Last Updated on February 16, 2025 by adminahb
Liza Towell Boyd & Ondine D’Orleans. Photo © Sportfot
World Championship Hunter Rider (WCHR) Week at the 2025 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) came to a celebrated peak at Wellington International on Saturday evening. The country’s best hunter combinations went head-to-head in the $150,000 WCHR Peter Wetherill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular with a win for Liza Towell Boyd of Camden, SC riding Ondine D’Orleans for owners Finally Farm and Neill Sites.
Meghan Rawlins (CAN) designed the two-round class that allowed riders to show off their horses over a classic first round and then a handy track. The panel one judges consisted of Alex Jayne and Rob Bielefeld, panel two was Chris Wynn and Mary Eufemia, and panel three held Mary Lisa Leffler and Mark Jungherr. Entries for the ‘Saturday Night Lights’ class qualified by winning the champion title in their respective divisions at the 3’6” height or above.
From a 36-horse field at 3’6”, 3’9”, and 4’ heights, 12 returned for the handy round, which included several options to show off inside turns, as well as a walk or trot-through question to a double combination of split rail fences.
The WCHR Peter Wetherill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular is the highlight of WCHR Week at Wellington International each year and is Boyd’s fourth time winning the featured class during ‘Saturday Night Lights’.
“It’s been a while [since my last win] and every win was in different chapters of my life,” recalled Boyd, who was the inaugural winner of the Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular in 1997. “This is an amazing mare and this is her home turf; she grew up here.”
Wellington International
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