Dressage-News

By KENNETH J. BRADDICK

WELLINGTON, Florida, Oct. 8, 2025–Wellington International, intended to host the Global Dressage Festival in 2027, creating a new face for the home of world’s largest horse show at 13 weeks over winter.

New and rehabilitated competition arenas, a giant covered arena, newly built and additional permanent stabling, horse paths with professional quality footing, human foot paths of rubber surfaces, a new grass field that is so green it almost looks unreal and a host of other improvements and changes.

The rebuilding of what has been referred to as the main stadium will be ready for the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) of jumping and hunters for the 2026 circuit. It is designed to maintain the show venue that over more than a half century has been the premier United States equestrian facility and one of the longest running in the world. It’s success has led to the creation in Florida in the past five years of the spectacular World Equestrian Center in Ocala and beautiful TerraNova near Sarasota.

This is the second major overhaul of what has been referred as the main show grounds. The first was in 2007 when a group named Wellington Equestrian Partners and headed up by Mark Bellissimo bought the WEF grounds. Five years later, the group created the Global grounds on what is known as Equestrian Village.

The latest changes were brought about initially by the decision to convert the neighboring Equestrian Village that hosts dressage as well as jumper and hunter competitions into a luxury housing development. The investment group assigned undeveloped land for an expansion of what is now called Wellington International.

Murray Kessler, a long time resident of Wellington deeply involved in equestrian life (he was also president of the US federation) and highly successful in major businesses from which he retired twice came out of retirement again to become chief executive officer of Wellington International as well as a partner in the ownership group.

More than 7,000 horses with 6,000 riders from more than 50 countries and all 50 states compete at Wellington International with an economic impact of $538.2 million.

The changes at the show grounds are extensive and dramatic since a year ago when Murray took over with long time president Michael Stone alongside. The Mark Bellissimo group has retaken ownership of the show grounds and has gone along with the costly overhaul in which his daughter, Paige is deeply immersed.

“I’m an under-promise, over-deliver kind of a guy. I didn’t start marketing and advertising and posting about the things we were doing here. Rather than say, ‘We’re going to do all of this’, I’m showing that it’s done.” 

–Murray Kessler, Wellington International Chief Executive Officer

Murray said he didn’t want to tell people what he hoped to accomplish this year after the WEF circuit in early April and before the 2026 season beginning this coming January.

“We did a lot last year in a short amount of time,” he recalled. “I said, the only thing I promise you is when you come back next year, it’ll be better than it is this year.
“Even for this staff, they’re like, ‘it’s never been like this before’. We could have a horse show here next week.”

“It’s going to take me a few years to get it all the way the way I want it. It’s like renovating a house. You renovate over here and you’re like, darn, we need it there. But it’s dramatic enough that, you know, the entrances, the FEI barns, the kitchens, the Pony Islands.”

That’s not taking into account what’s being constructed on the other side of the show grounds, what was previously undeveloped land that now has competition rings, a covered arena, hookups for planned stabling (the steel beams for the barns have already been delivered), and the blank palette of a grass field that a professional designer is figuring out how to make a main arena that’s intimate enough for dressage but big enough for jumping with a VIP lounge and spectator grand stands.

The initial plans for dressage was to place it in what’s called Pony Island and the jumpers would have gone to the newly built area.

But, Murray said, it didn’t work. The current main international arena that is too big for dressage would have been in the middle.

“And now I’ve evolved with a lot of help from pretty smart firms that dressage, as of today, will go to the new arena. And so the dressage, when it moves, it’ll move sort of what the original thought was. So we’ll have lots of parking and room for ship-ins and all that kind of stuff.

“Right now my plan is dressage will go up there now and stabling for dressage up there up there as well so that’ll be all new stabling.”

Even before Global moves from Equestrian Village, plans have already been drawn up to boost dressage shows, with special attention to enhance the top-rated CDI5* scheduled for Jan. 21-25 as a special event and not just a class. He didn’t provide details but labeled it “world class.”

Although dressage is nowhere near as profitable as jumpers and hunters, Murray affirms “we’re committed to the sport. We view Wellington as the leader in the United States, and we have a responsibility to build the disciplines and make the U.S. competitive, and we’re proud of that.”

But he urges more riders to compete in the Friday Night Lights dressage highlight event.

“We’re spending a lot of money to make Friday nights fantastic,” he said. “We have plenty of horses, but they’ve got to show Friday night.”

Overall for the main stadium ticket sales were up 59% during the last Wellington season, sponsorship was way up and the VIP for 2026 clubs are almost 100% sold out already.

With many of the top riders in the world in the Rolex jumping finale last winter, 10,000 spectators filled the stands.