Archive for the 'Kentucky Horse Park' Category

Horse & Gardens * Getting Ready for the 2010 WEG at the Kentucky Horse Park

Published
by
Susan Smith-Durisek
on July 30, 2009
in Events & Expos and Kentucky Horse Park
. 0 Comments

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.

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The Whatzit #2 Solution …

Published
by
Susan Smith-Durisek
on June 21, 2009
in Events & Expos, Kentucky Horse Park and Weekly Whatzit
. 3 Comments

Today there are only 460 days until the 2010 Alltech World Equestrian Games begin in the Bluegrass.  This Whatzit is on the way there.  As Bob Perry commented, the rocks ascending this wall are actually stair steps, which allow people to climb over the fence easily; they lead to a small, enclosed cemetery dating from the mid-1800s created by the Gorham family, which once owned the land here on Newtown Pike.  The stone walls along this section of the road were recently rebuilt, but this section was left untouched.  So much for history.  Let’s look to the present and future.  Despite the spacious, bucolic beauty of wide rolling green fields, there’s a lot happening over that rock wall.  On the way to the Kentucky Horse Park, this area is part of a UK College of Agriculture research farm, close to a  water quality riparian buffer zone project on Cane Run creek, as well as the new Legacy Trail, a multi-use pathway that will connect the Kentucky Horse Park and downtown Lexington.  With the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games around the corner, this section of the highway represents the beauty of the Bluegrass well, and is a sign of some positive positive progress.  Click on the underlined links to find out more about each organization.  *************************The Whatzit #2 question:  This one’s more of a Wherezit, because if you know that, you probably know the Whatzit of it, too.  How closely do you pay attention to detal as you cruise around the Bluegrass, enjoying the classic look of dry stone walls?  This sections, however, is mortared.  For Whatzit used?

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