Dressage-News

Sept. 18, 2024

By KENNTH J. BRADDICK

Kimberly van Kampen, whose Hampton Green Farm and Discover Dressage are major sponsors at World Equestrian Center, firmly supports expanded dressage schedule at Ocala as a response to a major investment in new facilities and cites uncertainty over the future of the competition schedule of Wellington’s Global Dressage Festival.

Kim who moved from Wellington where she was a partner in the equestrian group that owned the main hunter-jumper show that staged the decades-long Winter Equestrian Festival and sponsored Global’s covered arena, formally opens her new Hampton Green Farm in Ocala next month which will also be the breeding and development center for P.R.E. horses that had been in Michigan.

The dressage competition schedule as posted on the official FEI calendar for Florida from mid-October through to the end of 2025 lists 21 international events of at least CDI3* level–seven at Global in Wellington, nine at World Equestrian Center in Ocala, four at TerraNova near Sarasota and one at West Palm Beach neighboring Wellington. The expanded lineup of shows for Ocala includes for the first time two CDIs midway through the intense winter circuit that has been mainstay of Wellington’s  schedule.

Of the remaining 12 in the U.S., seven are in Southern California and the other five spread across the U.S. throughout the year.

With the expanded schedule, Florida has four more dressage events for comparable levels than in all of Germany over the same period, according to the FEI schedule.

Growth of the Ocala circuit comes at the same time as new organizational management headed up by Noreen O’Sullivan, an organizer who had operated multiple dressage events in and around Wellington before Global was established in 2011.

And this week, the regional championships of national levels for Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee lists entries of more than 540 horses with more than 430 riders over five days at Ocala’s WEC–easily able to handle the horses with almost 3,000 climate-controlled stalls and two multi-story hotels for grooms, riders, owners and spectators on the show grounds that cover 300 acres/121Ha.

“We’re really grateful in Ocala to the Roberts family (that built and operates the show grounds) for building the designated area for us and for going ahead and signing up for all these shows because everyone knows that of all the horse sports, dressage shows make the least amount of money,” said Kim. “But they bring a lot of good things with them. And now that they’re figuring out that it’s the hospitality, it’s the sponsorship, and it’s the beauty of the sport itself that they’ve gone ahead and they’ve booked seven CDIs for next year. And I’m super grateful to them for doing that.”

“But the other thing is, I just don’t know what’s going to happen in Wellington and when you have a vacuum you’ve got to fill it with with something or somebody else is going to fill it.”

Approval has been given by the government of Wellington for the Global grounds to become a high end residential and golf community in exchange for creation of a dressage area alongside the main hunter-jumper grounds.

However, the sale of the main show grounds as well as the area theoretically designated for dressage plus a jumping course has not yet been completed.

If Global moves to an area adjoining the main hunter-jumper arenas, in Wellington, she speculated, dressage will share the competition space with hunters and jumpers.

“If dressage doesn’t have its own showgrounds, it will not be a high priority in Wellington. And space is so limited and it’s so expensive down there. And to start a brand new showgrounds and build it from the ground up is going to be a very, very expensive project. And I don’t know if that’s going to happen.”

Hunter-jumpers are a much bigger community than dressage, and the main show grounds are at capacity.

Speculation is that when sale of the main show grounds occurs and expanded to include the area for dressage, Global may be reduced from its current schedule of 12 weeks that includes national and para dressage competitions in addition to international events could be reduced to provide more competition arenas for the much larger hunter-jumper circuit.

While details of the future lineup of dressage events is uncertain, growth at Ocala’s WEC and TerraNova near Sarasota has already created what is being dubbed a dressage “super circuit.”

Events at Wellington, Ocala and TerraNova will also provide competition environments that are different from each other, an aspect that some riders and trainers say is preferable to a season at the same location. At the same time, Global has been the magnet for competitors from around the country and the world, including the purchase of equestrian properties in and around Wellington, and it is not known how that might be affected. A highlight of the Global circuit is a VIP marquee accommodating several hundred people for meals and socializing during shows.

Florida CDIs listed in order by date beginning late 2024 with venue added:
Oct. 17-20 CDI-W World Cup, TerraNova, Myakka City
Nov. 13-17 CDI3* World Equestrian Center (WEC), Ocala
Dec. 11-15 CDI-W World Cup, WEC, Ocala
Jan. 8-12 CDI-W World Cup Global Dressage Festival (GDF), Wellington
Jan. 16-19 CDI3* West Palm Beach
Jan. 22-26 CDI4*, GDF, Wellington
Jan. 29-Feb. 2 CDI3*, WEC, Ocala
Feb. 5-9 CDI-W World Cup, GDF, Wellington
Feb. 12-16 CDI3*, WEC, Ocala
Feb. 19-23 CDIO3* Nations Cup, GDF, Wellington
Feb. 26-Mar. 2 Palm Beach Derby CDI-W World Cup, GDF, Wellington
Mar. 5-9 CDI4*, WEC Ocala
Mar. 12-16 CDI5* at Wellington International, GDF, Wellington
Mar. 26-30 CDI4*, GDF, Wellington
April 3-6 CDI-W World Cup, TerraNova, Myakka City
April 9-13 CDI4*, WEC, Ocala
May 1-4 CDI-W World Cup, TerraNova, Myakka City
May 21-25 CDI3*, WEC, Ocala
Oct. 16-19 CDI-W World Cup, TerraNova, Myakka City
Nov. 12-16 CDI-W World Cup, WEC, Ocala
Dec. 10-14 CDI-W World Cup, WEC, Ocala