Nick Haness and McQueen Dazzle in $100,000 WCHR Peter Wetherill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular
World Championship Hunter Rider (WCHR) Week at the 2024 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) came to a peak on Saturday night. The country’s best hunter combinations went head-to-head in the $100,000 WCHR Peter Wetherill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular with a win for Nick Haness of Temecula, CA, and McQueen, owned by Walkenbach Equestrian, LLC.
Andy Christiansen (ECU) 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 Mark Jungherr and Mary Eufemia, panel two was Chris Wynne and Shane George, and panel three held Mary Lisa Leffler and Wendy Peralta. 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 33-horse field at 3’6”, 3’9” and 4’ heights, 12 returned for the handy round. Haness and McQueen, a 10-year-old Cornet Obolensky Dutch Warmblood gelding posted a first round score just shy of the 90 mark, but returned for the handy and impressed the judges to earn a 93. Their two-round average of 91.81 clinched the leaders spot in the victory gallop.
The WCHR Peter Wetherill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular is the highlight of WCHR Week at Wellington International each year and is a title that eluded Haness until this week.
To win this class for me is very emotional and very exciting. I had a lot of support around the country watching the live stream – my mom was watching which brought me to tears after the class,” said Haness, who collected five champion titles during WEF 6. “McQueen has been a horse the last year that’s been a strong partnership with me and I’m thrilled to add this to his list of amazing accomplishments.
“This year’s course was very ‘hunter-friendly’, so the judges could really judge the horses,” continued Haness. “It wasn’t trappy or tricky or hard, it was a nice flowing course where we could showcase our horses in the best way.”
Haness continues to split his winter season between California and Florida, and this week McQueen did the same. After flying to Florida from Southern California last week, McQueen took Reserve Champion in the High Performance Conformation before winning the Spectacular.
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