The Washington International Horse Show - Twenty Four Hours to Show Time

Washington, DC – September 2, 2005 - “It’d be very simple to set this show up if we had 4 or 5 days,” says Washington International Horse Show Manager, Hugh Kincannon, “but generally, we’ve got 24 hours.” Only twenty four hours to get the house ready for one of the most spectacular horse shows in the world, The Washington International Horse Show, at the MCI Center, in Washington, DC.

The process begins long before, however. A presentation before the Mayor’s Special Events Committee and the approval of all of the regulatory agencies is required and Police, Fire, and Homeland Security all have to approve the plans. After all, as Kincannon points out, “There’s not another event in the District that I know of that closes so many streets for so long a period as does the Washington International Horse Show.”

The Washington International takes over the streets surrounding the MCI Center from Sunday (10/23) at 12:01am to the following Monday (10/31) morning at 6:30am. Police units and manpower is required, of course, at each end of each closed street.

It’s an amazing transition. From the basketball game or track meet or rock concert of the night before, to one of the nation’s premiere equestrian competitions, it changes literally overnight. “The worst case scenario is an ice event on Sunday,” relates Kincannon. “Then we not only have the seating configuration changeover, but we also have to wait until they melt the ice.”

It takes about two and a half hours after the Sunday night event for the streets to clear. Once the area is clear, Sixth Street is the first of the streets around the MCI Center to be shut down. Fifteen huge trucks are lined up, ready to begin dumping footing at the top of the loading ramp on Sixth Street. Almost thirteen hundred tons of #10 limestone arrives via sixty-five truckloads. “It’s a big pile,” laughs Kincannon. “It’s the same footing they use at Prince Georges Equestrian Center. It’s consistent every year; the only thing that changes is the color. It does come very dry,” he explains, “so we hook up fire hoses on the street and water it down every time it gets dumped.” The delivery will be done by 7am.

Inside the MCI Center, the fifteen man crew is preparing the show ring for the arrival of the footing. For seating, the horse show uses the basketball configuration and uses the hockey dasher boards as the show ring wall. The giant scoreboards are put in place, the scaffolding begins to take shape, and what was a basketball arena just hours ago is rapidly being transformed into the home to America’s premier equestrian event. It will take four hours to bring the dirt from the Sixth Street into the show ring, starting at the far end and working back towards the in gate and warm up areas. “We use four smaller tandems and small dump truck to bring the footing down the ramp,” says Kincannon.

Meanwhile, out on the streets of Washington, DC, activity is picking up as F Street is closed between Fifth and Seventh Streets. The chain link fences and various barricades are put in place, and the tents and the stalls that will house the equine superstars begin to go up. All of those materials are pre-delivered to a staging lot at Fifth and K Street.

Shavings are delivered during lulls in the footing deliveries. Feed and bedding, delivered earlier in two huge tractor trailer loads to the staging lot on Fifth Street, begins arriving at the top of the ramp on Sixth Street. Two huge trucks of jumps are brought in from neighboring Maryland and are poised and ready to be dropped off downstairs as soon as the call goes out. The hundreds of vendors begin shipping in their wide variety of merchandise and wares and must complete their set-up between 6am and noon.

The first horses begin arriving at 12 noon on shuttle vans from Prince Georges Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. The trucks are provided by the Washington International Horse Show. It’s been that way since the second year at the MCI Center, as Kincannon, who has managed the Washington show for ten years, explains. “The first year we just let the people bring their own horses into D.C. We had vans everywhere,” Kincannon chuckled. “Horse trailers were lined up all the way to New York Ave. and for ten blocks around the MCI Center. I was informed that we wouldn’t be allowed to let that happen again,” said Kincannon. “Then after September 11, 2001 happened, I was further informed that no large vehicles would be allowed to sit idle on any street in Washington, DC. So that’s one of the reasons, in addition to it just being a smart way to do it,” he admitted, “why we shuttle the horses in. We know the drivers, we know which load is on which truck, and it’s all controlled with wristbands.”

Sixteen to eighteen hours from that last three point shot in the basketball game or the winning shot on goal in the hockey battle of the night before, Kincannon and his staff welcome the first horse and rider in the ring for practice around four in the afternoon. “We’re still working around the arena on the platforms and decorating,” Kincannon says. “It’s all a very tightly choreographed process and any little thing can ruin the flow, but since year one we’ve learned a lot about it and now it works quite well.”

Kincannon enjoys watching the looks on the faces of the commuters arriving in the District for work the next morning. “Watching the expressions of the people exiting the subway and seeing our tents in the street and horses being bathed and cared for where last night there was nothing, is pretty fun to watch,” he says. “Everyday I walk from the hotel past the stabling and I think to myself how amazing it is that we’re able to pull this off in the heart of Washington, D.C.,” smiles Kincannon.

Does Kincannon have a favorite Washington International memory? “Some of the Thursday and Friday night performances have been outstanding,” he says, “but the most memorable night was the night that Christopher Reeves was there. If you weren’t moved that night, you couldn’t be moved. Even the guys on the crew of the MCI Center had tears in their eyes that night. It’ll probably go down as one of the greatest nights in the history of the MCI Center.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Hugh Kincannon, Washington International Horse Show Manager. Photo by Diana DeRosa.