Hurricane Milton Impacts: Wellington’s Global Show Grounds Stages Competition Next Week, TerraNova Dressage World Cup Being Evaluated
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By KENNETH J. BRADDICK
Horse shows will be staged at the Global Dressage Festival grounds in Wellington, Florida next week with a hunter-jumper competition that, like the neighboring Wellington International venue, sustained no damage in the tornado that hammered parts of the community two days ago.
However, organizers of next week’s World Cup qualifier at TerraNova on the Gulf coast of Florida and directly in the path of Hurricane Milton are weighing whether to proceed with the event.
A walking tour of the Global grounds, officially named Equestrian Village, found them to be in excellent condition, including the permanent stables, the van Kampen covered arena and the grass derby field as well as the main competition arenas with sand-based footing.
The starting lineups for next week is unknown as of Friday, said Wellington International Chief of Operations David Burton Jr.
Some equestrians in the Wellington/Loxahatchee area are still repairing damage and clearing their properties of trees uprooted in the tornado that preceded Hurricane Milton that swept across Florida from the Gulf coast.
Michael Stone, president of Wellington International that also operates the main show grounds that hosts the Winter Equestrian Festival, the world’s largest and longest running winter circuit, gave a brief response to a question about possible damage to the show grounds:
“Nothing, thank God.”
A handful of horses have already been worked at the Global grounds where the winter-long dressage circuit begins at the start of the year.
A section of the metal frame for the GDF VIP pavilion has already been erected with more than 2 1/2 months to go before the first Global competition. Completion of the pavilion that seats more than 600 people takes just days.
Next year has no international championships for American rider and horse combinations, but the large contingent of European dressage and jumper riders who normally compete at Wellington face the European Championships. The assigned organizer of the senior championships has pulled out and a new venue has not yet been assigned.
Among the Europeans is Frederic Wandres who was on the German gold medal dressage team at the Paris Olympics with Bluetooth OLD, the gelding on which he has starred at Global the past three years
Wellington along with TerraNova near Sarasota, Florida will stage qualifying competitions for the newly created U.S. Open dressage series.
Wellington International was awarded the final of the Open jumping series that coupled with the Rolex Grand Prix offers more than $1 million in prize money.
The family-owned and operated TerraNova at Myakka City near Sarasota reported it is evaluating the effects of Hurricane Milton on the facility and the surrounding area to decide whether to go ahead with next week’s competition.
The TerraNova show grounds staged its first dressage competition in 2022 and has become a popular key in the so-called Florida dressage “super circuit” along with Wellington and the World Equestrian Festival in Ocala. The venue is also a feature of both jumping and eventing circuits.
The TerraNova show grounds include some of the most spectacular permanent stabling of any show grounds anywhere as well as top notch international and national competition arenas, world class cross country courses and a strategically positioned permanent VIP overlooking both dressage division rings. A newly built media center was to be opened at this coming week’s dressage World Cup.
