The world-renowned Winter Equestrian Festival has returned to the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, bringing 13 weeks of top hunter, jumper and equitation competition. The 2021 WEF opened last month and continues through April 4 featuring the best riders from across the nation and around the world. Although this year will look different due to COVID-19 rules and guidelines, with very limited spectators, that does not mean that the quality of the sport will be any less impressive. Show jumping riders will have 12 weeks of FEI competition, including four CSI5* events. Highlights will include the popular Great Charity Challenge on Saturday, Feb. 6, which will provide $1 million to local nonprofit organizations. As we do every year, our Faces of WEF pictorial feature puts a spotlight on just a few of many amazing riders competing at WEF this year.
Only the second person to be named U.S. Equestrian Rider of the Year three times, Elizabeth “Beezie” Madden has spent most of her life around horses. Riding since age 3, she was the first woman to pass the $1 million mark in earnings for show jumping. A seasoned athlete, Madden was part of the gold medal U.S. teams at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, as well as the silver medal U.S. team at the 2016 Olympics. She claimed the individual bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics. She also medaled at the World Equestrian Games in both 2006 and 2014. In 2014, Madden became the first woman to win the prestigious King George Gold Cup at Hickstead with Cortes C. Madden was only the fifth woman ever to win the FEI World Cup Finals. Madden followed up that win with a repeat in 2018 with Abigail Wexner’s Breitling LS. She heads into the 2021 season with an eye on the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Brian Moggre, a 20-year-old Texan, is considered a rising star in U.S. jumping circles. Moggre started riding at age 2 and never looked back. He shot to the top of the charts in 2019 after winning both the $100,000 Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Ocala CSI3* at Live Oak and the $225,000 Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Lexington CSI4*-W. He had great success with mount MTM Vivre le Reve, a German-bred Westphalian gelding. Last year, he was named the recipient of the prestigious Lionel Guerrand-Hermes Trophy from the United States Equestrian Team, which is presented annually to a junior or young rider on the team who demonstrates the values of sportsmanship and horsemanship. Moggre was part of a team of up-and-coming U.S. athletes who dominated the $150,000 Nations Cup CSIO4* last season at the Winter Equestrian Festival, and he is back in action this season at WEF in Wellington.
Dominic Gibbs is an up-and-coming equestrian based out of Colorado Springs, who has for several years now wintered in Wellington and competed at the Winter Equestrian Festival with a focus on equitation. The 17-year-old had an outstanding 2020 season, earning top-five finishes in all four major equitation finals, capping the year by clinching the prestigious 2020 ASPCA Maclay National Championship at the National Horse Show in Lexington, Kentucky, with his mount Cent 15, a 12-year-old Hanoverian gelding owned by Mountain King Ranch LLC. He outperformed more than 250 other riders to take the honor, often called the sport’s equivalent to the Heisman trophy. Gibbs trains with Stacia Klein Madden and the team at Beacon Hill Show Stables and one day hopes to become a professional equestrian and represent the United States at the Olympic Games.
Show jumping star Kent Farrington began riding at age eight after seeing an old photo of his mother riding. He turned professional in 1999 and has been winning ever since. During his first three years as a professional, he earned more than $1 million in prize money and received the Maxine Beard Award. Originally from Chicago, the 40-year-old Farrington is now based in Wellington. He was on the gold winning U.S. jumping team at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara and took the team bronze at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto. He also won a bronze in team jumping at the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy. Farrington’s 2016 highlight was riding with the U.S. Equestrian Team at the Rio Olympics, where his team won the silver medal. He had some strong outings at last year’s WEF and was back in the saddle with wins during the summer and fall shows at PBIEC in the lead-up to this year’s festival.
Swiss Olympian Martin Fuchs, 28, is one of the top show jumpers in the world today. As of the latest update, he is ranked second on the FEI Longines rankings. He comes from a family of equestrians and began riding as a young child. 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 won individual silver at the FEI World Equestrian Games 2018 in Tryon, helping his Swiss team to fourth place and earning a team quota place at the upcoming Olympics in Tokyo. He had a stellar 2019, finishing as runner-up at the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Final in Gothenburg and taking the top spot at the Longines FEI Jumping European Championships in Rotterdam aboard Clooney 51. He is a regular on the WEF circuit, winning the $137,000 Equinimity WEF Challenge Cup CSI5* last year aboard Stalando 2.
Whether it’s Wellington, the Olympics or the World Equestrian Games, show jumper McLain Ward is well-prepared for the challenge. Ward started riding after being encouraged to take up the sport by his parents, who were professionals in the industry. In 1990, at age 14, he became the youngest rider to win the USEF’s Show Jumping Derby. At the 2004 Olympics, Ward won the gold medal as part of the U.S. team — a feat he accomplished again in 2008. He was back at the Olympics in 2016 as part of the silver-winning U.S. team. In 2017, Ward won the Longines FEI World Cup Championship aboard his 2016 Olympic mount HH Azur. That was also the year he was ranked #1 in the Longines FEI world rankings for the first time. In 2018, Ward and his mount Clinta were instrumental in the U.S. winning the team gold medal at the World Equestrian Games in Tryon. A talented rider, Ward is a dominant force to watch when he’s back in action at WEF.
Raleigh Hiler, a talented young rider out of Massachusetts who competes in the hunter, equitation and jumper rings, took up riding when she was eight years old after starting with lessons at a local farm. In many respects, she’s just like other young riders, but she’s also deaf. Hiler was born hearing, but after a bout with meningitis as a baby, she became deaf. With her cochlear implants in, she has 75 percent of her hearing in one ear, but little in the other. Intensive speech therapy and additional support throughout school has allowed Hiler to lead a fairly normal life — and pursue her love of riding at horse shows around the nation. Hiler capped 2020 by being named Show Jumping Hall of Fame Rider of the Month for October, earning the award by riding Cassina 64 to victory in the 2020 Show Jumping Hall of Fame Year-End Championship held at the National Horse Show in Lexington, Kentucky.
Tanner Korotkin grew up in Wellington, the son of well-known trainers Alan and Kirsty Korotkin of Castlewood Farm. While his parents introduced him to horses as a child, he did not express an interest in equestrian sports until he was 11 years old. Despite the late start, he caught up quickly and is now making a name for himself in show jumping. Korotkin earned the prestigious Junior Jumper Championship at the 2019 Devon Horse Show and concluded his junior career with ribbons at the Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals-East, the Lindsay Maxwell Charitable Fund WIHS Equitation Final and the ASPCA Maclay National Championship. In 2019, he won the Potcreek Meadow Farm Junior Sportsmanship Trophy at the Winter Equestrian Festival. He spent last summer working under Irish show jumper Shane Sweetnam at Sweet Oak Farm and has returned to Wellington with an eye on a successful 2021 season.
Victoria Colvin has been an accomplished equestrian since she began showing ponies. She first made an impression at USEF Pony Finals, winning numerous championships, and continued her success with a record-breaking five Best Child Rider titles at the Devon Horse Show. Colvin dominated the equitation ring during her junior years, claiming titles in the 2012 and 2014 annual George Morris Excellence in Equitation Championships, the 2014 ASPCA Maclay Finals and more. In the hunter ring, she has six times won the $100,000 WCHR Peter Wetherill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular. Colvin is a consistent sight at WEF, earning the WEF Overall Hunter Rider circuit championship in 2018 and 2019. In the show jumping sphere, Colvin made her debut appearance in the Grand Prix ring at the age of 13 and has racked up a long list of victories. In 2020, Colvin was named the National Show Hunter Hall of Fame Rider of the Year.
