Horse Mania 2010 at WEG

Throughout the grounds at the Kentucky Horse Park as well as around town in Lexington we found painted horses that were decorated by artists from around the region.






Where the wild things are!



The Graduate Horse


Flower Power

Pearse Lyon Reserve Horse

Scientific Horse

The Pink Pony

Calumet Farm

Calumet Farm has a record history of Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown winners and continues to be unmatched worldwide.

Calumet Farm is located in the heart of the Bluegrass region, nestled amidst rolling green hills, elegant old trees, and its legendary miles of white fences. Just a stone’s throw from historic Keeneland Race Course, Calumet is conveniently located near Thoroughbred breeding meccas Lexington, Paris, and Versailles. Calumet Farm offers a complete range of first class breeding and training facilities.

• 800 acres; 19 barns, 210 stalls
• 3/4 mile dirt track, 5/8 mile turf
• Six-horse electric starting gate test
• Aqua treadmill


HISTORY

CALUMET FARM was established in 1924 on the site of Fairland Farm by William Monroe Wright, who made his fortune in Chicago, manufacturing baking powder. Wright, who established Calumet as a trotter's nursery, bred premier harness racing horses there. His son, Warren, succeeded him in the business, and, after inheriting the elder Wright's estate, one of the largest fortunes in America, in 1933, determined flat racing was both more lucrative and more exciting, and Calumet was converted to a thoroughbred farm. Over the decades, Calumet bred many of the nation's top race horses, among them Triple Crown winners WHIRLAWAY and CITATION, the first filly Horse of the Year, TWILIGHT TEAR, such Kentucky Derby winners as PENSIVE and PONDER, and many other familiar names that catapulted the farm into the top three of America racing stables for seventeen straight years. When Wright died in 1950, his widow, Lucille, who later married Gene Markey, continued the tradition, breeding four Derby winners -- HILL GAIL, IRON LIEGE, TIM TAM, FORWARD PASS, and many other winners, among them, in her last years, the game ALYDAR.

Lexington - Horse Country

Lexington

Is Lexington the Horse Capital of the World?
Legendary scenic landscapes, multi-million dollar horses, some of the best equine facilities in the world, historic race courses, host of the 2010 World Equestrian Games....still have your doubts? Visit Lexington and judge for yourself. And while you're there, enjoy meeting some of the friendliest people you'll ever encounter.








Downtown and City Scapes

Canadian Eventing Team Wins Silver At WEG

After two days of watching our eventing team on FEITV.org and cheering them on I was anxious on our arrival in Lexington to find out how the stadium jumping phase had gone. The team, comprised of Hawley Bennett-Awad, Kyle Carter, Selena O'Hanlon and Stephanie Rhodes-Bosch. The cross country test was amazing with all four team rider going clear with no jumping penalities and only two with minimal time faults. With the best three of the four scores to count, they added only one rail, for four faults, to a final total of 151.50 finishing in the silver medal position. This result was not only Canada's first eventing team medal at a World Championships in 32 years, but also qualified the Canadian Eventing Team for the 2012 London Olympics.

Let us just say that in true Eventer Fashion (I used to be one) the party went on all night. In the lounge, the lobby, and spilling out into the parking lot. Way to Go Team Canada.

"Secretariat" Premieres at Lexington's Kentucky Theatre

Kentucky rolled out the red carpet last night for the premiere of the movie "Secretariat."
Sunday night, Lexington was similarly trying to bask in the warm glow of a Hollywood premiere as Secretariat star Diane Lane and many others walked the red carpet to catch a first glimpse of the movie. Patrons paid $125 and up for the event, which included the film and a party afterward at Portofino restaurant.

Secretariat jockey Ron Turcotte. "Secretariat is held in high esteem, I think because he won the Belmont by 32 lengths. He was an awesome horse, and he was the first horse to do it for 25 years."

Willow Grove goes to WEG

World Equestrian Games September 25th to October 10th, 2010

Kentucky Horse Park Lexington Kentucky USA

The World Equestrian Games are comprised of the world championships for eight equestrian sports- dressage, driving, endurance, eventing, jumping, para dressage, reining and vaulting. The Games are held every four years, two years prior to the Olympic Games, and are governed by the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI). The FEI is the international governing body of equestrian sport recognized by the International Olympic Committee. It is the organization which establishes rules and regulations for the conduct of international equestrian events. Today the FEI has over 130 member countries.

Previous Host Countries
The very first World Equestrian Games were held in Stockholm in 1990. Six disciplines were involved--Jumping, Dressage, Eventing, Driving, Endurance and Vaulting. In 1994 the city of The Hague in the Netherlands hosted the Games.

After a late cancellation of the Games that were to be held in Dublin, Ireland, Rome stepped forward to host the 1998 Games on one year's notice. All disciplines except the Endurance were held and beautifully executed considering the very short preparation time. The Endurance was held in Dubai that year.

The next Games were held in Jerez de Frontera, Spain in 2002 and included all six disciplines and Reining for the first time. Following that the Games went to Aachen 2006,again with seven disciplines, and were a fabulous success.

In 2010 the games leave Europe for the first time and came to the United States to the Kentucky Horse Park where, for the first time, Para Dressage, the newest FEI Discipline will be competed together with the other seven.