The Washington Capitals are on their last leg of their Western Canada road trip with a game against the Calgary Flames on Saturday, but on Thursday night we hoofed it to Capital One Arena to check out the 60th annual Washington International Horse Show.
A week ago, we wrote about the Stanley Cup horse jump that was specially designed for this event. WIHS invited RMNB to come see the jump in action and we leaped at the opportunity.
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The Stanley Cup jump was the featured “joker jump” in WIHS’s Accumulator Top Score Costume Class, a timed show jump event where costumed riders and horses competed for $35,000 in prize money. A joker jump is typically a more complicated jump in a course and is worth more points. Riders were awarded five points for each jump they completed in the circuit, except for the Stanley Cup jump, which was worth 20 points.
The costumes ranged from pirates to Cookie Monster and Winnie the Pooh, but there were two riders who chose Capitals-themed costumes for the event. The first was McLain Ward, a three-time Olympic medalist and 2018 World Championship gold medalist, who wore an Ovechkin jersey and his horse Queen Jane who had an NHL logo attached to her head and affixed to her saddle.
The second rider to feature the Capitals was Kama Godek, who also wore an Ovechkin shirt and carried an inflatable Stanley Cup during her walk-through of the course. Godek’s horse, Air Force One, bore a passing resemblance to the Capitals’ third jersey with red and blue stars along her legs and the Weagle drawn on her left flank.
The eventual winner of the event was 17-year-old junior rider Brian Moggre and mare MTM Flutterby, who had a “Grease” costume.
As we reported previously, the Stanley Cup jump is being auctioned for charity. So pony up that cash and check out the WIHS silent auction page. At the time of writing this post, the Stanley Cup jump is going for $4,000. If that price makes you balk, there is also a smaller, child-sized mini-jump going for $400.
Monumental Sports & Entertainment has donated several Capitals-related items to the WIHS silent auction, including glass seats to the Capitals’ Dec. 11 game against the Detroit Red Wings ($480), an autographed Alex Ovechkin stick ($300), an autographed Nicklas Backstrom jersey ($430), and an autographed photo of Andre Burakovsky hoisting the Stanley Cup ($60).
We hope you’ll get a kick out of these photos of the Stanley Cup jump in action.
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(😎 And that’s how you properly integrate six horse puns into a story about horses.)
Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong
