Wellington, ‘the horse capital of the world': Inside South Florida's most exclusive sport

Miami Herald

a day ago

The Miami Dolphins and Florida Panthers might dominate headlines across the Sunshine State — but in Wellington, it's the horses that steal the spotlight.
From November through April, Wellington International — just 65 miles north of Miami — becomes the epicenter of global equestrian sport. At its heart lies the world-renowned Winter Equestrian Festival, which runs from January through March. For riders, it's the Super Bowl. Grand Prix competitions like 'Saturday Night Lights' draw the sport's top athletes and horses.
But this isn't just sport—it's South Florida's most exclusive arena.
For those outside the equine community, it's a difficult athletic feat to understand.
Riders navigate a course of jumps with precision and poise, but there's no scoreboard or final buzzer, making it harder to parse for spectators unfamiliar with the sport.
'Basketball or soccer, you want to put the ball in the basket or the goal,' 18-year-old junior rider Clara Propp told The Herald. 'For riding, it's harder to tell.'
Propp is a three-time grand champion at the Junior Hunter Finals and the 2024 gold medalist in the Individual Junior Rider competition at the North American Youth Championships. She also documents her life as an equestrian to more than 64,000 followers on TikTok.
The sport includes three main disciplines: equitation, hunters, and jumpers.
Equitation focuses on the rider's form and technique. In hunter classes, the horse is judged on style and rhythm. Jumper classes, which are featured in the summer Olympic games, are fast-paced and judged on speed and accuracy: knock a rail or go over time, and you're out.
'The higher you go in the levels, the higher stakes it becomes,' she said.
Working with a live animal, building a relationship with them, can be extremely dangerous if everything doesn't go according to plan.
'It's not just getting on and the horse does everything for you,' said 37-year-old pro Nick Haness, a celebrated hunter/jumper rider and owner of Hunterbrook Farms.
Haness, recently named United States Equestrian Federation's 'Equestrian of the Year,' said the unpredictability of working with animals keeps riders humble. 'There's good days and bad. You can be at the top one minute and fall off the next.'
All three disciplines, plus dressage and polo, are featured at the Winter Equestrian Festival, which Wellington International Marketing Director Alicia McLaughlin calls an 'unofficial training ground for the 2028 Olympics.'
'It's kind of what we consider the horse capital of the world,' Haness said.
Top-level competitors flock to the Wellington circuit each winter season, enticed by the multi-million dollar facilities and the Florida sunshine. According to McLaughlin, it's one of the few times they can stay in one location and compete at a high level.
But it's not only the elite. Wellington welcomes Olympic hopefuls, juniors balancing school, and even adult amateurs returning to the sport.
'There are very few horse shows where you're watching someone in the pony classes, and in 18 years, they're competing on an Olympic level,' said McLaughlin.
One of those amateurs is 27-year-old Alex Aixala, a University of Miami grad who rediscovered the sport after college, competing on weekends while balancing a full-time job. 'It's a drug that never lets go of you,' he said.
For riders like Aixala, the sacrifice is non-negotiable—but so is the price.
The cost of doing business at the barn
The sport demands grit, precision, and years of discipline. It's also a serious financial commitment.
'It can be a difficult sport to access,' Propp said. 'Money plays a big part in being at the top.'
Entry fees, stabling, veterinary care, and even mane braiding rack up quickly. For just one horse in the winter circuit at Wellington – 'you're looking at around $60,000,' Haness said.
And that's just the cost to show.
In most sports, new equipment means plunking down on a new bat, stick, or pair of cleats. But in equestrian competition, the athlete is also a living, breathing partner, with instincts to train, moods to manage, and a price tag that can reach well into the six or seven figures.
Joe Norick has built his professional career off of insuring these athletes, the equine ones that is.
Leading the Equine, Farm & Ranch practice within the Private Client group at Alliant Insurance Services, Norick consistently works with 'ultra high net-worth individuals.'
Most of his clients either buy or lease horses to compete on, and these are no county fair ponies. 'You're looking for a horse that's competitive,' Norick said. 'Some pay a million dollars to lease a horse at the pinnacle of competition.'
That level of investment attracts some of the world's wealthiest, including the daughters of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, who both keep horses in Wellington during the winter season. It's a bonus for other clients, allowing them to 'rub elbows with some of the world's most influential people,' per Norick.
That price tag is only rising. According to Aixala, the cost of a competitive horse has soared since he first rode as a child — especially in the aftermath of the pandemic, when interest in the sport surged.
'It's a playground for the rich,' Haness added. 'If you're gonna buy an expensive horse, you're gonna go to Wellington.'
But both Propp and Haness noted that not everyone gets their start that way — certainly not everyone can afford it.
'When I was younger, I used to put my saddle on the handlebars of my bike and ride around and ask people if I could catch ride for them,' Haness said.
Catch riding — competing on horses you don't own or regularly train with— is one of the ways riders without deep pockets can break into the sport. Riders like Haness, now one of the most successful competitors in the country, built their early careers by offering time, labor, and skill in exchange for a chance to be seen in the ring.
'There are people who will let you ride their horses for free,' Propp added. 'They want the horse to qualify, sell it, or just keep it in shape.' Other working students will maintain stables or groom horses, paying their way for minutes in the ring.
It's a side of the sport that exists just beyond the Hermès and Lugano shopping tents. There, private club members are taken to a premium viewing tent by 'designated VIP Golf Cart' in Rolex-sponsored Wellington International T-shirts that retail for $100 a piece.
Beyond the showgrounds
At any given time, more than 5,000 horses worth more than $500 million compete in Wellington. That kind of wealth doesn't just make for good athletic spectacle, it reshapes the local economy.
According to Wellington International, the Winter Equestrian Festival generated more than $400 million in economic impact in 2024, plus a $54 million GDP growth from the circuit's visitors for Palm Beach County.
That financial power has transformed Wellington's real estate market. The village has its own Equestrian Sotheby's office, and nearby homes often list in the seven figures. As of July 2025, the average home value was more than $650,000.
A new 400-acre residential development by Wellington Lifestyle Partners will feature 250 high-end properties, equestrian villas, golf courses and a separate commercial project with boutique hotels and shopping.
The project has drawn pushback, since part of the land came from Wellington's Equestrian Preserve. At council meetings last year that stretched over five hours, locals wore red 'horses not houses' shirts in protest.
'This is our Yellowstone,' said Maureen Brennan, owner of Aqua-TEC and a member of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. 'As far as the preserve is defined in our village documents, I don't think it should be redefined by a developer.'
Still, despite the growing pains, the beating heart of Wellington remains in the ring.
For riders, the focus is less on development politics and more on the daily grind: early mornings in the barn or the thrill of clearing every jump, scoring a perfect round.
'It is so inspiring to be surrounded by a community of people who just love it so much,' Propp said. 'We love the sport — we believe in the partnership that we built with our animals.'
And in Wellington, that devotion, whether built on fortune, labor, or sheer obsession, is always on full display.