Until recently, says Live with Regis and Kelly’s Kelly Ripa, her only exposure to horses was on the merry-go-round.

Kelly Ripa and hubby Mark Consuelos Saturday night at Wellington's showjumping (photo by Michele Sandberg)

“What can I say?” Ripa told Page2Live at Welly World’s Palm Beach International Equestrian Center Saturday night, “I’m a Jersey girl. I’d never heard of Wellington, and I was always ignorant of horses. But I’m learning.”

And that’s thanks to her horseback-riding 7-year-old daughter Lola. With Lola demanding world-class lessons from world-class teachers, Ripa and her soap opera star hubby Mark Consuelos went as far as renting a home at Palm Beach Polo. They’ve already committed to doing the same next horse season, which starts in December.

How ’bout buying a little something? “That’s his deal,” the 38-year-old Ripa said, pointing at her hubby at another table. They sat in the stadium’s VIP tent as riders down below competed for the $600,000-purse of the season grand finale. “It’s a money thing.”

Ripa and her daughter Lola

Ripa says she flies down from New York on alternate weekends to support her daughter. Lola, by the way, is one of a slew of celebuspawns either learning or competing in show-jumping. Rocker Bruce Springsteen, actors Glenn Close and Harvey Keitel, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, CNN host Lou Dobbs and co-founder of cable’s BET network Bob Johnson have one or several children spending the season here.

“My favorite rider is Georgina,” said Lola, who sat next to her mom. Georgina Bloomberg is a rising-star in the horsie biz and Mayor Bloomberg’s daughter.

Ripa, meanwhile, has been filling co-host Regis Philbin’s ears with verbal postcards from this area. She bragged on-the-air this morning about her meals at Rocco’s Tacos in West Palm Beach’s Clematis district.

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