Equestrian Sport Productions (ESP) announced that an additional week will be added to the 2021 show schedule as part of the 2021 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF). The “WEF Premiere” week will be held on January 6-10 and added on to the beginning of the WEF 2021 circuit, held at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, FL.
Photo by White Fence Equine Photography.
“Our hearts go out to everyone suffering during this difficult situation, whether it is hardships with their health or their business. Our industry has been severely impacted, and everyone at ESP has been working hard to keep Palm Beach International Equestrian Center ready for when shows resume. Equestrian Sport Productions wants to offer a way for everyone to be able to enjoy competitive sport again and build their businesses back up,” said ESP President Michael Stone.
“The mandated COVID-19 cancellation of the last two weeks of the 2020 WEF was very hard on all of our stakeholders,” Stone continued. “We are very cognizant of the hardships created by the abbreviated schedule and also keenly aware of the difficulties everyone is facing as the pandemic continues. We wanted to find a way to add value back to our competitors, sponsors, vendors, and VIP tableholders and feel that we can best accomplish this by being able to offer more with an additional week on the WEF schedule in 2021.”
The remaining 2021 WEF circuit will run as originally scheduled on January 13-April 4 with the full schedule of major events essentially running as it did in 2020.
The WEF Premiere week will be a USEF Premier “AA” rated show and host national rated competition – pending final approval by US Equestrian – as will the following week of WEF competition. International FEI jumper competition will then follow during the week of January 20-24 with a CSI2* rating per the usual WEF calendar. For awards and circuit championships, competitors will still use the best nine weeks of competition out of the 13 now available for tallying points and money won.
“We are working to balance our escalating and unpredictable costs of managing the facility in the new post-pandemic environment,
Winter Equestrian Festival 2021 Updated Calendar
- January 6-10: WEF Premiere USEF Premier “AA”
- January 13-17: WEF 1 USEF Premier “AA”
- January 20-24: WEF 2 CSI2*, USEF Premier “AA”
- January 27-31: WEF 3 CSI3*, USEF Premier “AA”
- February 3-7: WEF 4 CSI4*, USEF Premier “AA”
- February 10-14: WEF 5 CSI5* and CSI2*, USEF Premier “AA”
- February 17-21: WEF 6 CSI3*, USEF Premier “AA”
- February 24-28: WEF 7 CSI5* and CSI2*, USEF Premier “AA”
- March 3-7: WEF 8 CSIO 4*, USEF Premier “AA”
- March 10-14: WEF 9 CSI5* and CSI2*, USEF Premier “AA”
- March 17-21: WEF 10 CSI3*, USEF Premier “AA”
- March 24-28: WEF 11 CSI5* and CSI2*, USEF Premier “AA”
- March 31-April 4: WEF 12 CSI4*, USEF Premier “AA”
For more information on WEF, click here.