In fact, Hooker has enjoyed his visits so much, he’s become an advocate of the event as the vice chairman of the Lake Placid Horse Shows, which kicked off three weeks of competition on Tuesday.

Hooker lives in Wellington, Florida during the winter months and has a home in Lake George come summer time. But for these three weeks, his focus centers on Lake Placid.

“Living in Nashville, I had heard of the Lake Placid horse show from some of the people who I was going to horse shows with down south,” Hooker said. “They told me ‘You have to come see this. It’s nothing like you’ve ever seen before,’ and they were right.

“I had never been in the Adirondacks or to the Lake Placid horse show, and never had any idea of the expansive grand prix field that at the time had banked jumps and water jumps and things that I’ve never seen as far as jumps go,” Hooker continued. “When I first got here, I said to myself right then, ‘I’m coming next year with horses,’ and then of course when I once I came with horses, I’ve come every year since.”

This year, Hooker arrived in Lake Placid with four horses, as well as his golf clubs. He said that although riders come to compete in the rings at the North Elba Show Grounds, the village and surrounding area also have to be a big factors that lure competitors to stay in the Adirondacks during the horse show’s three-week run.

“Back in the day, we were used to traveling, and you never used to stay anywhere for more than two weeks in a row,” Hooker said. “In today’s world, you go places and stay there for three weeks or so, go home for a week or two and then come back to the same place for another three or four weeks.

“The things that set horse shows apart today are the towns,” Hooker added. “Lake Placid loves this group to come here, and we’ll keep coming back as long as the town is so welcoming and tries so hard to make the horse show exhibitors feel welcome and have fun. Because the truth of the matter is if you bring, say four horses here, that means you’re in the ring probably 15 minutes a day, but your in the town 24-7. I like to play golf. I’ve been known to come here and get in 18 rounds of golf. That’s my record.”

As the vice chairman of the Lake Placid Horse Shows, Hooker’s main focus a year ago was the footing change that in part, enabled the competitions to be extended from two to three weeks.

“You know the Lake Placid horse shows are something we work on all year long. It takes management and concentration year round to pull this off. I was in charge of the footing change that was done here a year ago and it was a huge investment in this town. We’re getting rave revues over the footing this year. We’ve tweaked a lot of things to improve the horse shows. This facility takes constant maintenance to be in pristine condition.”

Born to parents who were avid fox hunters, Hooker said he first sat in a saddle when he was eight months old. During his career, he has been a competitive rider in England, islands in the Caribbean, Canada and across the United States. Hooker said he expects about 800 horses will be shown each week during the horse shows in Lake Placid.

“There will probably be 1,500 horses here over the three weeks,” You’ll see the trucks rolling in and out of Saturday, Sunday and Monday over the next three weeks. Lake Placid has done a good job over the years. The proof’s in the pudding.

“In the summer, there are horse shows in every state. You can pretty much load your truck and go anywhere and find the same classes at any of those horse shows. Lake Placid has to remain vigilant because there’s a lot of competition out there. It’s a year round thing making sure these riders come back. It’s really important and it’s hard to do.”