Opening day at WIHS 2022! WIHS kicks off with top professional High Performance and Green Hunter competition. Riders have campaigned all year to qualify for WIHS and will be in top form. The finals for the WIHS Children’s and Adult Hunter Championships will determine the best in the country following a very competitive year.
High Performance and Green Hunters are back in the ring for their final classes before the champions and leading hunter riders are named. Amateur Owner Hunters, younger and older, will jump in 3’3″ and 3’6″ then hack. Concluding the afternoon, the Children’s and Adult Jumper Championship get underway.
Amateur Owner Handy Hunter, younger and older, will jump 3’3″ and 3’6″ and hack for their championships. Then the Low, Medium and High Junior and Amateur Owner Jumpers will have their first classes in Time First Jump Off format.
Small and Large Junior Hunters start off the day with two age groups competing. Then Low, Medium and High Junior and Amateur Owner Jumpers are back for their Time First Round classes.
International Jumpers debut tonight in the first of three nights of exciting jumping. They get underway with the Welcome Stake followed by a crowd favorite, the Accumulator Costume Class, where the top riders go wild with funny and surprising costumes for both horse and rider!
Small and Large Junior Hunters are back for their stake and under saddle classes before the champions are named. The three-phase WIHS Equitation Finals for junior riders commences with the Hunter Phase. Closing the afternoon, the Low Junior and Amateur Owner Jumper riders compete in the Jumper Classic before the championship is decided.
Tonight is Military Night at WIHS! It’s all about power and speed as international riders are in the saddle for the Speed Final (look for the American flag Jump for TAPS!) and the International Jumper Puissance, where the brave will jump the great wall until only one horse and rider combination remains fault-free. The North American indoor record to beat is 7’ 7-1/2,” set at Washington in 1983.
Today you’ll see the very best youngsters on ponies at the start of their riding careers. Then the Medium Junior and Amateur Owner riders jump for their division championships, followed by the High Junior and Amateur Owner jumper riders in the Hall of Fame Jumper Classic, their most challenging class, before the champion is named. You may spot a future Olympian among the riders on the final day of the WIHS Equitation Finals, where riders will compete in the final phases of the WIHS Equitation Finals with jumper phase in the afternoon and the final work-off for the championship in the evening.
Tonight, the ring will be electric as two top events get underway, and for some added entertainment, the wildly fun WIHS Shetland Pony Steeplechase races will be back.
The panel of judges will determine who among the talented junior riders will emerge as the WIHS Equitation Champion. Then, the highlight of the week, the $406,000 Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Washington CSI5*-W presented by MARS Equestrian for the President’s Cup will take center stage for the biggest, most challenging jumps and the largest purse of the show.
On Sunday morning, the top small, medium and large pony hunters in the country will compete in handy and stake classes, and the Grand Champion Pony Hunter and Best Child Rider on a Pony will be named. Then the WIHS Pony Equitation Finals will be contested to determine the champion.
To celebrate Halloween and conclude a great week at WIHS, the WIHS Halloween Hunt Teams event with teams of three riders not just jumping, but jumping in costume!
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