Premier horse show makes jump to Florida

[Times photos: Thomas M. Goethe] Jessie Prado and her horse, Billie, demonstrate a jump. Prado has been competing in horse shows since she was 10.

By CHRISTINA K. COSDON, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published November 25, 2002

More than 400 top riders, including one from Plant City, and their mounts will display their pageantry and skill in a competition near Palm Beach.

PINELLAS PARK -- This week, for the first time, the National Horse Show will be in a venue outside the New York City metropolitan area: Wellington. Also for the first time, the show will take place outdoors, at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club.

It's big news in the horse world.

The National, which debuted in 1883 at Madison Square Garden, is the country's oldest indoor horse show and most prestigious year-end championship. It is also a much-anticipated social event, with spectators traditionally arriving in formal attire.

Its rich history includes women riding astride for the first time, in 1915. Gens. George S. Patton, William "Billy" Mitchell and John J. "Black Jack" Pershing competed in the early 20th century, and the famous racehorse Cigar had his formal retirement ceremony at the National in 1996.

The Florida event, Tuesday through Sunday, will feature more than 400 top riders and their horses competing in hunter, jumper, equitation and dressage classes.

A highlight will come Friday evening, when a $250,000 purse will be offered to the horse and rider that can jump a single fence higher than the outdoor record of 8 feet, 1/4 inch.

Jessica Frankowiak Prado, 29, of Plant City and her horse, Billie, will compete in the National Horse Show’s new adult hunter division, which is judged only on the horse’s performance.

In the adult hunter division, which is new this year, the horse's performance is the focal point. Among the 25 accepted for this competition is Jessica Frankowiak Prado, 29, of Plant City.

She is a student of Georgann Powers, who for several decades has been training riders for hunter and jumper competitions at her Foxwood Farm in Pinellas Park. Powers has taken students to the National a half-dozen times.

Recently, Prado and Powers talked about the new venue and their participation in the show. Prado has trained four years with Powers and has been competing in horse shows since she was 10.

Question: Do you think spectators will dress in formal wear in Wellington?

Powers: They probably will have parties, and people will dress for the occasion, but I do not think that outdoors the dress will be as formal. Palm Beach is a great area, but New York City is definitely more glitzy. In Palm Beach, you're strictly going for a horse show.

Question: What is the benefit of having the show outdoors?

Powers: When you're indoors, only two people can warm up at a time because the arena is so very small, so you get very little practice time. You have to go in fairly cold (to the competition) because you don't have anyplace to ride. When we go to Wellington, we'll have spacious rings, and they'll probably be on grass. There will be ample room to warm up before the shows.

Question: When people go to these shows, what are they looking at in terms of horse flesh?

Powers: They're looking at horses that cost from $25,000 to $200,000. Of course, your grand prix jumper horses are million-dollar horses.

Question: How much money has been spent this year on showing Billie?

Powers: We've gone to at least two shows a month since December. It cost at least $2,000 for each show. That's just for the shows. Then you have to pay for motels and food and all that stuff that's so hard to calculate: the grooms, the coaching, the shavings in the stalls, the braiding. It's endless.

Question: Why would a non-horse person want to go to this show?

Powers: A lot of people come for the grand prix show jumping events because it's very clear what's going on. When a pole falls, it's four faults, and they can keep score.

In the hunters, which we do, a lot of people think the horses look the same going around doing the same thing. But a lot of them jump better than others or move better than others or are more beautiful than others, so it almost takes a trained eye to really know who's doing the best job. The hunter divisions are judged on the horse's performance, just the horse. Jessie has to pilot the horse around, but it's strictly judged on how beautifully he moves, how lovely he looks, how great he jumps -- strictly his performance.

Question: Jessie, when you learned this competition was offered, did you ever think you would be accepted?

Prado: No, and Billie is a young horse, a thoroughbred. He's only 5 years old, but he's huge, over 17 hands. I knew he had talent, but I didn't know exactly how much talent. I've been working with him for two years.

Question: How often to you ride?

Prado: We live on a farm, so we're with horses 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When Billie's showing, I try to ride every other day. But I have a 15-month-old son, and sometimes things don't work out that way.

Question: How do you keep up with the baby when you're doing shows?

Prado: I couldn't do it without my mom, Jann. We're a team. My mom and son come with me to all the shows. Even before I had Zack, she came to all the shows with me.

Question: Did you come from a horsey family?

Prado: No, I'm the only one. I have an older sister, she works at my father's public relations firm in Tampa, and she's a diving coach. We moved here from Chicago and have lived in Florida since 1979.

Question: What makes this horse so special?

Powers: He's brave. He doesn't look at the jumps, but he has a little weakness: He likes to jump a little to the left side. So we have to keep him straight over the jumps.

Question: Jessie, what's the hardest part and the most fun about competing?

Prado: The best part, of course, is winning. The flip side is learning to deal with the days when he comes out and wants to be a young horse and makes baby horse mistakes. He never gets wild, but he has his days when he'd rather be back at the barn and not jumping the jumps.

Question: Why should I go to this show?

Powers: There's pageantry and music, and the setting is quite beautiful there. There are grassy hills with wood seats built into them and a big bridge that the horses parade beneath to go into the rings. Spectators can stand on top of a bridge and look down at them riding in. Some of the competitions will be at night. You'll be able to walk around and see the horses. There will be a lot of horse people that will come to be spectators at this show that normally wouldn't go to a horse show to be a spectator. It would be like me going to Wimbledon or the U.S. Open. I would enjoy it because I would know I was watching the best of the best.

Question: What will you do for Billie before the show to make sure he looks and feels ready to compete?

Prado: He'll have an acupuncture and get a massage. He's pretty pampered.

Powers: He'll get new shoes and be body-clipped. It's like going to the beauty parlor, to the manicurist, to the massage parlor and the acupuncturist. These horses' shoes cost $150 every five weeks. If I bought a $150 pair of shoes, it would be a lot of money for me to spend, and they better last five years.

Question: And the riders?

Prado: We get massages, too, but not nearly as many as the horses.

At a glance

For more information about the National Horse Show, visit the Web site, www.nhs.org.

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