Wellington, Fla., bills itself as the winter horse capital of the world, and it seems as if every year, something else appears to underline that bold statement.
In 2019, it’s the Chesapeake International Draft Horse Show founded by Victoria McCullough. The show drew entries from all over the country, as far away as Colorado, Utah and Missouri. The eight-horse hitches, which competed yesterday, made quite an impressive sight spread out around the palm tree-edged pond at Crab Orchard Equestrian Estate.
The line-up by the lake. (Photo©2019 by Nancy Jaffer)
One of the grooms told me it takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours to get the horses bathed, brushed and braided. It certainly isn’t a job for one person. The word “team” applies to the people involved, as much as it does to the horses.
The horses had to wait their turn to get in the ring, because it could only hold three hitches at a time.When all the heats were finished, the teams lined up side by side in the arena. I didn’t have a wide-angle lens that was wide enough to get them all in the photo!
Quite a lineup! (Photo©2019 by Nancy Jaffer)
The winning team was Express Ranches from Oklahoma, with Josh Minshull handling the lines of the gleaming black Percherons..
“We’ve actually been showing Clydesdales for the last 20 years under Express Clydesdales. In August, we converted our competitive hitch to the Percheron group,” said Josh.
The Express Percherons. (Photo©2019 by Nancy Jaffer)
“This is still a relatively new group to us, it’s just been five or six months that we’ve been competing with them. They’re coming together pretty well and they had a good drive in the today, so they’re starting to come together as a unit as you’d like them to. It takes some time, since they’re pretty new to us but we’re having a lot of fun with them.”
Horses were stabled next door at Deeridge Farm, which is hosting the Longines Nations Cup show this week. (No draft horses will be appearing there, needless to say, though a Clydesdale flying over a 1.60-meter fence certainly would be amazing).
The show was a benefit for two charities,the EQUUS Foundation and the Young Singers of the Palm Beaches. It drew a nice crowd, and it was interesting to see the number of folks in boots and breeches who drifted over from the Winter Equestrian Festival down the road to watch the men in cowboy hats show off their driving skills.