That does indeed sound pretty appealing, especially the bathroom!
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Protestant?! 
Hardly.
I couldnât care less if they had a mosque on the showgrounds, since you arenât being forced to attend. Itâs just there if youâd like to. The crosses are there if youâd like one. Again they arenât being pushed on you.
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Yeah no one is trotting after you on horseback going âdo you have time to talk today about our lord and savior Jesus Christ?â
Itâs prominent enough that if you are someone that finds solace in faith, you know where to go. But they certainly arenât out to indoctrinate anyone.
I would have a bigger issue if this was a publicly funded facility (but itâs not).
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I was at WEC last week and literally never noticed any of the religious stuffâŠ
Either it wasnât very prominent or I am just super oblivious.
We stabled at HITS and oh my gosh we had major bathroom envy once we saw the ones at WECâŠitâs the little things that make it easier that really add up.
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I did not notice much of the low-key religious stuff, but there is a chapel there on the grounds not far from the big hotel.
I believe they also hold services in the chapel on Sundays that anyone may attend, although I have not been to one.
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I think itâs a nice option for religious folks that may be working and unable to leave the grounds.
I wouldnât attend ( I wonât be there in any case), but I donât have an objection to other people having the option to go to church if they choose.
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If they saw my warm up⊠they may start⊠(or should?) 
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No. Originally, the Roberts family offered to buy or partner in HITS Ocala. That offer was refused, so Roberts built WEC.
Thatâs my understanding, anyway.
Horse shows have been a secular activity for years. In the last decade, Christianity has entered the western performance horse industry with a vengeance. Larger events have âcowboy church,â and thereâs a general feeling that if youâre not Christian, youâre an outsider. Never thought I would see religion (Christianity) making its way into the hunter/jumper industry. NO ONE ever mentioned religion back in the day. If you were at a horse show, it was a given you werenât in church!
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Hopefully that wonât happen here. Surely they are smart enough to know that the horse world is made up of people from many different religions, agnostics and atheists. H/J, Dressage and Eventing included.
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Iâm am showing at WEC Ocala for the winter. I love everything about itâŠtop of the list: clean bathrooms, Huge wash stalls, manure gets put in bins and hauled away, huge matted stalls with fans, lovely bridle pathsâŠI could go on and on.
I am not religiousâŠI ride by the chapel on my way to the show ring and I âpray that I find the perfect distanceââŠsometimes it works!
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Trying to see if anyone has any ideas on this without starting a separate thread:
Whatâs going on Winter 2023? Is it still NSBA? Is it USEF? Does anyone have any idea? Iâve talked to people who thought the USEF at WEC thing was about other shows during the year, not the winter circuit. Iâve talked to someone else who was all like âWell next winter itâll be USEF sanctionedâ â to which I would wonder whatâs being done about the mileage rule and HITS, in that case.
My barn is thinking about coming down in January and we want to get housing and stuff locked in early but itâs hard to plan without having really any idea whatâs going on. Iâm assuming we just take the dates off of what happened last year and apply it to the same position on the 2023 calendar? I canât find anything other than dressage at WEC on USEFâs winter calendar and NSBA doesnât go that far in advance that I can see.
I know stalls will go on sale around October 1, so certainly something will be said before then, but Iâm reticent to wait months with no other plans made.
Any thoughts on this would be so appreciated!
I thought it was just me and that I had been oblivious to it twenty to thirty years ago. I cringe at some of the things I hear small town rodeo announcers say.
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Iâm 110% sure theyâll run the full 12 weeks. Whether they are USEF or not remains to be seen based on whatever requirements USEF will use to select their sanctioned shows. Why they donât sanction both WEC and HITS is beyond me - there are more than enough people attending both places and maybe HITS would actually do some real improvements if they had competition.
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Has anyone else heard the theory that, not downplaying personal religions convictions of the Roberts family, both WECs are âreligious institution propertiesâ (like a Texas Cowboy Church that has one hour of church service and 5 hours of roping on Sunday), and therefore are granted all sorts of tax breaks including Real Estate taxes?
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Interesting. I know nothing about tax law so itâs entirely possible Iâm wrong, but it seems like that sort of information should be publicly available to confirm/refute if itâs registered as some sort of âreligious institutionâ versus a standard commercial property.
I donât have a major problem with them offering church services or crosses on the basis of their own religious convictions as long as itâs strictly optional for others to participate, but if by doing so theyâre managing to avoid paying their share of taxes and getting advantages not available to a âsecularâ horse show facility, thatâs sketchy AF.
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I mean⊠thereâs a chapel on the property in FL, so thatâs definitely a possibility. However, I think the whole buildout is going to trump the religious property aspect. This winter, we were on like phase 3 of 10 for that campus. So itâs going to be quite the compound when itâs all completed.
Things like âwaterparks, jet ski lakes, etcâ have all rumored to happen or be in the worksâŠnot to mention the second hotel and polo grounds⊠and the retail space in front is already starting to build out from foundation.
Oh, boy.
On the showgrounds? Or on other property in the vicinity?
Iâve heard he has been buying up land left and right in the area, so it sounds like he has room to put up whatever he wants.
Near or on the grounds was what was mentioned. It changes on the daily⊠At this point, Iâm pretty much expecting to have a roller coaster over the grand arena by the time itâs all done. Maybe I shouldnât suggest that in case theyâre reading this! LOL
Ugh. Iâm not likely to be showing there any time soon as Iâm primarily an eventer, so my opinion is probably not relevant to anyone ⊠but Iâm going to say it anyway. The horse facility part of the property does look very nice, but turning a horse show facility into some kind of knockoff Disney World adds nothing to the sport and just makes us all look even more like a bunch of spoiled, lazy rich people with no real responsibilities in life who âjust sit on horsesâ.
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