The Winter Festival

Wellington, FL – March 31, 2022 – The Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) delivered another exciting day of competition on Thursday, March 31, as the circuit’s final week, presented by Rolex, continues toward its thrilling conclusion. While international show jumping was featured on the Derby Field at Equestrian Village, junior equitation riders were in the spotlight in the International Arena at Wellington International with the best of the best vying for the top placing in the WEF Equitation Championship, presented by NetJets. As the sun set, Luke Jensen of Denton, Texas, emerged victorious with Stephex Stables’s Jamaica.
 
The highlight of WEF 12 and the 2022 WEF circuit is the $500,000 Rolex Grand Prix CSI5* on Saturday, April 2, at 11 a.m. ET. While there is no “Saturday Night Lights“ event for WEF 12, fans of equestrian sport are welcomed to cheer on horses and riders at the $35,000 Wellington National Golf Club Spring 1 Grand Prix on Saturday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Riders for Thursday evening’s championship class qualified by winning an equitation class during the 2022 WEF season, the 2021 Holiday and Horses Horse Show, or the 2021 Holiday Finale show. Andy Christiansen (USA) and Ken Krome (USA) designed the 12-fence first course for the 46 qualified athletes to contest. The top 12 were then called back in reverse order for a second round, which had additional challenges woven into the course, such as a simple change of lead between fences six and seven, and a halt after the final fence, fence 10. Four riders returned for further testing, before judges from panel one, Alex Jayne and Tiffany Morrissey, and panel two, Chris Kappler and Michael Tokaruk, crowned their champion.
Riders proved up to the task this evening, with an extremely competitive field producing an average score of 80 in the first round and just over seven points separating the top 12. The close score differential meant it was anyone’s game coming into round two.
Ellie Aronson (Atlanta, Georgia) made the biggest jump up the leaderboard with Wolfstone Stables & Sales Inc.’s Conthacco, a 12-year-old Oldenburg gelding by Conthargos, going from eighth to fourth, and ultimately finishing in second. As the final four completed the work-off in reverse order, Aronson was first to test.

Luke Jensen and Jamaica in their winning presentation with Ryan Sexton, Jennifer Vance, and Laura Southard from Business Development at NetJets, Missy Clark, Maggie Gampfer, Martha Jensen, Stacia Klein Madden, who presented the Class Action Best Equitation Horse Award, and John Brennan. © Sportfot