{"id":26925,"date":"2022-11-08T10:00:34","date_gmt":"2022-11-08T15:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=26925"},"modified":"2022-11-07T14:07:43","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T19:07:43","slug":"international-riders-local-equestrians-excel-during-maryland-horse-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2022\/11\/08\/international-riders-local-equestrians-excel-during-maryland-horse-month\/","title":{"rendered":"International Riders, Local Equestrians Excel During Maryland Horse Month\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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ANNAPOLIS, MD (November 8, 2022) <\/b>– October 31, 2022 marked the end of Maryland Horse Month, and a very successful third year of events organized by the Maryland Horse Industry and its partners.<\/span> More than 50,000 spectators collectively attended three of the major events\u2014the Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill, the Maryland Million Classic at Laurel Park and the Washington International Horse Show at the Prince George\u2019s Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro. The month kicked off when 2,000 horses entered in the Capital Challenge Horse Show\u00a0 in Upper Marlboro, making it the largest hunter\/equitation show in North America.<\/span><\/p>\n

International riders, Tim Price of New Zealand and Conor Swail of Ireland, turned in thrilling performances just weeks apart to win Maryland\u2019s two signature 5 Star equestrian events at Fair Hill and Upper Marlboro, respectively. Each rider’s victory was achieved in jump-offs decided by just fractions of a second, Price defeating USA’s Tamie Smith in the final show jumping phase of the Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill on Oct. 16 and Swail besting Daniel Gluman of Israel on Oct. 29 in a heart-pounding President’s Cup at the Washington International Horse Show, held for the first time at the Prince George’s Equestrian Center.<\/span><\/p>\n

Local horsemen and women also shared in on the action when Ournationonparade, the product of Jay Williamson\u2019s one-horse broodmare band, swept to victory in the Maryland Million Classic and $10.5 million worth of Thoroughbred yearlings, many Maryland-breds, were sold at the Maryland State Fairgrounds.<\/span><\/p>\n

Millions of viewers watched the action on national, local, and livestream broadcasts on CBS Sports, Maryland Public Television and live streams throughout Europe, Asia and South America. There were also thousands of hits on various social media platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another feature of the month included the opening of the new Maryland Horse Library and Education Center located in Reisterstown, housing one of the nation\u2019s finest collections of sporting books. The Center is now open to the public.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no question that the level of equestrian activity in Maryland has reached new heights,\u201d said Jim Steele, chair of the Maryland Horse Industry Board. \u201cAll of these events took place in a single month, October. Then add in our other major events like the Preakness and the Maryland Hunt Cup and you\u2019ve got a full menu of horse sports throughout the year.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Marylanders now have the opportunity to see \u201cup close and personal\u201d riders like Price, the number one Event rider in the world, and Swail, fresh off a team victory for Ireland in the Aga Khan Trophy at the Dublin Horse Show, in their own backyard.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese elite horses and athletes can inspire and teach all of us to improve our skills, both on and off the horse,\u201d Steele added. \u201cOr we can simply admire the beauty and majesty of these incredible animals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The major event organizers were pleased with how the competitions unfolded.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA huge thank you to all of the incredible supporters who helped in the success of the second edition of the MARS Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill presented by Brown Advisory, including our partners, sponsors, loyal volunteers, Governor Larry Hogan, State of Maryland, Cecil County and more\u201d said Jeff Newman, President & CEO of the Maryland 5 Star Event Committee, an affiliate of the Sport & Entertainment Corporation of Maryland. \u201cWe are honored to do our part in representing and showcasing the incredible Maryland horse industry during October Horse Month and congratulate the other events in their success.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to give special thanks to Prince George\u2019s County and Maryland state officials, as well as our sponsors, supporters, competitors, and attendees, for making this year\u2019s Washington International Horse Show (WIHS) the biggest and best yet,\u201d said Victoria Lowell, President, WIHS. \u201cWIHS is a unique event. While the nation\u2019s and world\u2019s top riders compete, we also enable access to horses through various exhibitions and hands-on activities for those who may not otherwise have the opportunity. Being able to share this thrilling sport with Maryland\u2019s horse lovers and surrounding communities is special, and we absolutely achieved that thanks to a tremendous team effort.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cricket Goodall, executive director of the Maryland Million and the Maryland Horse Breeders Association, added \u201cAll Marylanders should be proud not only of the horse industry and events that were showcased during Maryland Horse Month this October, but of all the equine activity that goes on year-round. Maryland celebrates horses every day with the farms, shows, races and the people who love, work and play with horses!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span># # #<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter <\/span>@MdAgDept<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANNAPOLIS, MD (November 8, 2022) – October 31, 2022 marked the end of Maryland Horse Month, and a very successful third year of events organized by the Maryland Horse Industry and its partners. More than 50,000 spectators collectively attended three of the major events\u2014the Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill, the Maryland Million Classic at  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26925"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26926,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26925\/revisions\/26926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}