Conference noted::equitation

    Cincinnatti is about 2 hours from Lexington.  I highly recommend
    visiting the Kentucky Horse Park (north of Lexington on Interstate
    75 --there are signs all over the place for it).  Plan on a day
    there.  There are a couple of museums, breed demos, movies.  Also,
    the last time I was there FOREGO and JOHN HENRY were there up on
    the hill (along with a famous harness racer).  
        
    You can also go to the "Red Mile" in Lexington.

    Plus, get a copy of the Thoroughbred Record for farms in the area.
    There are TONS of farms.  But you need to check about appointments
    to visit.  
    
    Lots of Saddlebreds around there also.
    
    The Iriquois Hunt is southeast of Lexington on the road to Booneville.
    The Camargo Hunt is outside of Cincinatti.  

    Who else of the DECquestrians is going to DECUS in Cincinatti? I am
    going to be there but I doubt if I can play hookey for a day. That's
    what you get if you're responsible for a "hot" product. I went to DECUS
    the last time it was in Cincinatti and did have time to drive down to
    the Kentucky Horse Park. It's a straightforward drive south down
    Interstate 75. The horse park is directly off one of the exits just
    north of Lexington. The only disappointment was that the only riding
    on offer was of the one mile walking trail ride variety. Otherwise
    it was great.

    I'm in Dayton, about an hour north of Cincinnati and would love
    some company.  I'll probably be "forced" to attend DECUS, too.
    Outside of that, I've got a couple horses who could use some 
    work and I could probably stand a day off, too (hint, hint).
    

    
    
    I would also suggest the Horse Park.  I was there 4 years ago
    and it was great - very interesting!  Also, try to get an
    appointment to visit "Calumet Farms".  It would really be
    worth it.  But just driving around Lexington is fun, there
    is so much to see.
    
    Have a good time, Jenny
                    
    
    

    The Kentucky Horse Park was sponsored by some of the bigger
    farms around Lexington.   They had problems with liability 
    (for both the horses and visitors) during tours, so they 
    built a facility especially for tours.  They hold shows
    and events  in addition to farm tours.  A lot of the big
    farms have stopped letting visitors in  (Calumet, too - I think).
    KHP is a nice facility to show at, if you should get the chance.
    

    There are a lot of big-time Arabian farms near Louisville -- L'Esprit
    would be worth the trip.  It's an equestrian community on a gran
   grand scale.  Paramount is very close to Louisville, although I don't
    have a map to tell you just where.  If you're interested, flip through
    some Arabian Horse Word or Arabian Times magazines.

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Original Note by:            Kentucky Horse Park
ASD::WIMBERG                                         43 lines   1-SEP-1989 10:37
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    Kentucky Horse Park
    
    If you haven't been there you don't know what you are missing.
    
    If you have, well they just added a new star to their parade of
    champions.
    
    Now in retirement at the Kentucky Horse Park is Imperator, the
    1987 (and 88?) world champion 5-gaited saddlebred. He joins
    Forego (the multi-million dollar racing gelding) as part of the
    horses you can visit while there.
    
    In addition, there's the Calumet trophy collection, the Man O' War
    statue, driving ponies, mammoth mules (yes, mammoth mules and they
    are LARGE), a working training track, a musuem, a fanastic movie
    and the daily parade of champions. It is also the local for the
    Rolex International Horse Trails.
    
    It was put together by the local horsemen and the state as way to
    recognize the importance of the horse to the economy of Kentucky
    and relieve the local horse farms from entertaining visitors. The
    park itself is restored horse farm and contains one worlds largest
    wooden structures (a barn, of course).
    
    The best thing about the park is the horses. They are plentiful and
    accessable. Besides the parade, they have barn you can walk thru
    and horses been ridden that you can touch and ask questions of the
    riders. A wide variety of breeds are respresented. (I saw an American
    Curly Horse while I was there - that's the horse the grows long curls
    in the winter and shedds down to peach fuzz in the summer). They have
    a riding stable about on par with other riding stables but they
    tour the park giving you a close look at some of the jumps on the
    cross country course (major league three day jumps). The day I took
    the tour, the neighboring farms was collecting the mares and babies
    for medical check. They were adorable (like all babies).
    
    Located outside of Lexingtion KY it is well worth a day long visit.
    (I do find it hard to believe that my home state did such a good job
    putting this together!)
    
    Nancy
    

    And for those of you who event...
    
    KHP has built new XC courses for novice- prelim.  We rode two events
    fall and (maybe) jumped two of the same fences.  Fun, but not
    for the faint of heart :>)
     
   

    Has anyone thought of moving to the Lexington area for the horse
    activities?  This is just a remote dream of mine - maybe in ten years
    or so.  We've been to Lexington twice for a week each time, and I'm so
    impressed with how much you can do with horses in that area compared 
    to the costs up here (Northeast).  The Lexington area seems to be
    booming with a diversity of businesses.  Does anyone know anything more
    practical about the area like housing costs, boarding costs, exactly
    what kind of jobs that area is looking for i.e., health care industry,
    etc? 

    If you're considering moving within the US, one of the best sources of
    info on basics like housing costs, education, transportation, economy,
    weather, etc is the "Places Rated Alamanc." That's a paperback book that 
    has a rating system comparing each urban area in the US on each of about 
    10 basic items. It is republished every few years. The book also gives an
    analysis of each item with a rating for each urban area as well as
    detailed info on most/all of the areas.
    
    The book's useful even if you're going to live in the country because
    some of the "largest" urban areas aren't very large and there's great
    country nearby. I think it currently rates about 350 of the largest 
    urban areas of the country including Nashua NH and Manchester NH. The
    curious thing is that for several states like New Hampshire and New
    Mexico, the state capital isn't represented in the list(in my old one
    anyway) because it's too small a town! 
    
    I have a copy that's about 5-6 years old and rates 329 such areas. I'll
    look and see if Lexington KY is in there. I can't remember the cost of
    even this old one but even if it's $25, it's cheap...especially
    compared to the cost of moving...BTW, the books also good at pointing
    to resources for more information about an area you're interested in.
    
    John

    
    
    
    You might also want to try your local public library to see what they
    have on the area in their reference section.  
    
    Or call/write the Lexington Chamber of Commerece or visitors center
    for any information they might have.  You can call the phone company
    and ask them to send you the (free) Lexington metro area phone book
    to see what other types of services they have in the area.
    
    Pat 

    Someone came by yesterday to pick up a horse and he had just come back
    from the Lexington area...he found a 3 bedroom house (with the
    works...pool and all), 16 stall barn, 15 fenced acres....$110K.
    Sounded great to me...I was on my way.
    

    Another idea for horse specific information. Some states have horse
    councils or some other horse industry advocate  in the state
    government. Usually under the agriculture but sometimes under commerce.
    When we moved to Washington, the state horse council provided us with
    lots of information including a horseman's directory listing horse
    farms, boarding stables, tack shops, feed dealers, etc. With the
    importance of the horse in the Kentucky economy, I'll bet they have
    some information they can provide!
    
    Sometimes, local horse organizations can help too if you can find out
    how to get in touch with them.

    I looked up Lexington in my out-of-date Places Rated Alamanac. Since it 
    was published in 1985 and the info was probably gathered in 1984, this 
    stuff is probably obsolete but still somewhat relevant. Some things
    like climate, health care and the arts don't change quickly while the
    housing market and economy are more easily affected.
    
    Places Rated Alamanac rated a 5 county area as the Lexington-Fayette
    urban center. Overall, it ranked 82nd out of the 329 areas they
    evaluated. They use a point system for each of about 10 categories like
    climate and terrain, health care, education, transportation, arts
    economy, housing, crime, recreation, etc. They give extensive 
    information on each category and then rank each urban
    center according to its score on each category. To get the overall
    rank, they total up the points and order the cities by their total
    score. They also have a couple other scoring systems which include only
    certain categories of importance to certain groups of people(Not horse
    people! Maybe we could take their idea and go into the living with
    horses rating business.)
    
    Anyway, Lexington rated above average in Climate and Terrain, Health
    Care, The Arts and Economy. Of course, with recent set backs in TB
    breeding industry, I'd wan more current info on the economy.
    
    Lexington rated below average on Housing(again, too volatile to be
    valid today), Crime(look into this; they had higher than average
    violent cime rates) and Recreation. Now, their idea of recreation is
    geared more toward urban couch potatoes than horse people. 
    
    They considered such things as golf courses, fancy restaurants, 10 pin
    bowling, movies, zoos, theme parks, auto racing, horse racing and mjor
    league sports teams. Zoos and TB tracks are about the only thing I'd be
    interested in from that list but I wouldn't make my decision on them. 
    Seattle has a zoo and, for about 4 more weeks, a TB track but I rarely go 
    to either one. They also rated outdoor recreation options like hiking, 
    camping and sailing but no info about horse-related activities. So, I
    wouldn't be too concerned about a low rating on recreation!
    
    FWIW,
    John