The Winter Equestrian Festival is back in action at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. Once again, riders have come to Wellington from all corners of the globe to compete at the longest horse show series in the world with more prize money than ever on the line. Horse and rider pairs will soar over fences, navigate complicated sequences and make hairpin turns — all to the delight of the crowd. While WEF attracts the world’s top riders, it’s not all about jumping at its highest levels. WEF is home to riders of all ages and abilities, from Short Stirrup all the way up to Grand Prix. While junior and amateur riders aim to get crucial show experience, the world’s top riders have returned to Wellington with an eye on this year’s 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. As we do each year, Wellington The Magazine once again presents our annual Faces of WEF section, offering a glimpse at just a handful of the amazing riders competing this season at the Winter Equestrian Festival.
A native of Michigan, up-and-coming rider Jordan Allen took her first lesson at a local barn as a birthday present when she was 7 years old. Allen began taking one lesson a week with a trainer until she sustained an injury at age 8. After healing, Allen’s love for horses won out and she returned to riding, moving from ‘C’ rated shows to the ‘A’ circuit with her horse Avedon. Trainer Kim Carey recognized both Allen’s talent and desire to reach the highest levels of the sport, introducing her in 2015 to Ken and Emily Smith of Ashland Farms, where she is currently a working student. When not studying at the University of South Carolina, she trains at Ashland’s Lexington, Kentucky, base during the summer and calls Wellington home during the winter season. She has found success at WEF, finishing third in last year’s $100,000 WCHR Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular with the 7-year-old Swedish Warmblood gelding Kind Of Blue.
Liza Towell Boyd is one of the country’s top hunter riders and trainers. As a junior, Boyd was named Overall World Champion Hunter Rider three times, was second at the Washington International Equitation Finals and won the Best Child Rider Award there four times, setting a record that remains untouched. After completing her junior career, she graduated from the College of Charleston and returned to the family business. Since then, Boyd has had an extremely successful career as both a trainer and rider. To date, she has won more than 25 USHJA international and national hunter derbies, and she rode Brunello to victory in the 2013, 2014 and 2015 USHJA International Hunter Derby Championships. She’s the only rider to have won the WCHR Pony, Junior and Professional titles. She also won the WCHR Professional Finals again in 2017 and 2018.
Laura Chapot comes from one of the nation’s most prominent equestrian families. Daughter of famed Olympic equestrians Frank and Mary Chapot, she is based out of Chado Farms in New Jersey. Chapot has an extensive list of accomplishments and can often be found high on the Rolex/USEF Show Jumping Ranking List. She had a spectacular season last year at the Winter Equestrian Festival, particularly with mount Chandon Blue. The pair took six top-three finishes, including the $50,000 Puissance America Grand Prix CSI 2* on Sunday, March 31, to claim the final FEI Grand Prix victory of the 2019 circuit. It was the pair’s fourth win in the final five weeks of WEF. It didn’t take Chapot long to make her mark at this year’s festival, claiming the top two spots in the $6,000 Bainbridge 1.40m Speed Challenge aboard Thornhill Kate and Out of Ireland during the opening week of WEF.
Lorenzo de Luca started riding horses when he was 9 years old. He grew up in a little town called Lecce in the south of Italy, where he first started competing. When he was 11 years old, he had his first show jumping competition with a horse called Eponi Constelina. When de Luca was 18 years old, he started riding professionally. He worked for the Neil Jones trading stables in Belgium before joining the highly regarded Stephex Stables, also in Belgium, in 2015. Nowadays, de Luca is a regular on the Italian national team, where he has participated in Nations Cup events and at the World Equestrian Games. Back in Wellington for the 2020 season, de Luca can be seen competing in his Italian Air Force military uniform and hopes to represent his home country at the Olympic Games. started riding horses when he was 9 years old. He grew up in a little town called Lecce in the south of Italy, where he first started competing. When he was 11 years old, he had his first show jumping competition with a horse called Eponi Constelina. When de Luca was 18 years old, he started riding professionally. He worked for the Neil Jones trading stables in Belgium before joining the highly regarded Stephex Stables, also in Belgium, in 2015. Nowadays, de Luca is a regular on the Italian national team, where he has participated in Nations Cup events and at the World Equestrian Games. Back in Wellington for the 2020 season, de Luca can be seen competing in his Italian Air Force military uniform and hopes to represent his home country at the Olympic Games.
After a string of great performances in 2019, Swiss Olympian Martin Fuchs, 27, began 2020 by moving to the top of the Longines rankings for the first time in his career. Fuchs’ first major victory was team gold at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010, and he went on to make his senior Olympic debut in 2016 in Rio with his gray gelding Clooney 51. Fuchs has achieved podium finishes at the last three major championships, including individual silver at the FEI World Equestrian Games 2018 in Tryon and helping the Swiss team to fourth, earning a team quota place at the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo. Fuchs finished as runner-up at the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final in Gothenburg last April and was crowned European Champion together with Clooney 51 at the Longines FEI Jumping European Championships in Rotterdam in August
Hunter Holloway is an accomplished rider and trainer with numerous major victories under her belt. She was riding horses with her mother Brandie Holloway before she could walk. Holloway rode to win the coveted 2016 ASPCA Maclay Championship and the 2016 Washington International Equitation Championships after winning all three phases of the competition. Holloway also won the U25 Jumper Championship at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show the same year. She is one of the winningest young riders, earning respect in national and international competitions on both hunters and jumpers. More recent victories include a CSI5* win in Spruce Meadows and numerous victories at WEF, Tryon and Omaha. Now 22 years old, she splits her time between Wellington and her hometown of Topeka, Kansas, where she is deeply involved in her family’s business.
Lillie Keenan rose to prominence as one of the country’s top junior riders, who swept the championships in the 2007 and 2008 USEF Pony Finals. At age 13, she won the 2010 Washington International Horse Show Equitation Finals. The next year, Keenan took home the $100,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby Finals, defeating some of the sport’s top professionals. Now 23, she has continued her winning ways. In 2018, Keenan was named to the Short List for the FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon before heading to Europe to compete in the Global Champions Tour. In 2019, Keenan earned a string of top placings at the Devon Horse Show, where she rode Chaccolette to third place in the $72,000 Idle Dice Open Jumper Stake and fourth in the $36,000 Devon International Speed Stake. At Hickstead, Keenan and Fasther finished eighth in the Bunn Leisure International Stakes and 12th in the famed Longines BHS King George V Gold Cup.
As the son of two trainers, Darragh Kenny, 32, began competing at the age of 10 in his homeland of Ireland. Kenny’s career quickly flourished as he competed in his first Grand Prix at the age of 14 and was invited to compete at the Dublin Horse Show. He soon began working with North Run Farm under the tutelage of Missy Clark and John Brennan. With the help of Clark, Kenny was able to ride on Obelix, a horse that guided him to the top level of the sport with key wins starting in 2009. He had a show-stopping European tour in 2019. With Balou du Reventon, owned by Ann Thompson, he earned two prestigious 5* Grand Prix wins over the summer and also produced two clear rounds in the 2019 Longines FEI Jumping Nations Cup Final in Barcelona to earn team gold and the coveted final Olympic qualification slot for the Irish show jumping team. When not in the saddle, he operates Oakland Stables with American show jumper Hardin Towell.
Born in Chicago, Nayel Nassar rides for Egypt, his parents’ homeland. He first tried equestrian sport at age 5 and began jumping at age 10. Nassar qualified for the FEI World Cup Finals in 2013, 2014 and 2017, and the FEI World Equestrian Games in 2014. More recently, he competed at the Longines FEI World Cup Finals in Paris aboard Lordan, and regularly competes on the international Grand Prix circuit. He is a regular on the Longines Global Champions Tour. Now 29, Nassar graduated from Stanford with a degree in economics in 2013 and is fluent in Arabic, French and English. He had a great season last year in Wellington, where he rode Lucifer V to the win in the $134,000 Equinimity WEF Challenge Cup Round 12 CSI 5* during the final week of the 2019 WEF.
