WELLINGTON, Fla., Jan. 19-Palm Beach International Equestrian Center was decorated with a dazzling array of flowers. shrubs and trees throughout the night in preparation for what was shaping up to be a spectacular opening Sunday of the CN Winter Equestrian Festival presented by Zimmerman Advertising.
Spectators for the opening headline events of the first ever Six-Bar and a Speed Derby and an Olympic level dressage freestyle demonstration at WEF were to be greeted by a show of jugglers, stilt walking, face painting and other family entertainment.
The opening has been designed to showcase world class jumping and dressage in the International Arena with its state of the art competition footing, eight soaring light towers for night classes and world class food courts, shopping and amenities.
Sunday afternoon’s celebration is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m. with the Six-Bar competition in which an unusually high number of 14 horses have been entered starting at at 1 P.M.
Two-time Olympian Ashley Holzer of New York and her star horse, Pop Art, will give a demonstration of dressage musical freestyle.
A Speed Derby, also never staged before at WEF, will follow using newly created derby jumps of a stone bank and a “table” jump.
The improvements to the grounds have been nothing short of a rebirth of the horse show facility that draws thousands of competitors and spectatiors from across the Americas and the world every winter.
This year, WEF has been expanded to 12 weeks all in Wellington with a record $5 million in prize money.
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