management
firms, the type of companies that are closely associated with a “luxury” lifestyle.
In addition to the riding and training superstars that you see, you also never know what other celebrity or personality might just be walking past. I have spotted daytime TV hosts waiting for their kids to jump the hunters in pony island (so named because the rings are their own little annex adjacent a pond). It also gets really weird like today, while eating lunch my friend and I spotted a few not-so-subtle Men in Black type private security who were posted around the VIP tables, for what my imagination had decided was some type of foreign royalty. What gave them away besides their head-to-toe black attire, black blazers, dark aviators on a very cloudy day, and radio earpieces? The answer is a flash of badge, which was probably accompanied by a concealed weapon of some sort. Also what is super odd? Watching some quiet afternoon Sunday classes and casually walking by an otherwise non-remarkable man that was likely Bill Gates. Now, I also would venture he had security too, just way less obvious then the Men In Black pack.
What makes Wellington so weird and cool? Well for me it is the casual mixing of the
unremarkable with the really remarkable. I can school my low adult jumper in the same ring as an Olympian (not that we are jumping the same height- there are a couple rings just for flatting). Fans and casual observers of the sport, whether they make a modest income or are on the world’s richest people list, can all convene in the same location. In other sports you may have the same intersection, but not on a daily basis, and not with both hobbyist of the sport competing at the same place as the world’s best. And that is what makes Wellington itself so remarkable.