Vermont Summer Festival Prize List Now Available

The prize list for the Vermont Summer Festival’s 25th anniversary event running from July 3 through August 12, 2018, at Harold Beebe Farm in East Dorset, VT, is now available at VT-SummerFestival.com.

A popular competition for the development of young horses and up-and-coming professionals, the event is also a hotbed for year-end finals qualifying on the North American summer show schedule. With a storied history, the Vermont Summer Festival has found a permanent home at Harold Beebe Farm, located just outside of Manchester, where competitors can enjoy the entertainment, recreation, shopping, and dining options of Southern Vermont.

To make the 25th anniversary season of the Vermont Summer Festival even more successful, the show’s management made significant footing improvements during the off-season. Show Manager John Ammerman and Technical Coordinator Doug Russell have been hard at work enhancing the footing in both competition and schooling areas. All show and schooling rings have been stripped to the base and revived with new material.

“As soon as the snow was gone in Vermont, we went to work,” said Ammerman, a Show Jumping Hall of Fame inductee who has been part of the Vermont Summer Festival since its early days. “After removing the old footing, we regraded the surface and added 750 tons of sand, which was mixed with 80,000 pounds of fiber material to create all-new footing.

“We are confident that this year’s footing will be better than ever before,” concluded Ammerman.

The 2018 Vermont Summer Festival offers an all-inclusive schedule with its popular “Equitation Tuesdays” as well as $5,000 3’3” NEHJA Hunter Derbies each Thursday, which culminates in a $15,000 offering in week six. For jumper competitors, highlights include the $10,000 Open Welcome, held each Thursday, and the $30,000 Grand Prix, held the first five Saturdays of the six-week circuit, before concluding with a $50,000 Grand Prix on the final weekend. Entries for the six-week circuit are due June 5, and submission instructions and equine health protocol information can be found HERE.

The Vermont Summer Festival is New England’s largest hunter/jumper competition and the richest sporting event based on purse in the state of Vermont with more than $750,000 in prize money. The event is also a proud member of the Show Jumping Hall of Fame, the Marshall & Sterling League, and the North American League (NAL).

For more information on the Vermont Summer Festival, please e-mail or visit www.vt-summerfestival.com.