The 2022 Washington International Horse Show will be held at Prince George’s Equestrian Center, which is also the site for Capital Challenge. Much better logistics than the downtown location for all the horses! And the people as well.
Press release here:
As an Arlington resident, I’m selfishly a bit sad. (I liked being able to Metro into the horse show).
But this is best for the horses and the show, so I won’t whine too much.
I’m sad to see it leave the city but the venue change makes sense. It’ll seem a little less special since there are multiple bigger shows in that facility, and it won’t have the same unique feel that you get from in DC. But downtown DC is so hard for everyone involved so it’s hard to begrudge the move.
Im glad it’s at least returning to the DC area, since wasn’t it at TEIC the past 2 years?
But it is truly an end of an era to have to leave DC. I fear that all the Indoors shows are going the way of the dodo bird
It was at Tryon for the last two years, mostly due to Covid concerns, I think. But it sounds like the contract in downtown Washington was up anyway, so they were going to need to find a new location regardless.
It is, but only the end of one era.
I grew up with WIHS being at the Capital Centre/USAir Arena, which was in PG County not too far from the PG equestrian center. So this feels like a return to that era.
In a way. There will always be a difference between a horse show held in a venue designed for basketball/hockey/concerts and a horse show held in a venue for equestrian events. The latter is obviously a lot better for the horses. But it does have a different feel.
I think most people who’ve actually been personally involved in the shuttle process of getting the horses in and out of downtown Washington are probably pretty happy about the change. It was a logistical challenge, to say the least.
been there a couple times, and really disliked it. horses had to literally live on the street, and all that shuttling from Prince George and back has to be very stressful for the horses. No thanks. I’m glad its moving
As a DC resident I too am sad it’s moving from the city but yes, all around friendlier for horses and logistics. I did hear a rumor the PGEC location is temporary, and exploring other options for long term. Wonder if it is because CCHS is already at PG eq center? I can only imagine one or two other potential locations if not the Armory downtown. Baltimore co ag center?
In any case. Happy it’s back in the DC metro area!
WIHS in the city is cool one time, but such an absolute hassle for everything and hard on the horses. I never had any interest in trying to qualify to go down there. On the other hand, PG is not my favorite venue for humans just because of the hotel and area restaurant situation, but it is super horse-friendly, lots of places for them to stretch their legs and graze, and the lack of shuttle logistics might also decrease the cost to play.
Yeah, I guess it just, to me, felt like the last true indoors. Gone are the days of Madison Square Garden and the glitz and glamour. It still had a bit of that at WIHS.
But from a horse welfare perspective moving to an equestrian venue is a great idea. The warm up for WHIS in DC was comically small.
It was the same way back at the Cap Centre. There was a slightly larger warm-up ring outside on a parking lot (footing on top of asphalt), but when you were about to show you’d ride down this LONG concrete loading ramp to the arena. Just inside, similar to the Capital One Arena, there was a tiny underground schooling area with one jump. Basically when jumping there you had to find a distance BEFORE you rolled back to the jump.
(obligatory shameless name drop). I showed at WIHS at the Cap Centre in the junior jumpers in the early 90s. One class, Nicki Shahinian and I were warming up at the same time. I was a few strides behind her as we warmed up in the tiny warm-up area, and just tried to do everything she did. It was probably the most accurate I’ve ever ridden… 
you shouldn’t get your true trainers hat until you’ve schooled a terrified A/A or Children’s Hunter rider in an underground parking garage Or unloaded and led a terrified horse down the city sidewalk, complete with business people, tourists, shoppers and homeless people all either gawking or glaring at you
I am SO glad it’s moved to PG! My horses have always loved it there. I used to tell my clients to NOT sign up for the WIHS classes because the final was so unfriendly to horses, now I will give it 2 big 
One of the scariest moments of my life was helping set jumps in the schooling ring for a Children’s jumper one year. Trying to become one with the jump standard while horses ping-ponged around that itty bitty warm up ring and not get run over or jumped. It was also then that any pipe dram I ever had to show at WIHS went out the window…zero desire to ever school in that chaos!
Indeed very scary for adult riders! Though I found it just as scary trying to school on a Monday with seventy or so horses at the outdoor ring at PG for Cap Challenge. Luckily they had it open at all!
Truth, but at least there were no enormous concrete pillars to avoid!
It’s a good decision, although, it was amusing to come out of a nice restaurant and see makeshift horse stalls set up in a closed off city street. It had a London cab stand 1800s type feel…
I understand the pluses for people getting to go watch but I couldn’t ever imagine wanting to show under those circumstances. It’s the least horse friendly setup/venue I can imagine. And on top of that, just a hassle. I’ve been to watch several times and I always walked away thinking that the pain in the butt aspects of the logistics did not outweigh the prestige of getting to show there.
The other factor in the downtown venue is that it was not necessarily a competition between the best of the best. It was more a competition between the best of the ones who elected to attend under those conditions. So a lot of times, the horses that were actually showing there were pretty far down the list of horses that had points in those divisions.
There were certainly some top horses in attendance, but there were also a lot of other horses.
I worked that show as a vendor about 15 years ago, and remember leaving one night to drive back to my hotel. I passed a fast food restaurant, either a Burger King or a McDonalds, and watched rats swarming in front of it in the dark evening!
I am not a city person to begin with, but that sealed the deal!
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