Wellington Horse Show
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006Wellington The crowds were large and the competition was fierce. Packed in elbow to elbow, spectators lined the International Arena for the closing event of the 123rd National Horse Show and Family Festival, the second phase of its $50,000 Rolex/USEF National Show Jumping Championship.
Big cheers went up for Wellington residents Margie Engle and Laura Kraut. Engle, riding Hidden Creek’s Wapino, grabbed first place in the event after beating out three other riders in a jump-off, the horse show equivalent of a shoot out.
No attendance numbers were available Sunday, but Mason Phelps, of Phelps Media Group, estimated the crowds were about the same size as last year when the event sold almost 48,000 tickets. Parking at the showgrounds ran out by 1 p.m. and shuttle buses moved fans to and from remote lots.
‘The riding’s been great. The crowds have been great,’ Phelps said. ‘I think it’s one of our best efforts.’
This horse show drew a number of first-timers to see the dressage and jumping competitions. Brenda Signorello, of Boca Raton, brought her stepdaughter, Lyndsey, 8, who just started riding a few months ago.
‘I think it’s fabulous,’ Signorello said. ‘There’s a variety. There’s somewhere to look at all times.’
But hanging over the event is the possibility that this could be one of the last times it is held in Wellington. The day before the horse show started, Stadium Jumping Inc., which puts on the National Horse Show and the Winter Equestrian Festival, announced it had rejected a new lease offer on the showgrounds and is considering three other sites in Florida, all outside Wellington. The company’s current lease on the showgrounds runs out in 2008, leaving time for one more National Horse Show there.
Village Manager Charles Lynn said he plans to ask the council to consider a moratorium on rezonings in Wellington’s equestrian preserve until things settle down. The equestrian preserve is 8,320 acres set aside for horse development.
‘Right now you have all this turmoil in the equestrian community,’ he said. ‘Maybe we need to say, `Wait a minute. Let’s stop things and see where we are.”
Such a moratorium could impact the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center, a 466-acre proposed development at the heart of negotiations with Stadium Jumping. It is expected to come before the Village Council for rezoning in January.
Lynn said the council could craft a moratorium however it likes and it could last anywhere from 30 days to a year. He said Wellington has implemented a zoning moratorium before, after the village was founded in 1996.
Lynn also said the village is looking to help the two leasing parties reach an agreement and will consider ways to help build a showgrounds if the two groups can’t make a deal. ‘We have always been concerned,’ he said. ‘The strands that hold the horse show here are tenuous.’
SOURCE: Sun-Sentinel
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