by Nancy Jaffer | Nov 30, 2023
The Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association’s decision to stop offering classes for alumni had been coming for a while.
“They’d been thinking about this for years,” maintained Lena Andrews, a former member of the Lehigh University IHSA team who was active in the alumni competition formerly offered at IHSA shows.
Members of the executive team that makes the alumni organization run; Lena Andrews, chairman; Jessie Ann Green, treasurer; Andrea LaManque, secretary; Erica Green Wheeler, co-hunt seat chair; Jess Benner, co hunt-seat chair; Christa Bramberger, sponsorship chair;Katherine Bacolas, points chair; Meg Gennings, co-western chair; Tammy Cranouski, AEE national director; Jamie Windle, vice president. (Skylands Photography photo)
At those shows, riders draw their mounts by lot from English and Western school horses owned by the host colleges. During Lena’s conversations with IHSA officials, “It kept coming up that they want to focus on the undergrads, and that the alumni take horses away from the undergrads, in their opinion.”
Lena believes, “they didn’t really see the value of alumni,” noting there also was a geographic issue.
“Apparently, there are more alumni in the Northeast than in other parts of the country,” she explained.
The IHSA felt “alumni want to come show and go, so they didn’t believe alumni were giving back enough.”
Lena had other ideas about how the alumni could operate.
Finally, IHSA came to the organizers of the Alumni Tournament of Champions, a separate fixture that began in 2012, and informed them, “alumni is done” at the end of the 2022 season.
“We’re not going to have alumni at Nationals,” Lena and other alums were told.
As Lena noted, “You could have done something nice to end it. Instead, there was nothing, it ended in zones (competition). How horrible would it be if the first time you made it to Nationals, there was no Nationals?”
Lena and her fellow alums weren’t going to let that happen. They wound up putting on their own version of Nationals this year, with the idea that it needed “to look and feel as similar as possible” to IHSA Nationals, with prizes and the same kind of ribbons.
Tammy Cranouski, the IHSA’s national alumni director, joined in with the new effort, under the banner of Alumni Equestrian Events (find it on Facebook and Instagram), as it was applying to be a non-profit. She became one of five members on the reformulated board. Their first jobs included developing an alumni-specific rulebook with concepts geared to strengthen alumni riding going forward. Like IHSA, it is open to both men and women.
Jamie Windle and Lena Andrews with Tara Mathews.
The concept of regions was dropped by the AEE series; they are sticking with zones, for one less layer of administration. Although riders have to declare a home zone, unlike undergrads they can ride anywhere, with points counting for the home zone.
“You can make it a fun thing and travel and see the country if you want to,” observed Lena, noting participants may ride in 15 shows in a year, with the 10 best scores to count toward earning the 28 points needed to participate post-season.
Robert Cacchione, who founded IHSA with the late Jack Fritz, noted how the evolution of the IHSA affected the alumni classes.
“As the IHSA grew,” he explained, “we started to put alumni classes at the end of the show to save the horses for the undergrads,” who rode earlier in the day.
He mentioned riders were saying because of the length of the shows and the growth of the teams, the alumni classes didn’t work anymore.
“They’re trying to use the horses only so many times, as they should,” said Robert, who serves on the IHSA executive board and holds the title of Founder Emeritus.
Dropping the alumni competition was the result.
While he noted some of the regions, such as those in the Northeast — New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New England, for instance, had sufficient horses to continue alumni competition, there weren’t enough throughout the country for that to happen everywhere.
“So the alumni came to an agreement with IHSA to do their own thing and save the horseflesh, properly, for undergrads,” Robert said.
Even so, “There is still a dialogue with the board of IHSA and the alumni,” he continued, explaining Tammy remains on the IHSA board.
“She has a lot of input; we always know what’s going on with the alumni and where we may be able to help out throughout the country in different ways.”
The alumni competitions, he mentioned, give former team members a chance to continue riding after graduation, “when they may not have wherewithal to own a horse at this moment in time. It still gives them an opportunity to ride and compete.”
He speculated, “This may enhance the alumni to grow even more. When they were under IHSA, they had to go by IHSA rules. They could only show at our horse shows, and it was tough for them to take off seven or eight times from work during the school year. Here, they can organize four shows on a weekend in different places in the country and people could show at all four shows. That makes it more flexible for alumni. We’re hoping this will help grow the whole alumni organization–I support them.”
Jamie Windle, the AEE vice president, went to Delaware Valley University and used to ride against Lena in the IHSA shows. Asked what she missed about the alumni not being part of the IHSA shows, Jamie observed that in the past, “We were at all the IHSA shows, so you were getting to know the kids from the time they came in as freshmen, to seniors to become friends with them and continue with them and show them how much fun we had.”
Those students are, after all, candidates for alumni classes after they graduate. At Nationals, graduating seniors can ride in the “Future Alumni Cup” in an effort to “entice them to come to this horse show to become alumni,” as Jamie put it.
The Tournament of Champions and Nationals will be held June 1 and 2, 2024 at Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts. The same colleges that belong to IHSA can host an alumni show, just not at the same time as IHSA. It has to be either before or after an IHSA show, or on another date for insurance reasons, Lena commented.
With the new rules, Lena pointed out, “We hope it creates more shows, more interest, more alumni and more competitiveness in the post-season and even better nationals going forward,” said Lena.
“It provides a way for people who potentially could never make it to a finals this size. Someone riding once a week or every other week doesn’t have money to haul a horse to a show, get stabling, pay for a trainer.”
With this group, “You’re just paying your entries or maybe a hotel one or two nights. It’s an accessibility outside of college.
“You may be lessoning, but how are you horse showing? We think it provides another avenue for people to ride that’s not the A circuit. If you look at what’s thriving in the horse industry right now, the middle is going away, it’s either local shows or AA horse shows. You do schooling shows with your lesson barn or you want to go to Wellington.”
Membership is $45 for the year, with an option to pay a $20 one-time fee for those who don’t want to commit for the year. They can upgrade it to a full-time membership within 30 days.
Barns will pay a portion the same way IHSA does it now. For instance, if a barn hosting a show wants to charge $50 an entry, the alumni group will get $5 of that. A U.S. Equestrian Federation licensed judge isn’t required, just someone with judging experience; it could even be an IHSA coach.
The alumni shows are doing well, though they are so new there are no metrics on them yet. While AEE is on both Facebook and Instagram, it is baked into the Alumni Tournament of Champions website (https://www.alumnitoc.com/). That tournament, which drew from more than 20 states and Canada, took place at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation in Gladstone, N.J., for three years.
Its origin was as “a once-a-year show for fun for anyone who ever showed as part of IHSA,” Lena said.
“You could be a current IHSA alum or not have shown since you left college and thought it would be fun to do a catch ride, show, get together, meet new friends, see old friends: Because we all rode on the team together 10 years ago, we’re going to come to New Jersey and do a show.”
Riders have to qualify for Nationals, but not the Alumni Tournament of Champions. It takes 40 to 45 hunt seat horses to run the show, with up to 24 riders/class. Some reunion classes go up to 40 riders. The weekend is split between western one day, hunt seat on the other day.
Organizers begin brainstorming in August for the Tournament.. A problem was how to get a sufficient number of western horses, “they have to come from far away. (The area around the USET Foundation is primarily devoted to English riding.)
Western is a big pa. rt of the alumni shows. Kimberly King Storey and Allison Erkman Rassinoux are happy winners. (Skylands Photography photo)
“We were absolutely scrambling,” Lena recalled.
She is into having riders win something by which to remember the competition.
“USHJA (U.S. Hunter Jumper Association) will happily clean out their closet for me,” she said.
“They sent us probably 40 silver mint julep cups left over from the Silver Stirrup Cup (a discontinued competition). I can repurpose them and make better prizes than some people have ever seen.”
Other backers in that regard have included Alliant Private Client, Perri’s Leather, Essex Classics and Success Equestrian. There were 61 supporters this year.
“When you win a class with us, you go home with something cool,” said Lena, noting that for western riders, that means the treasured belt buckles.
Unusually, when someone wins a perpetual trophy with the alumni group, they get to keep it for a year. (At most horse shows, the winner gets a photo taken with the trophy, then the show engraves it and hangs onto it until the next year.)
The alumni shows have taken off in a way that is encouraging for the concept.
“I can only hope it keeps growing,” said Jamie, “and that we are seeing even more new faces, not just retaining our old alumni faces.”
by Nancy Jaffer | Nov 23, 2023
Hundreds of people turned out as the Essex Fox Hounds gathered for their Thanksgiving hunt, adding to a decades-old tradition that many consider the perfect appetizer for a turkey dinner.
Each year, attendance grows for the occasion at scenic Ellistan in Peapack, N.J., where the backdrop of autumn leaves showcased gleaming horses, manes braided for the occasion, and the huntsman’s scarlet coat as he organized the hounds for their work. It’s a nostalgic scene that could be interchangeable with one set in the English countryside of another era.
The Essex Fox Hounds extend a welcome at Ellistan. (Photo © 2023 by Lawrence J. Nagy)
The meet offers an opportunity for everyone not only to tailgate and enjoy the fellowship of the occasion, but also to get close to the horses, often reaching out in delight to pat a soft nose when one is near.
A chance to pat a horse delights one of the spectators. (Photo © 2023 by Lawrence J. Nagy)
“I cannot believe how many people have come to help us celebrate hounds, horses and the land,” said Essex Joint Master Jazz Johnson, as she thanked everyone for being part of the occasion.
“It’s an annual family tradition. We always look forward to this day and we’re excited to be here,” said Olivia Ford of Tewksbury, N.J., as everyone gathered around a nice display of cheeses.
I asked if attendance at Ellistan means it’s difficult to make Thanksgiving dinner, but no worries; the Ford family has it figured out.
“My husband, Matthew, prepares the turkey a few days before and I’d say it’s more of a potluck. A few family members each bring a dish,” said Olivia.
Matthew and Olivia Ford with Francisco Segarra.
Her father, Francisco Segarra, is a regular too.
“What I like about it most is the people. It’s really special to be around nice people who are friendly. It’s a tradition that makes it the best.”
Mark Pfunke of Chester, N.J., is a first-timer at the Essex Thanksgiving meet and a former horse owner who drove his award-winning 1929 Packard 640 (there are only about 100 of them left).
This one was found in a junkyard in Newark in 1950 by a man who restored it to perfection. The car is not just a pretty face.
“It runs beautifully,” Mark said proudly. He was convinced to come by P.J. Ehmann of Oldwick, N.J., the owner of a 1940 Packard.
Mark Pfunke and his Packard. (Photo © 2023 by Lawrence J. Nagy)
What does P.J. enjoy about coming?
“Meeting all the people. See and be seen. And the hot toddy is good too,” he added.
Sarah Slack (she’s an Essex joint master) and her husband, Hank Slack, Ellistan’s owners, graciously treat the crowd to hot toddies if they are adults; for the kids, it’s hot chocolate. The riders call the drink a “stirrup cup,” but it’s tasty whether it’s consumed on horseback or on foot.
Michael Webb, the genial estate manager, said the toddy is a brew of brandy, rum and sherry, judiciously mixed with apple cider and honey, both produced at Ellistan.
“The original hunt club recipe was literally the alcohol, water and lemon juice,” Michael informed me.
“Twenty-five years ago, I changed it,” (for the better).
The Johnson family’s carriage is always a part of the festivities at the hunt meet. (Photo © 2023 by Lawrence J. Nagy)
As the riders prepared to move off, I chatted with Kate Crauford, an Australian who was riding with the hunt for the first time. A competitive show jumper, she borrowed Castle, a dapple grey gelding, from another Essex joint master, Dennis Sargenti. Since she was new to the scene, I thought I’d tell her why so many people come out.
A festive spread for the tailgating was enjoyed by Nancy Spatz, Dana and Lexi Sendro and Bullet the puppy. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
“Do you know who Jackie Kennedy was?” I asked, not sure if the fact that she was 23 years old and from the other side of the world might need an explanation about the former first lady.
But Kate knew of her (as someone said to me, who hasn’t heard of Jackie Kennedy?), so I thought she’d appreciate hearing about her role in the Thanksgiving tradition.
I explained Mrs. Kennedy was a member of Essex, and once the media got wind of that, they turned out with their cameras every year for the hunt, to which she was often accompanied by her son, John. Even after she no longer rode on Thanksgiving, and passed away, people kept coming since they had gotten in the habit. Now Kate understands the origin, and so do you.
Jacqueline Kennedy at Ellistan when she rode with Essex (that’s her son John in the left background). (Photo © by Nancy Jaffer)
“I had no idea that so many people came and watched,” Kate told me.
“It’s actually quite nice. It’s a lot more fun, inviting and inclusive.”
Gigi Moynihan, another jumper on a holiday from the show ring, was aboard her off-the-track thoroughbred, Ripley. She rides with the hunt on Thanksgiving every year.
“It’s so great that all the people come out,” said Gigi.
“There aren’t a lot of events like this for foxhunting. It’s really nice to see everyone, all your friends come and all the local people come with the whole family. It’s just great fun.”
The hunt itself ran for more than two hours, ranging around a section of the Somerset Hills dotted with estates and undulating fields.
The hunt takes a check in the middle of an exciting afternoon. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
“We covered a lot of ground and the hounds have been great,” said Lynn Jones, another joint master.
She was delighted with the number of people who came out to watch.”
“I thought it was the biggest crowd ever,” she said.
(Read my two-part 2022 series on fox hunts in New Jersey via these links. Click here for part one and here for part two.)
by Nancy Jaffer | Nov 21, 2023
We have an ancient dog-eared Advent calendar, made out of paper, that is decades old. How many I couldn’t tell you exactly, but it has the traditional numbered windows that count down until Christmas.
Each day, you open one of the windows and see a picture of a doll (most definitely not a Barbie!), a baseball, a wrapped gift or something similar that harks back to a less-complicated era.
Because this calendar has been with us for so long, I haven’t paid attention to the advances in Advent calendars that in many cases these days, seem not actually to be calendars, but rather, a set of gifts.
I saw one that offered exotic chocolates (it sold out long before Thanksgiving when I checked on it) and another that offered different types of whiskey. Then there was the Advent calendar for cats from Trader Joe’s (didn’t see a dog Advent calendar). This one featured salmon and dried seaweed treats. Yum.
The cat Advent calendar.
But what really got my attention was the Breyer model horse Advent calendar.
The Breyer horse Advent calendar. (Photo courtesy of Breyer)
You know Breyer models. What horse lover hasn’t collected them at some point; it’s not just children, plenty of adults have a Breyer collection or hobby.
Stephanie Macejko, vice president of marketing at Reeves International, Breyer’s parent company, noted the calendars containing little model horses “are popular, because the kids get to open up something every day leading up to Christmas.”
The items include tiny riders, a jump and a hay bale, among other accessories. They’re all sized to fit in with the horses, which are called Mini Whinnies, about an inch and a half high.
There’s also a unicorn Advent calendar, with not only the horned equines, but also fanciful accessories, sparkly water troughs and buckets in fantasy colors, to coordinate with their fairy tale image. The Breyer calendars are available at Amazon, tack stores and independent toy stores.
The unicorn calendar. (Photo courtesy of Breyer)
“What’s fun is that it offers kids, or adults, an opportunity to get a little surprise that they open every day,” Stephanie pointed out.
“Even once the holidays are over, the kids have a set they can play with all year round. It provides a lot of ongoing value and they have a set that would travel.”
by Nancy Jaffer | Nov 19, 2023
After an eight-year absence, the FEI World Equestrian Games in effect will be back, coming to Aachen, Germany, in 2026, in all but name.
The FEI awarded world championships in jumping, dressage, para dressage, eventing, driving and vaulting to the renowned European facility Aug. 10-23 2026, with only endurance out of the mix. That will be held in Saudi Arabia that October.
The Aachen championships will be a qualifier for the 2028 Los Angeles Games in the Olympic sports and para. Buy your tickets starting Monday Nov. 20 at https://www.aachen2026.com/
Aachen was the only site bidding for all the sports but endurance. Both Burghley in England and Boekelo in the Netherlands lost bids to hold eventing separately.
Aachen hosted what is generally accepted as the best of the WEGs in 2006, attracting 576,000 spectators. Those Games also included endurance, and reining, which is no longer an FEI sport.
The WEG began as a compilation of FEI world championships in 1990, ostensibly a one-off, but that competition in Sweden was so successful the concept continued through 2018. Other WEGs were less wonderful than their debut or Aachen’s rendition, and organizers became reluctant to bid for the whole thing because of the expense and the complications of staging that number of disciplines. So in 2022, the world championships were hosted separately in several nations.
“Following the outstanding FEI World Championships 2022 organized in Denmark, Italy and the UAE (which ran the endurance),” FEI President Ingmar de Vos said after bids were received in August, “we are confident this flexible approach with single and multiple bids serves not only the sport, but also the fans and the development of equestrian around the world, allowing different nations and venues to bid to host a major FEI event.”
And then three months later, Aachen gets awarded practically the whole shebang.
Aachen knows how to do pageantry, as it demonstrated in the 2006 WEG. (Photo © 2006 by Nancy Jaffer)
“We thank the FEI for their trust,” CHIO Aachen General Manager Michael Mronz said.
“We feel honored and pleased to host, together with the German Equestrian Federation, the FEI World Championships Aachen 2026…We would like to invite the entire world of equestrian sport to Aachen so that we can celebrate an unforgettable event together in 2026.”
The awarding of the sports to Aachen and Al Ula, Saudi Arabia, “is a significant decision for the future of equestrian sport,” De Vos maintained.
“We examined every aspect of the bids we received and especially the sporting infrastructures, the conditions for the horses, accessibility and sustainability,” he said.
“The FEI is delighted to have secured such outstanding hosts for our most prestigious championships three years in advance, which allows plenty of time for preparation and planning.
“I would like to congratulate the winners, who submitted outstanding bids. We are all well aware of Aachen’s unique track record of organizing extremely successful large-scale events. We were impressed with Al Ula’s proposal, which not only contains all the components of a successful event but seeks to showcase the heritage and potential of an entire region.”
by Nancy Jaffer | Nov 17, 2023
Dressage trainer Michael Barisone is writing a book, and now it has a happy ending—except it’s also a beginning.
The first line of the book, he explained, is “I have lived two lives.”
Barisone was given another chance today in court, following more than four harrowing years that started with a shooting, being charged with attempted murder, then ran through a high-profile trial, time in jail and stays in psychiatric institutions.
After getting good reports from psychiatric professionals, Superior Court Judge Stephen Taylor in Morristown, N.J., authorized Barisone’s discharge from Greystone Psychiatric Hospital in Morris Plains, N.J., with certain conditions.
They include having him remain in New Jersey, living at the home of a friend in Whitehouse Station; getting regular treatment from a psychologist in Clinton, no possession of firearms, only an occasional alcoholic beverage and a return to court in three months for an update.
Perhaps most important, Barisone was ordered to have no contact with dressage rider Lauren Kanarek, who nearly died after being shot twice in 2019. Kanarek and her boyfriend, Rob Goodwin, were tenants at Barisone’s horse farm in Long Valley, N.J., where they clashed with ever-increasing intensity, resulting in the shooting when Barisone thought she wanted to kill him.
Barisone was charged with second-degree attempted murder. A jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity last year and he was remanded to the Anne Klein Forensic Center for evaluation before being transferred to Greystone.
The 2008 U.S. Olympic dressage team alternate, who appeared at the courthouse in a brown Stetson and cowboy boots, had more than a dozen supporters accompany him to the courtroom. Some had known him since he first came to New Jersey in 1996.
Michael Barisone and Lara Hausken Osborne with legal team members Andrew Gimigliano, Chris Deininger and Ed Bilinkas. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
Barisone briefly seemed dazed by the decision at his Krol hearing. That is a proceeding to find whether it is still fair to keep those judged not guilty by reason of insanity out of society, while determining how dangerous they are to themselves and others.
“I don’t really know what to say. I’m sort of on my heels. I don’t know what to expect anymore. I’m out of words,” Barisone said after Taylor’s decision, praising his team of lawyers, Ed Bilinkas, Chris Deininger and Andrew Gimigliano.
Then he quoted a line from rock band Shinedown’s song, Daylight: “It’s amazing what the hard times can reveal; like who shows up, who walks away and who’s for real.”
One of those who is for real is his partner, Lara Hausken Osborne. She had tears in her eyes as she said, “I’m shell-shocked. I’m still holding my breath. I can’t believe it actually happened. I’m so glad. I need him home in Florida.”
She is running a farm that Barisone owns there.
Michael Barisone hopes to be riding again soon. (Photo © by Nancy Jaffer)
Deininger said, “I believe that the court has reached the correct result. These are very complicated matters, trying to balance society’s interests with an individual’s interests. I don’t think it’s an easy task, and we struck the right balance.”
Taylor listened to testimony from Greystone psychiatrist Dr. Sarah Sheikh and psychologist Dr. Lucas Rockwood about Barisone’s progress since he started working with them and their team at the hospital this year.
Sheikh called Barisone “stable and highly functional,” so he could “step down to a less restrictive environment.” He already spent 21 days out of the hospital, when he was able to go to shops and restaurants, as well as seven nights in a friend’s home.
Patients are taught coping skills about how to handle adverse situations and healthy ways to get their needs met. When Barisone was dealing with Kanarek, he suffered from delusional disorder and believed she was trying to kill him, Lockwood said.
He noted that while Barisone remembers what happened before and after the shooting, he cannot recall anything about the so-called “index incident.”
When certain needs are not met during childhood, Lockwood said, it develops a defeatist perspective. Barisone was abused as a youth, and “made to feel worthless as a child.” He handled that by overcompensating with perfection to counter underlying feelings of inferiority. But at the time of the incident, he didn’t have the coping skills he needed to deal with his issues involving Kanarek and Goodwin, whom he wanted to evict.
Being obsessive-compulsive or having an excessive focus on work are simply character traits, noted Sheikh, saying Barisone is empathetic and has “good impulse control.”
As an example of how Barisone had progressed, Lockwood mentioned when another patient got in his face, he used the “stop skill—stop, take a step back and proceed mindfully,” and then summoned Greystone staff to handle the problem.
Barisone’s delusional issues are in remission now, and he no longer thinks he was acting in self-defense when he encountered Kanarek.
“He says he feels horrible for what he did. He’s glad she survived and wishes the best for her,” Lockwood reported.
When asked what might happen if Barisone would encounter Kanarek, Lockwood replied, “He does not want to see her ever again.”
Queried on the stand whether he saw any risks if Barisone is not held in a secure setting, Lockwood replied, “Not at this time.”
He agreed with Sheikh that Barisone should be released and continue treatment with the private psychologist, since “he does not need the level of treatment from Greystone.”
by Nancy Jaffer | Nov 17, 2023
With Wellington, Florida, “at a turning point,” the Village Council faced some hard truths and voted 4-1 Thursday night to take land out of the Equestrian Preserve, the key to enabling development of an expanded showgrounds that would replace the current cramped facility.
“This is a game played in four quarters and overtime,” said Councilman John McGovern, “and we are a couple of minutes into the fourth quarter.”
The Wellington International showgrounds is the focal point of the Village’s reputation as the “Winter Equestrian Capital of the World,” but it needs more land to spread out and offer the amenities necessary to upgrade its standard.
Developer Wellington Lifestyle Partners, headed by Doug McMahon, has agreed to build the badly needed showgrounds expansion on its Wellington South parcel, but only if WLP is permitted to construct a golf community on 96 acres of its Wellington North parcel down the road. That property is designated as part of the 9,000 acres of Preserve that is spread throughout the village.
Many residents who attended council meetings on the development plans over the last three nights consider the Preserve sacrosanct, and felt removing any of the acreage had the potential to create a domino effect precedent that eventually would unravel it.
But the showgrounds situation was made more dire by the revelation Wednesday that Global Equestrian Group, which owns the home of the world-famous Winter Equestrian Festival, is for sale and its future with the facility is a question mark.
An illustration of the expanded showgrounds, complete with derby field and indoor arena.
The vote isn’t the last word on the development situation, because this was only the first reading of the ordinances. The second reading is set for some time in January, when four of the council members must vote in favor of removing land from the Preserve if that is to go forward.
Vice Mayor Michael Napoleone was the lone nay vote on taking land from the Preserve and a change of zoning for Wellington North, but voted with the rest of the council in a unanimous decision involving rezoning land on Wellington South to Equestrian Commercial Recreation where the showgrounds will be expanded to include dressage. That discipline runs at Equestrian Village on Wellington North, and will continue there until work is finished on the expanded showgrounds, with a deadline of Dec. 31, 2028 to complete the project.
While Napoleone noted everyone agrees the horse show needs improvement, he wasn’t comfortable voting for the changes on Wellington North.
“At this time, I still have too many questions about what that future horse show is going to be,” he commented.
“I don’t have enough information about the capital, where the money’s coming from, how this is going to happen.”
He wonders, “Is it the right product? Is it sustainable? Does it make sense for the community? And if it does, then we revisit this, but today I don’t have the information I need to do that.”
A formal application for the showgrounds has yet to be filed, and it will have to go through the hearing process to seek approval.
Addressing those at the meeting who were upset about taking the Wellington North land out of the preserve, Councilman Michale Drahos reminded the crowd, “We don’t own the land that we’re all here talking about.”.
Wellington North not only is the home of dressage, but it also has a grass derby field that is highly regarded by show hunters and jumpers.
“It is owned by a private entity; it is not Wellington’s land,” Drahos pointed out about the North parcel.
“If they decide to shut it down tomorrow, we cannot stop them from doing that. My approach to doing this is not from the standpoint of a hostage, it’s from the standpoint of an opportunist.”
He explained, “If I have a deal on the table that says to me, you have to take out less than 1 percent of the Equestrian Preserve area land to guarantee the future success of equestrian sport, I’m taking the deal. Because that’s what I believe puts us on the most stable ground and not just today, but 50 years into the future.”
There are those who have expressed concern that Mark Bellissimo is involved with WLP, because some felt they had been burned by him in the past.
Drahos gave credit where credit is due, saying, “My kids grew up going to showgrounds that Mark Bellissimo built. It’s not a popular thing to say in a room like this, to speak favorably of what Mark Bellissimo accomplished for our community.”
Drahos referenced a comment by Murray Kessler, the former president of the U.S. Equestrian Federation, made during a hearing on the development issues that Mark Bellissimo is responsible for the explosion of the sport in Wellington.
But Drahos acknowledged, “Mark Bellissimo is out of gas. To his credit, I think he has recognized that what he wishes to accomplish in this town he can’t get done. He’s gone to somebody he thinks can. If we are determined to rely upon the past, we are destined to become an afterthought.”
Council member Tanya Siskind said there is time to make further adjustments, but noted “the applicant has made many concessions, has listened, has made a less dense project. Those who oppose this and those who support it all have at least one thing in common, and that is the show must improve and/or expand. This is the vehicle to get there. I think is protecting our equestrian lifestyle.”
Mayor Anne Herwig likes to say that without the equestrian element, “We’d be Boynton Beach without the beach. This is what sets us apart.”
She added about the showgrounds, “I don’t know a way to save it without some investment. None of this was our investment, it’s all been private investment, but we are the stewards.”
For the previous columns about last week’s hearings on Wellington development, click on this link for the second story and here for the first story.
