The finishing touches to a completely remodeled Palm Beach International Equestrian Center (PBIEC) were being applied on Sunday, January 4, in readiness for the opening of the 2009 FTI Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) on Wednesday, January 7.

Trucks and trailers filled the streets around PBIEC bringing in horses for hunter, jumper and dressage competitions for 12 weeks of WEF, the largest and longest-running horse show in the world, which concludes March 29.

The weather for the past several weeks and forecast to remain the same for the next month is idyllic with temperatures in the high 70s during the day and cooling to mid-50s at night (25-12 Celcius).

Riders working their horses on Sunday at the PBIEC North Grounds, the central location of WEF, were discovering completely new footing in most of the major competition arenas. Some were rebuilt a year ago. New lunging and work areas have also been added to the North Grounds, the center of hunter, jumper and dressage competitions and where the first classes of WEF in 2009 will start on Wednesday.

Three of PBIEC's 14 competition arenas that have been reconstructed now contain Olympic quality footing: the International Arena, the DeNemethy Arena and its warm-up and the Mogavero Arena and its warm-up.

"Footing is our highest priority," said Mark Bellissimo, Chief Executive of Equestrian Sport Productions, which manages the horse shows. "Now all footing has been redone in the last year on 14 rings. We want to set the standard for footing in the industry."

The year-long $10-million makeover of PBIEC has been designed to create a permanent home for WEF that is in its 30th year.

Construction of permanent, beautiful new spectator areas around the centerpiece International Arena was completed more than a month ago.

A new vendor village, planting of thousands of trees and plants and new conveniently located bars, restaurants and food and drink vendors were being finished.

Sure to be a popular gathering place is a new two-story permanent tiki hut housing a restaurant and bar overlooking the International Arena and other competition rings.

Paths that were created to widespread acclaim in 2008 to separate horses, golf carts and pedestrians have been enhanced.

Buried out of sight but critical to operations have been installation of a show grounds-wide drainage system and new electric and communications infrastructure.

"We're right on track to be ready for the opening of the show on Wednesday," Bellissimo said. He is also managing partner of Wellington Equestrian Partners that has financed the creation of PBIEC as an integral part of its mission of insuring the long-term viability of Wellington's unique equestrian community.

"There is absolutely no doubt that we will be ready for the first horses to go into the rings on schedule," he said. "This is the culmination of more than a year of hard work and dedication by our whole team to ensure we provide a showcase that is among the best in the world."