Wednesday was time for Horse Mania 2010 to head 'em up and move 'em out.
Around 3 p.m., volunteer crews began arriving at the HM Corral, better known as Lorillard Lofts, to take the painted ponies to their assigned positions throughout Lexington.
"One of the things we learned the first time was we thought it would take all night for the horses to get out, but most of it got done in about three or four hours," said Horse Mania co-chair Becky Reinhold, who was also on the committee for the original event in 2000.
Committee members culled the crews from area businesses, the primary prerequisites seeming to be having the strength to lift a life-sized fiberglass horse, having the vehicle to transport it, and being good with a drill.
"This adds new meaning to, 'Hold your horses,'" Buddy Ford of Vimont Builders said, strapping Philip March Jones' Race to Reason onto a trailer for the short trip from Lorillard to Lexington Center, where he was set to stand on the sidewalk along Vine Street.
Ted Vimont said Horse Mania co-chair Steve Grossman recruited him to bring his crew out to help place horses, as they had in 2000.
"It's exciting to be part of it," he said, waiting for horses to arrive at the corner of Main Street and Broadway. "With the World Equestrian Games coming, it feels like we're playing a small part in helping generate excitement."
The process for placing the horses was deceptively easy. Concrete slabs, upon which the horses were to be mounted, had already been put in position a week ago.
When the Vimont crew arrived, they placed the horses on the slabs, marking where holes were to bolt them down. The horse was then removed, holes were drilled, and the horse was placed back on the slab and bolted down. The whole process took about five to 10 minutes per horse.
Even before they were put in place, drivers could be seen gawking at both the horses being unloaded and other horses being driven by on their way to destinations around Lexington.
Among the horses' first up-close admirers were the placement crews who were taking pictures with their cell phone cameras once their work was done. Vimont was particularly taken with Mary Wathen's Henry, A Tribute to Henry Faulkner, standing at the corner of Main and Broadway.
"That's as perfect for the center of Lexington as you're going to get," he said of the tribute to the late Lexington artist.
Garnett and Esther Suter of Lexington were among the first admirers along Vine Street.
"Some are better than others," Garnett said. Esther recalled, "We got a map of the horses and took our granddaughter to see all of them the last time."
