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7 days and 3 nights of top equestrian sport, time-honored traditions and blockbuster entertainment
Opening day at WIHS 2023! 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 Welcome class, new this year, for the WIHS Children’s and Adult Hunter Championships is the first of two classes, with the final on Tuesday. The WIHS Regional Hunter Finals return to WIHS for the first time in three years!
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 WIHS Children’s and Adult Hunter 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. The WIHS Children’s and Adult Jumper Champions will jump for their titles. The afternoon concludes with the international horses in the ring for the first time in the FEI 90-Second Training.
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, both 3’3″ (new this year) and 3’6″ will jump and hack for their championships. The three-phase WIHS Equitation Finals for junior riders commences with the Hunter Phase, with the concluding phases on Saturday. Closing the afternoon, the Best Child Rider on a Horse will be named as well as the Low Junior/Amateur Jumper champion.
Tonight is Military Night at WIHS. International riders will show their speed and handiness as they negotiate the challenging $78,000 Speed Final (look for the American flag Jump for TAPS!)
Today you’ll see the very best youngsters on ponies at the start of their riding careers. Then the Medium Junior/ Amateur riders jump for their division championships, followed by the High Junior/Amateur 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 concluding day of the WIHS Equitation Finals, where riders will compete in the in the 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 $450,000 Longines FEI Jumping World Cup Washington CSI5*-W for the President’s Cup presented by Experience Prince George’s 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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