Patricia Griffith and Divine Romance Win Big During WCHR Week at WEF 2025
Patricia Griffith opened World Championship Hunter Rider (WCHR) Week at the 2025 Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) with a champion tricolor in Section A of the Equine Tack & Nutritionals 3’6” Green Hunter division on Thursday. An impressive hunter lineup took to the International Arena at Wellington International in hopes to qualify for Saturday night’s $150,000 Peter Wetherill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular, a highlight of the week dubbed “Hunter Week” at WEF.
Griffith put in the work to add Divine Romance, owned by Hallowell Lane Farm, to her string of horses, but her efforts have paid in spades.
“I was sent the video of this horse in Europe from Meredith-Michaels Beerbaum,” Griffith explained of the first time she laid eyes on Divine Romance, an 8-year-old Oldenburg mare by Casallco. “Kate Conover was supposed to go ride her for us but she had gotten sold to the Beerbaums right away and I followed her from the second she got sold to Nick [Haness]. I stalked him a little, and when she was finally for sale, we bought her.”
The duo won the handy round on Thursday with a score of 90, which matched another blue-ribbon score of 90 from Wednesday. Griffith was thrilled with the horse’s performance and felt the mare peaked this week, just in time for hunters to take up the spotlight in the main stadium at Wellington International.
“She’s a big horse so last year we decided with her owner Callie Seaman—a very good amateur rider—that we’d give her more time to develop,” Griffith continued. “Last year, she did a lot of the work with the horse in the amateurs and I did a little 3’3” performance hunters, and it was worth the wait. The horse has come into her own and is a spectacular mover and jumper. We’re very excited about the future for her.”
As for how she handled the atmosphere of the International Arena, Griffith characterized it as effortless, which allowed the young horse to show off and impress the judges.
“She has that beautiful big canter and that big slow jump,” Griffith—trainer at Heritage Farm based in Katonah, NY—remarked on what makes her so impressive to watch. “She’s careful by nature so we weren’t sure how she’d do walking onto this stage. We’ve been slowly getting her ready for this at home and she has gotten really good; she can do all the equitation courses. When she’s in there by herself sometimes she over-tries but she was awesome here this week and really showed up.”
At just eight, this is still the beginning for Divine Romance. Griffith and Seaman plan out the horse’s schedule very attentively in order to not put too much pressure on, and so far that strategy is working in their favor.
“I don’t show her a lot because she also does the amateurs, so we try to pinpoint the weeks and I’m just happy the plan worked out,” Griffith said. “I only showed her three times before this week. We’re looking forward to more championships for her.
“I’m trying to remember the last time I was champion in the first-years here; this might be my first time,” she continued. “I’ve done the [Spectacular] many times and she’s going to give it a go. She’s a green horse so anything can happen, but it’s exciting because we know this week is all the best doing their best. It’s exciting to feel like we accomplished that.”
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Patricia Griffith and Divine Romance Win Big During WCHR Week at WEF 2025
