Susan Durisek’s blog

No doubt, the Kentucky Horse Park is alive with events, new arenas and museum space, and a renewed sense of purpose with the 2010 Alltech World Equestrian Games just over a year away.  If you haven’t seen visited the park in a while, you will be surprised at the changes, which only begin with the entrance landscaping, still a work-in-progress.

This week, Vaulting events took the center stage at the new indoor arena, sponsored by the American Vaulting Association and WEG2010 Foundation.  Remember the old pommel horse in gym class?  Here, the horses are real and on the move.  In the discipline called vaulting, the horse canters around a circular arena at the end of a longe line, directed by a person called a team member called a longeur who stands in the circle’s center.  The vaulters perform dance or gymnastics elements to music while atop the moving horse; riders leap to mount and dismount without using stirrups.  As with other arena settings, greenery and flowers create a pastoral atmosphere, lining the circle and accessways.  From its origins with the ancient Minoan culture, to today’s practice at the Kentucky Hose park, this combination of grace and athleticism is a work of art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the same time, other classic equestrian activities can be spotted, from Draft Horse demos, to Rocky Mountain Horses with western appeal and quick-stops to U.S. Pony Club flag games, and more.  As Executive Director John Nicholson says of the upcoming World Equestrian Games, “We plan to celebrate the horse in the same way as we do every day, just on a larger scale.”   If hoof beats get your heart beating, catch a sneak preview of what’s happening right now in 2009 at the Kentucky Horse Park.