Great Britain’s Olympic team gold medalist, Nick Skelton, joined a wide variety of top-ranking International riders in speaking out against attacks on equestrian events in Wellington, Florida.
“I think people, especially those who are in the sport, want to be careful how much they try and stop the horse shows in Wellington,” he told Kenneth Braddick from the Gucci Masters in Paris Masters this week. “Investment in recent years has made it a great facility, probably the best in the world.
“The horse show in Wellington has become an industry, big business. If the people who have invested so much decide to pull the plug, what is going to be left? An empty building site.”
The comments by Nick have come after specific members of the Jacobs family, which oppose Equestrian events at Palm Beach International Equestrian Center’s Stadium complex, filed a new lawsuit to prevent several 2013 Winter Equestrian Festival hunter and jumper competitions and the entire Global Dressage Festival. The lawsuit, targeting the state of the art dressage grounds and the grass derby field that has been used for jumping events since 2010, is led by Charles and Kimberly Jacobs and their family’s Solar Sportsystems, Inc. The Jacob’s family are associated with billionaire Jeremy Jacobs, who owns the Boston Bruins hockey team.
The lawsuit aims to tear down the entire complex and has asked the court to undo an agreement between the horse show organizers and the Village of Wellington allowing events to be held there from Nov. 1, 2012 to April 30, 2013.
The latest legal action and subsequent news reports have sparked a surge of anger and concern on both sides of the Atlantic as it has created a sense of uncertainty within the industry regarding the future of certain equestrian events in Palm Beach.
The dispute originally centered on the international dressage facility but has grown to include the show jumping competitions as well.
Since the acquisition of the show grounds by Wellington Equestrian Partners and the organizing group, Equestrian Sport Productions, the Palm Beach center has been rebuilt. The winter circuit was extended from 6 weeks to 12 weeks and drew riders from more then 30 countries; especially top ranking riders from Great Britain and continental Europe. As more and more riders elected to incorporate the Winter Equestrian Festival into their annual show agenda, Wellington has become the center of global attention between the months of January and March.
Riders such as Rodrigo Pessoa, Alvaro de Miranda, Athina Onassis, Ben Maher, Laura Kraut, Eric Lamaze, Mclain Ward, Harrie Smolders, and Nick Skelton will base themselves in Wellington this winter for the 3 month long competition.
This latest legal action has sparked wide-spread feelings of anger, directed predominately against the Jacobs family and the Village of Wellington council. This year, it seems the Council have pursued policies to cripple events at the Stadium complex.
Laura Kraut, told Kenneth of Dressage news, “Not only myself but many top international riders will be very disappointed to lose the classes on the grass field. We all felt that over the past couple of years those classes added so much to the circuit as well as provided a fresh new venue for our horses to jump on. I was looking forward to more opportunities to be out there this year and I sincerely hope that things can be worked out.”
The Village of Wellington and ESP signed an agreement two months ago approving the 2012/2013 six-month equestrian circuit at the Stadium and agreed to negotiate future use of the facility. The latest lawsuit was filed a week ago after the court had rejected similar efforts.
The new suit asks “the court to order the lands returned to their status prior to the commencement of the development activities.” The property had been the original home of the Palm Beach Polo Club. A succession of hurricanes seriously damaged permanent grand stands and the polo fields were no longer used for competition.
Mark Bellissimo, chief executive of Wellington Equestrian Partners that owns PBIEC and the organizing group, ESP, said he is confident the suit will fail as did two similar lawsuits. “The lawsuit is, however, a dark cloud over our equestrian industry and was no doubt filed to create uncertainty. Simply stated it’s another attack by the Jacobs to prevent a successful, thriving equestrian industry that is attractive and available to all Wellington residents and visitors.”
Source: Dressage-news.com
Noelle Floyd.com 
Several people have been confused by this article, thinking that the WEF is in jeopardy.
Michael Stone, President of Equestrian Sport Productions that produces WEF, has asked that the identical article on Horse-Canada.com be revised: “For clarification there is no possibility of the 2013 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival being cancelled. The referenced law suit concerns the Dressage show grounds. Please clarify.” Link: http://bit.ly/SF28J3
As most in the equestrian community know, the Jacobs family, comprising three generations, are long-time supporters of WEF. Many family members are participants in the annual hunter jumper competitions.
Hello Editor, we have included in the article that the lawsuit is aimed to prevent the Global Dressage Festival. It is explained in the article that the lawsuit is targeting the dressage grounds and the grass derby field. We have sourced Dressage-News. We can put up a clarification to ensure there is no confusion, stating that the 2013 WEF will take place as planned.
With regards to the Jacobs family, the article states that the two individuals taking action in the lawsuit are Charles and Kimberley Jacobs. Please let us know if there is any further clarification required.