Wellington is the self-styled Winter Equestrian Capital of the World — at the height of the winter season some 20,000 horses are stabled in the village, served by 700-plus horse farms.
And every January the world arrives. For roughly twelve to thirteen weeks each winter, Wellington becomes the center of international horse sport — show jumping, hunter/jumper, and dressage in the show rings, and Sunday polo on the club fields — with riders from all fifty states and more than thirty countries, and some twenty thousand horses stabled across the village's seven hundred-plus farms. The Winter Equestrian Festival anchors the season, and an entire winter economy of grooms, trainers, vets, and farriers moves in with it. The strawberry fields are long gone, but the harvest never left; it just changed shape.
Why People Visit Wellington Florida
- Take in the winter equestrian season — show jumping, dressage, and international polo draw riders from around the world to Wellington's rings and polo fields each January through April.
- Ride or walk part of the Equestrian Preserve's bridle-trail network — dozens of miles of public horse trails threading the village's horse country.
- Walk the Wellington Environmental Preserve at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Everglades Habitat — a 365-acre public park with trails and birdwatching towers on the Everglades edge.
- Explore Peaceful Waters Sanctuary — a 30-acre wetlands park with boardwalks across marsh and wetland habitats.
- Relax along Lake Wellington and the village's neighborhood parks and ball fields.
- Drive the horse-themed street grid of the equestrian neighborhoods, where barns and rings sit beside the canals of the old Acme Drainage District.
