For 12 weeks, Wellington International has been home to some of the best equestrians around the country.
However, the winter fun ends this Saturday at the annual Saturday Night Lights.
"A $750,000 Rolex U.S. Equestrian Open Grand Prix, which is the highlight of our season," said Lenore Brown, the director of sponsorship and retail sales.
The Grand Prix will feature six top-10 show-jumping athletes nationwide, including 2024 Olympians like Richard Vogel.
"We've always had some good success here. We bring some horses, and every year, we bring some horses that we want to bring up in the sport. Wellington is a good place for us to do all of this," said Vogel, who’s experienced the greatest success in Wellington, winning the event in 2023.
Two years later, with an Olympic appearance under his belt, he's feeling confident but cautious.
"You could say we have an advantage because we kind of did it already, but every year, it's a different course," said Vogel.
This year's course has been enhanced to a five-star course carefully designed by Olympic course designer Guilherme Jorge.
"We test them first on the height and and the spread of the jumps to check the power of the horse and the scope of the horse," said Jorge.
The horse will be jumping over five-feet hurdles at various distances.
So, Lillie Keenan and fellow jumpers walked the course on Wednesday morning.
"This course is definitely not the biggest thing he's ever jumped. Hopefully, we can take extra risk and be quick in the second phase," said Keenan.
Twenty-fifth-ranked Keenan calls Wellington home, and for more than 20 years, she's jumped at Wellington International.
The 2028 Olympic hopeful tells me she believes she can use her home-field advantage to win the top spot.
"This is the only time of the year we get to stay in one place. I live out of a suitcase probably eight months out of the year, and we have no off season. So the winter time is the only time we get to stay home and compete at a high level," said Keenan.
The event is free to the public, but you must pay for parking. The competition starts at 7:30 p.m. on March 29.
