Image by Stephen Montoya
A huge pile of dirt adorns the east side of Will Rogers Memorial Center like a western monument without a defined form. Adjacent to this mass, lined up like tourists on vacation, are horse trailers and props for a horse jumping competition.
But this isn’t your typical livestock competition. This week, and running until Sunday, Will Rogers Coliseum is hosting the Split Rock Fort Worth CSI4*-W. In fact, this tour has competitors from nine countries vying to enter the World Cup competition in April of 2023 being held in Omaha, Nebraska.
So why the pile of dirt?
Well, according to Fort Worth native and October Hill Farm co-founder Erin Heineking, the dirt in the arena was replaced with a lighter style of dirt, which allows the horses to leap better. Ergo, in order to make this happen, all of the dirt on the arena floor had to be removed and the new dirt brought in.
“It wasn’t easy getting this dirt removed — which took about a day — but it was essential for the jumps the horses have to make at this type of competition,” Heineking says while taking a break in a tent behind the arena she calls the ‘oasis’. For Heineking and her cohorts, which include Split Rock president and founder Derek Braun, this event has taken a full year to plan.
“I am just glad we were able to bring horse shows back to Fort Worth,” she says while surveying the arena. Heineking would know too because she has been around horses and competing in competitions since she was six. By her mid-twenties, Heineking represented Zone 7 in the Young Riders Championships and won her first Grand Prix win in 1997. Today, she competes as an amateur while devoting a huge chunk of her time at October Hill Farm, a two-hundred-acre equestrian training facility.
Image by Stephen Montoya
Heineking says she remembers going to horse shows in Fort Worth in the 90s, but the tradition trailed off, eventually stalling out completely. After traveling the globe and taking notes on how other countries and venues do horse shows, Heineking says she wanted to bring all of that knowledge back to Fort Worth.
“I would come out and watch other shows here at the coliseum and think about how we could bring jumpers back because it’s such a cool sport,” Heineking says.
But doing a local show was just the beginning of her plan. Heineking had the lofty desire to bring an international show with Olympic-level competition to the city she grew up in. This is where Braun enters the picture since he already has years of experience running horse shows. But Braun’s experience extends into understanding what riders need since he, himself began riding at age seven.
“You can’t be successful if you are afraid in this sport,” Braun says as he watches the flow of riders come in and out of the arena. “It’s good to have nerves … pressure is definitely a huge factor; it makes you react differently in this type of competition.”
And Braun would know a thing or two about pressure, having won many competitions throughout his career including a win in Holland in 2003, where he brought home the Amateur Grand Prix of Valkenswaard.
As for the day-to-day handling of an event of this size, he says it can be challenging.
“The way I describe running a horse show, especially one of this caliber, is like coordinating a wedding three times a day, five days straight,” he says with a smile. “That’s how much detail goes into making sure every little aspect flows properly.”
It was for this very reason, that Heineking partnered with Braun to visualize what they could do to help promote this style of horse show.
“We both walked this facility and knew we could do something amazing here,” she says. “Low and behold, just a few months later we found out that the Olympics had reopened bids to host World Cup qualifying jumping events in the United States … so we applied.”
Heineking says she hadn’t even hosted a horse show at the arena yet, so she felt awkward bidding for an Olympic qualifying event.
“There’s never been an international show in Texas at that level, so I didn’t think we were going to get it,” she explains. “Then, we won, and it was unbelievable.”
According to Heineking, Split Rock won a three-year contract, which began in 2020. In 2021, she says the show went so well that she and Braun, along with the city and Dickies Arena put in a bid to host a World Cup Final in 2026.
Photos by Stephen Montoya
“Again, I didn’t think we had a chance since we only had one year under our belt,” she says. “We were competing against places that have been doing this for a long time and had great results and incredible facilities.”
But Braun wasn’t discouraged and placed a bid to host this huge event.
“The people that run FEI (International Equestrian Federation) were blown away by what Fort Worth had to offer because they had never even considered Texas to host anything before,” Heineking says. “A few months later we found out we got it — after running a horse show for only one year!”
This means Fort Worth will host the World Cup Final in 2026 at Dickies Arena.
“These people are looking all over the world for a place to host this event and here’s Texas just waiting to be recognized,” Heineking says while checking in with a few of the horses she has in the back stables. “I never would’ve imagined that we could accomplish this and look at us now in our second year with the world’s top riders competing and now we have the World Cup Final.
Since this bid has to be renewed every three years, Heineking says she plans on re-submitting another bid to continue hosting the Olympic qualifying event in Fort Worth in 2023.
For more information about the Split Rock Fort Worth CSI4*-W click here
