After years of selectively showing only a few weeks in Florida each winter, Kris Hoffman Kennedy and her husband/trainer Michael Kennedy took the plunge in 2006, buying a motor home and staying for the whole Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington.

The commitment was rewarded, as she and her now 14-year-old, Belgian Warmblood gelding, Quest D’Or, earned the adult amateur jumper, 36 and over, circuit championship and the Broward RV adult amateur award for the horse-and-rider combo earning the most money at WEF.

After a long winter of showing in points south, the Newtown, Pa., couple was planning to head home, until the WEF siren song lured them to stay for another go. “We did Atlanta, Littlewood [Fla.] and the National [Fla.], and that was going to be our little mini-tour,” said Kris, 52. “Then we saw how they fixed up Littlewood and made it so nice, and they made the seniors a 50 and over section C of the adults. The seniors even have one class on Sunday in the Internationale arena!”

Though Mike, 53, used to ride professionally, he got his amateur card back years ago and now often competes against his wife. After riding his Marco to the 2005 U.S. Equestrian Federation amateur-owner horse of the year title, the horse is now leased and he’s turned his attention to Toulouse, a solidly built 16.3-hand, 7-year-old Dutch Warmblood he bought last year.

Working full time for a title insurance company, Mike flies back and forth each week, while Kris, a freelance graphic designer, takes her job with her, which allows them to care for their own horses while on the road.

“We showed against each other a little last year. We keep our sense of humor about it, but we’re both very competitive!” said Kris. “You have to stay organized. When we were showing against each other at the National, our friend Cian McDermott schooled both of us together so we didn’t have to set jumps for each other.”

The two met in 1976 when Mike was riding for Bernie Traurig and Kris answered a Chronicle ad for a groom at the farm. She later moved to Pennsylvania to groom for Mike before they became a couple in 1980. He helped her with Inabreeze, a Thoroughbred mare she and her family had bred from a mare purchased from a local Illinois farmer for $200. She and the resulting 17-hand “monster horse” went on to win the amateur-owner jumper horse of the year title in 1984. “Mike finally did it last year!” she said.

After a horse of a lifetime like “Breezy,” Kris–though leasing Belgian Warmblood Dr. Dre for three years, even winning the NAL Adult Jumper Finals with him–had been searching for another Thoroughbred mare. But she and Mike traveled to the Netherlands after seeing the nice horses Emil Spadone had been getting from Paul Hendricks. They returned home with a nice group of their own, most of which were eventually sold. Two of them–Quest D’Or, then 6, and Marco–didn’t go anywhere.

Quest D’Or, also known as “Snoopy,” with his dog-like personality and love of fast turns and jumps, has earned his spot as Kris’ partner.

“He’s always consistent. Even the other years when we only showed three weeks, he’d still be in the top 10 money winners,” she explained. “He’s quite a character. Now that he’s older he knows what to do, which he does, but sometimes he tries to do it his way a little too much.”

Despite a natural tendency toward laziness, Snoopy nevertheless kicks it in when the heat is on, and he’s been known to be a little too enthusiastic in producing hairpin turns.

“It’s hard to reprimand him because he’s such a sweetheart,” admitted Kris. “I try to save Snoopy for the big stuff on Sunday because he can get lazy and he’s getting older, but last year every Friday at WEF he was wild! So I showed him on Saturday and on Sunday, and he got ribbons in five out of six $10,000 classes.

“It can get very expensive, but last year the horses won enough to pay for most of it,” added Kris. This year the most intense competition may be for bragging rights around the Kennedy household.