David Burton Jr.

It will be run by Dave Burton Sr. and Dave Burton Jr., of Littlewood, and Michael Stone and Simon Brooks Ward, both who have international show experience.

To the left, listening to the discussion, is Littlewood Farm manager David Burton.

David Burton(561) 482-870021755 El Bosque WayBoca Raton, FL 33428

"This is unfortunately one of those times where it is unfortunate to be first," Littlewood manager David Burton Jr. said.He said the two lost shows cost the farm in excess of $100,000.
...
Burton said Littlewood canceled the weekend event despite pressure from some owners of the more than 130 horses already at his farm to go ahead with it.

'I don't think we're the only ones hurt; I think everyone's hurt,' said David Burton Sr., of Littlewood Farm. 'I think, in general, the equestrian population, the trainers, everybody is a month behind and lost about a month's worth of revenue all the way down to the (horse) braiders.'

I just got off the phone with Dave Burton, owner/manager of the Littlewood Farms Horse Shows.

This is his take, in summary form.

He is on the 7th year of a 10 year lease for the property at the back of Grand Prix Village.There has been a lawsuit filed by Burton and Sons vs.
...
That lawsuit has not been heard, and Dave told me that no date has been set to hear it.

In the meantime, he said it will be business as usual and the next show is this weekend, on Dec. 8th and 9th.Their winter series begins on January 28th.

For any further information, Dave said please call him at 482-8700 or at the Wellington Horse Show Office, 798-2977.

I will be on top of this story, so check the column for further information.I will speak with Stadium Jumping and with the Zoning Department in the next couple of days.

Posts: 1085 | From: Wellington, FL,USA | Registered: Apr 2000 | IP: Logged

David Burton, Sr., 55, is the president and CEO of Littlewood Farm and runs the company along with his wife of 37 years, Ginny, and their son, David Jr., and his wife, Julie.In addition to Littlewood Farm, David Jr. runs a separate company, Littlewood Fences, and produces his own shows and jumps.He also heads up the jump crews for Littlewood Farm shows.Ginny is in charge of prizes and the Littlewood Farm store.When riders win a blue ribbon, they receive a certificate to come into the show office store and choose a prize.Ginny is constantly on the lookout for different types of awards.

"It's a family operation," said David Sr., whose background is in agriculture, horticulture, landscaping, and gardening centers.He and Ginny were both amateur riders, and he claims that the last time he showed a jumper was on the day David Jr. was born. started in 1976 primarily in the Miami area and have been doing shows ever since, growing little by little.
...
"All of ours are not ‘A' shows," explained Burton."We do a lot of ‘C' shows-more for the local crowd.Once the winterr's over and a lot of horse people go back to their home states, we don't have quite as many competitors that will be able to support the ‘A' shows.We only operate here from November to April."

Most Littlewood Farm shows offer 250 to 300 classes per week.The number of exhibitors varies, and correlates directly to the numbers coming in for WEF.
...
By the third show, January 9-13, Burton expected up to 1,200; the following week at the Littlewood Pre Festival Show, January 16-28, Burton says he will host up to 2,500.The Winter Finale, January 30-February 3, the final show in the circuit, will be primarily hunters and Burton is counting on about 1,800 exhibitors.Total prize money for the series is approximately $500,000."We have a lot of add-back money," explained Burton."Last year we were over a half a million dollars with the add-back.It's a total of just over a quarter million offered money, plus the add-backs."

Some Littlewood Farm shows run on the same days as WEF, but they don't conflict."They do have a few shows that run simultaneously," said Burton."But there is no mileage for jumpers, only when the money exceeds $10,000.We don't compete with them in hunters.Whenever they have hunters, we don't have hunters or equitation.The President's Day week, they're doing their World Hunter Rider Spectacular and they don't offer jumpers or equitation so we will be doing the equitation and the jumpers while they're doing that part of their show.Then Monday and Tuesday, when they have nothing, we're doing a junior/amateur show."

...
Show jumping stars Margie Engle, Nona Garson, Todd Minikus, Jimmy Torano, Candice King, and James Lala have participated in Littlewood Farm shows as exhibitors or coaches, and Burton calls them all by their first name.
...
"Last year they all showed at the pre-festival shows, and at the mid-circuit show, which is our show next week," said Burton."They don't show at the early two shows.The Winter Equestrian Festival has a lot more exhibitors than we do.We get a lot of the same people, but there are a lot of exhibitors there that only want to do the Winter Equestrian Festival and compete on that level, especially the jumper people.There's a lot more prize money being offered over there.There's a lot more sponsors.They do that festival atmosphere.
...
"We're still looking for that big sponsor, but we haven't attracted one yet," admitted Burton.The vendor area is full, and Burton hopes to accommodate more next year.

Littlewood Farm shows offer free admission to spectators, but sometimes Burton works with a charity."If they have volunteers that are willing to collect at the gate then they usually charge a dollar," said Burton, adding that he donates all the gate proceeds to those charities.The second show of this series that just concluded was the A-T Children's Benefit, January 2-6.It is a charity that the Burtons are very interested in supporting.Their neighbors in Boca Raton have two sons with A-T, which stands for ataxia-telangiectasia."A-T Children's Project came up and did an exhibitors party this afternoon," said Burton."They brought shrimp and all kinds of sandwiches, beer, and wine.A-T is a genetic childhood disease.They've been working on finding a cure for it for seven years.The reception was their way of thanking the exhibitors.All the money goes for research."

...
The spectators at Littlewood Farm shows are generally horse people, according to Burton."I don't think we attract a lot of outside spectators.People are there to watch other horses go so that they can buy them or tell somebody about them."