College students on Saturday will have a second chance to see the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games for free, and this time it will include admission to the carriage-driving marathon.
Alltech, which says it is paying for the free admissions with donations from its customers and suppliers, said students must bring a valid student ID to the box office. The first "college day" at the Games, on Sept. 26, attracted 2,470 students, said Alltech spokesman Billy Frey.
Students are encouraged to take the LexTran shuttle from the Vine Street transit center, which costs $1 each way. Parking also is available at the Kentucky Horse Park for $20, cash only.
Petals for the medals
Best of Flowers, the Lexington florist making hundreds of bouquets for the medals ceremonies at the Games, is inviting the public, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, to put ribbons on bouquets or just watch them being made.
Mary Jo Johnson, owner of the Chevy Chase Place flower shop and wholesaler, said she has delivered about 100 bouquets to the Horse Park at 5:30 a.m. each day. They are made up of sunflowers, grevillea and poppy pods, and surrounded by lemon lace greenery from California Growers.
This week is especially busy for the shop, with about 75 medals bouquets needed as the Games head into the big finish.
Johnson breathed a sigh of relief when the 800 sunflowers for the bouquets arrived Monday. Working with the Games has been exciting, she said, and "we just wanted to get the community involved."
Good days for Ariat
Some vendors at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games have complained about slow sales at the Trade Show. That's not true for anyone selling Ariat International equestrian clothing and equipment.
The California-based company, a sponsor of the Games, has pretty much run through all of the thousands of pieces of WEG-embroidered clothing at three retail booths at the Games. The most popular — a dark-blue, soft-shell jacket emblazoned with the WEG insignia ($94 for women, $108 for men) — sold out Tuesday morning.
Ariat founder and CEO Beth Cross was helping out at Bob Mickler's booth Tuesday morning; the only jackets left were men's extra large.
"A woman with a 10-year-old child had put her in the men's extra large and was saying, 'It's only a little big.'" Cross said, laughing.
Ariat makes clothing and equipment for Western and English styles of riding, so the Games was a perfect fit for the company to become sponsors. But what has made the Ariat logo of intertwined horseshoes most recognizable is some 6,000 volunteers who wear the company's sky blue and marigold shirts, windbreakers and hats.
So does all this success mean on to Normandy, France, where the Games will be held in 2014?
"We'd love to," said Susan Alcala, vice president of marketing. "We'll have to see."
