VENICE, Fla. — Sarasota County is playing host to the 9th Annual Venice Equestrian Tour. It is one of the highlights of the winter season for elite horse show and horse jumping athletes and enthusiasts.
The very niche sport is among a few that are bringing big bucks to Sarasota County
"We come from Chicago where it's miserable this time of year so we usually make the track down," Sarah Cassells said.
For four years now, the Cassell Family has loaded around 15 of their horses onto caravans and headed to Venice in January.
"We bring a group of about probably 12 to 15 people," Cassells said.
Many of those people help work on more than 400 horses for the 8-week-long Venice Equestrian Tour which goes through till around mid-March.
The Cassells, like many of the attendees, are avid riders and are competing in the various events through the tour. The event is an opportunity to partake in an event they grew up with and an opportunity to reunite with old friends and meet new people from all over the country.
Award-winning rider Frank Owens of Oakwell Farms in San Antonio is participating in the event for the first time.
"Over the years, I've heard a lot of really good things about it you know super friendly footing nice classes beautiful weather," he said.
More than 2,600 participants and 9,000 overall spectators are converging on the 46-acre Fox Lea Farms, and they're making their presence known.
"The first couple years we had a couple of hotel rooms and we stayed in Airbnb and we loved it here so much we ended up buying a home," Mark Cassells said.
"We're all going out to eat virtually every night so we're spending a lot of dollars in local restaurants and local establishments people like to shop," Dan Urban, a stable owner and instructor, said.
Over the past nine years, Sarasota County officials have worked with Fox Lea Farms through a grant program to facilitate the event.
They say that the arrangement has been good business with a windfall of around $9 million in economic impact for the tour and $24 million from the business as a whole last year alone.
"Fox Lea Farms is one of the best in the country for what they are doing, the show horses and the jumping," Pete Harvey with Visit Sarasota said.
Such sports tourism dollars are driving more investments in the county's sports facilities to encourage top sporting events
"For us, the beaches are huge as well as the county facilities, especially baseball, softball lacrosse. Niche sports are huge for this area and it's not just the sports you think about like basketball, softball, and the rest," Harvey said.
"We're here for a long time, so we're going to camp out and enjoy what the city has to offer," Urban added.
Visitors can get in on the fun and watch the horses in the show every week from Wednesday to Sunday.
The entry fee is just $10 and those proceeds go to a different local charity every week.