Its real. Its in the Wall St Journal: https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-florida-towns-vie-to-be-center-of-the-equestrian-world-41c54136
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Paywall.
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Oops. Oh well. Interesting but nothing surprising if you are at all familiar with the winter rush to Wellington. WEC Ocala has more space, an incomparable facility, more hotel/motel options, etc. Belissimo et al quoted as saying they need to keep on top of things in Wellington or they will lose market share.
It is interesting to me that the Hunter/Jumper world, in defiance of USEF a year or two back, has a pretty darn big presence in Ocala and their own 8 week winter series in direct competition with WEF. They now have a schedule of CDI’s for dressage.
Also - at some point down the road, with development of some land, WEC can host both 3 day events and also combined driving events.
And with the indoor, climate controlled arenas, they can run shows all summer in Ocala.
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It is certainly interesting here in Ocala. WEC and Welly both just finished their winter series of H/J and Dressage shows. They DO have air conditioned arenas at WEC, but their dimensions make dressage shows awkward… two arenas, side by side, one large warm up area; you enter the court rather than “go around” to present to the judge, and the audience stands are closed on the competition side (feet are just above horse eye level, and the arena rail is against the wall, and the stands are metal). They really missed the mark with that (IMO they forgot about the “go around” and the judges’ box space requirements, and went with just the court dimensions. . They do have CDIs here, some times in direct competition with other long-time shows (CDIs can have national shows associated without regard to the mileage rules). Those older shows struggle… even tho the show managers are beloved, and the shows are, in general, much more AA friendly than the WEC experience.
There are often at least two different shows going on at WEC, H/J and Dressage, and some breed shows/dog shows… car shows… The H/J shows pretty much use all the close-in barns all winter long, and some dressage shows are limited to the outdoor arenas or just one of the AC “Arena” buildings.
As to the H/J shows, LOTS of competitors rotate between WEC, HITS (literally right down the road) and Wellington. (Pretty sure some dressage folks do as well, especially for the CDIs).
Land prices have gone bananas here.
Its also more expensive to show at WEC.
There is a dressage show within about an hour’s drive every weekend from about November to June, and some that go in the summer…
But lets face it, its an amazing facility.
As to hotels, yes more than Welly, but still a drive into town (their hotel is $$$ and not pet friendly). They ahve over 500 RV spots, and bring in food trucks and music on Friday nights… Restaurnats on site, but a drive into town for others.
And lets not forget some BIG Wellington names have moved here - Hampton Green Farm, for example. (dont ask me for others, sorry, I dont know all the details).
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forgot to add - Horses who live here get real turn out, not the hour-long in a small paddock that is prevalent in Welly… and even those who are here for the duration in the WEC barns have access to many good size paddocks on site.
WEC wins for me as a spectator just due to that amazing pastry shop in the hotel. 
More seriously- I just get so mad in Wellington. You broil in the seats with no shade and the food is terrible. What a missed opportunity.
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I think this link may work.
I’ve shown at both Global and WEC in both dressage and jumpers.
Global national rings are kind of… fine. It was good for my horse who is a scaredy cat to have “friends” going nearby. Stabling is a ghost town most weeks. A lot of haul ins. I agree that watching in the stadium is hard. Food sucks but Wellington itself is a better town and doing a dinner in Palm Beach is a blast.
I did WEC outside in November. I haven’t shown inside yet. For the outdoors, the hunter jumper sized rings worked great for the National rings. They did put a court in the schooling ring Saturday to show in, which made the actual schooling half insanely crowded. I also felt like we were off to the side over by the big stadium. They definitely save the prime spots and stabling for hunter jumper.
Remember they are also trying to further develop WEF and move dressage over there. Global is slated to be housing.
Nope. Still have to be a subscriber to read the whole article.
Love that pastry shop. I always go there for a snack post-show, either to celebrate or drown my sorrows in chocolate. Or the ice cream shop. And the pizza place has wine.
As a kid, I dreamt about going to Wellington. Now you really couldn’t pay me. Here, in Ocala, my horses live on a farm with real turnout, I can show in the air conditioning, and have access to a plethora of amazing horsemen and trainers.
But I am glad I bought my house a few years ago. There is NOTHING reasonable for sale here.
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I’ve never been to Ocala, but just spent my first month with a horse in Wellington. I agree they need shade over the spectator stands at Global. And Wellington is a hard place to visit - the hotel options in town are incredibly limited. I think they’re really catering to the people who stay all winter, whereas WEC is more spectator, drop-in-and-out friendly.
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Wow, really?? When is that supposed to happen?
In the next few years.
Interesting, thanks.
I wonder if that will include the area that used to be the Players Club by Global. I think that was supposed to be a big residential development a couple of years ago, but it seems to have fizzled out.
I did notice when I was in Wellington last month that they seem to be clearing a lot of the land out behind the existing WEF showgrounds, so maybe that’s part of the new plan.
I think that is the only dressage show outside… wasnt there a CDI going on in the “purple” arena next to those rings at the same time? The H/Js come in the fall and fill the barns, and Arena buildings, pretty much all winter; most of the winter dressage shows are in one Building, as the other 4 are full of H/J… and our show office is upstairs on the mezzanine… and when I showed there in the fall we were housed in L and M, on the north side, and the competition arenas were in Arena 1 Building, which is on the SOUTH side…
Its my understanding that Global has several years of locked in show dates with USEF, so they have to wait that out. I also heard a rumor (ie no basis in fact, and maybe 3rd hand, lol) that Global might move its shows to Terra Nova near Sarasota, but that could also be wishful thinking. And though I dont know the exact rules there are distance requirements between venues that USEF considers and the question of distance between Terra Nova and WEC/Ocala could be problematic, particularly for the CDIs.
Also - the Chronical article talks about much the same as the WSJ article
Wow that would be interesting! I haven’t been there yet but heard good things.
Isn’t Wellington International putting on both Global and WEF though? I am new to dressage but when I showed at global and wef (with the jumper) earlier this month, I noticed it’s the same company on my credit card charges.
I personally wouldn’t want dressage mixed in with the general craziness of WEF and this is coming from someone who’s showed at WEF for 12 years at this point.
They are about 250 miles apart, which is plenty for any USEF hunter/jumper classes. I don’t know about the mileage rules for FEI classes or dressage.
It does seem like USEF has largely thrown the mileage rule out the window anyway, at least for the state of Florida in the winter.
I do find it interesting the way people will hop back and forth between the different venues with different horses. I believe there was at least one rider last week who did a class at Terra Nova on Saturday at lunchtime and then a different horse in a class in Wellington on Saturday night.
And certainly plenty of people ran back and forth between the two venues in Ocala with different horses all winter.
I can only admire their organizational skills if they can pull that off without any glitches.
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I believe it is the same company.
If they are going to put the dressage in the area I saw being cleared last month, it would be pretty separate from the rest of the showgrounds. Then the dressage people could come and go through the closer entrance to that area out by Palm Beach Point east. So it could almost be two completely separate but adjacent venues.
I THINK the idea of moving the shows would be to allow clearing out of the Global facility sooner so they could start building. The end idea is to have WEF do all the dressage shows that were at Global facility, but that expansion to accommodate all, even if already begun, would still be some time away.
Helgestrand which owns WEF and runs the Global shows (owns the dates) has been pretty clear they want to create another Aachen.
Wellington still attracts the most international riders both dressage and show jumping.
I know several jumper riders who went to show at Terra Nova from Wellington and loved it. They took their less experienced 1.45 and 1.50 jumpers to Terra Nova, and rode the experienced horses in the big classes at WEF.
It’s also a shorter drive from Wellington to Terra Nova, than Wellington to Ocala.
Ocala does not have the infrastructure to support the growth of WEC. That’s one thing that really sets the two localities apart.
