Wellington, Fla.—March 31  

Mark Bellissimo, CEO of Wellington Equestrian Partners, led an open meeting at the Winter Equestrian Festival show grounds in Wellington, Fla., on March 31 to listen to suggestions and address concerns related to the horse show’s winter circuit.

A large crowd of horse show attendees gathered at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center showgrounds for the meeting, including some of the biggest names in the sport—McLain Ward, Laura Kraut, Nick Skelton, Rodrigo Pessoa, Missy Clark, Andrew Welles, George d’Ambrosio, Nona Garson, and Bonnie Jenkins to name a few.

WEP shareholders Mark Bellissimo and Hunter Harrison were joined by Equestrian Sports Productions President Michael Stone to field questions from the crowd and address concerns regarding the horse show.

Bellissimo opened the meeting listing the four main concerns already on the horse show’s radar moving forward: footing, parking, warm-up arenas, and over-crowding, specifically as it relates to the entries of certain classes. Bellissimo stated that he believed issues with local politics and permits were preventing WEP from accomplishing their goals with renovating the horse show for the past two years. In light of a newly elected mayor of Wellington and new council members in recent local elections, Bellissimo said he believes the horse show and WEP can now really move forward in accomplishing their goals with the facility. 

“Our focus is to essentially try to create a pipeline of feedback from people, and hopefully constructive feedback on certain issues we have on our plate and believe, for the first time, we can solve over the next six to eight months, before the next cycle of WEF,” Bellissimo said. 

Footing was highlighted by Bellissimo as the No. 1 concern, and U.S. show jumper and Olympic veteran Laura Kraut asked specifically about the plans for addressing it. Bellissimo said he plans to strip the International Ring to its felt base layer and re-lay the footing in an effort to improve its drainage, which has been a complaint from riders regarding the surface following heavy rainfall.

“We’re going to make sure every ring, from the pony ring up, goes through an assessment to make sure the footing is where it should be, but the biggest complaints have been in this [International] ring,” Bellissimo said.  

U.S. show jumper Andrew Welles expressed concerns over dangerous situations in the warm-up arenas at WEF, especially the International arena’s warm-up ring.

Bellissimo made mention of adding an in-gate/out-gate for the International ring warm-up arena (presently there is a single entrance/exit), and announced changes with regards to other warm-up areas.

“We are going to discontinue the use of Ring 8 as a show ring and essentially turn that into a riding work area,” Bellissimo said. WEF presently features 12 show rings, with Ring 8 usually hosting lower level hunter and equitation classes.     

British Olympic veteran Nick Skelton asked about adding a two-star event to run concurrently with five-star event weeks (like week 12), to give FEI level riders options when choosing classes for their international horses, and to open more spots for FEI horses to compete. Bellissimo said that is already a goal for show organizers and is being looked into, as WEF draws one of the highest numbers of FEI entries of any show in the world.  

“Our goal is to offer as many opportunities as we can for different classes and levels of riders,” Bellissimo said.  

Robyn Parksy, a longtime owner of hunters and jumpers who now owns horses for U.S. rider Kent Farrington, asked Bellissimo about running show jumping events at the International Polo Club, a Wellington property that is in the process of being sold to WEP.

“We did acquire IPC, or are in the process of acquiring IPC. It is our intention to maintain high goal polo as that is a part of the Wellington community—that will be a priority,” Bellissimo said. “And I believe there are some opportunities with that to take advantage of where there are actually three properties—this property, the Equestrian Village property, and IPC—over time, but we don’t have a specific plan at this time. We will be announcing one in that June-ish time frame.”  

Suzanne Porter, mother of young riders Lucas and Wilton Porter, whose family-owned Sleepy P Ranch sponsors a number of events and classes through the United States, asked Bellissimo about horse show stabling.

“We want to add at least three or four practice rings, some trainer’s compounds, if you will, for some of the larger farms that want a ring or whatnot,” Bellissimo said.  “We will also look into reducing some of the tents where the $20 ring is to try and leverage that ring, and try and bring some tents down in order to take the pressure of the show grounds.” 

Owner of The Ridge Farm and husband of Olympic veteran Nona Garson, George d’Ambrosio asked Bellissimo about plans to add another entry/exit to the horse show. Bellissimo outlined a plan to connect Gene Mische Way to 40^th Street in Wellington, giving direct access to the show from farms located south of the show grounds.

Different members of the crowd asked about the Adequan Global Dressage Festival facility, specifically whether it would be changing locations now that WEP is in the process of acquiring the International Polo Club property. Bellissimo began by saying the dressage circuit would not be moving to the White Fences facility in Loxahatchee, and said he would announce plans related to the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in June.

“The intention of this meeting is not to focus on dressage or IPC specifically, it’s really to focus on the WEF, as it relates to hunter and jumpers,” Bellissimo said. 

At one point in the meeting, Hunter Harrison took the microphone to address the crowd on the broader vision of the horse show.

“A lot of you are probably wondering why I’m up here,” Harrison said. Harrison confirmed rumors saying he was going to leave WEP. “I am here, I was going to leave [WEP], but Mark challenged me to be a part of the solution.

“I am a lover of the sport, and I’ve been frustrated,” Harrison continued. “The one thing that is consistent is that people don’t get along. This could be world-class venue, second to no one, if we pull together as a community.

“If this community wants to make it better, it’s there for the taking.”