Washington International Horse Show: Weber, Puissance & Terriers

I spent Friday night at the Washington International Horse Show, watching Chester Weber Drive (see short video above), Terriers race (and I mean fast!), beautiful dressage freestyle to some pretty hip music, and Pablo Barrios win the Puissance.

The Puissance is always exciting. Shane Sweetnam of Ireland was amazing on his horse Traffic Boy, but it was Pablo Barrios who won. I was able to watch ringside. I like to be down low to try to gauge how high those high jumps really are.

I was happy to see some bids on the EquitrekkingTravel.com Ireland trip that we've joined with the O'Sullivan family of Killarney Riding Stables to donate to the silent auction.

There was a good crowd in attendance and Chester Weber really did a good job getting everyone excited. I've never seen the wave done at an equestrian event and it went around a few times as Chester drove four beautiful horses. I spoke with one of his colleagues behind the scenes after the event, who said that driving has really changed over the years. It's the new technology that allows them to do such sharp turns. I hadn't thought so much about the carriage technology, but when you think back to carriages of old, it certainly makes sense. The horses are true athletes and you could tell that the lead horse Chester was using is very smart. Here's the crowd, doing the wave!

Here's the schedule for the WIHS for all of you looking to go tonight to see the Caisson Platoon Exhibition (article on Caisson horses), more Terrier Race, more Chester Weber and the $100,000 President's Cup Grand Prix!

For those of you in the DC area, watch our Emmy winning TV show Equitrekking on Monday nights at 10:30pm on WHUT, Channel 32, and visit us at Equitrekking.com and for exceptional equestrian vacations EquitrekkingTravel.com. For those of you reading this from other locales, look for your station to check your local listings for Equitrekking at PBS.org.