Why is Lexington’s Kentucky Horse Park considered the best of its kind in America?
Editor’s Note: As Lexington celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding, the Herald-Leader and kentucky.com each day throughout 2025 will share interesting facts about our hometown. Compiled by Liz Carey, all are notable moments in the city’s history - some funny, some sad, others heartbreaking or celebratory, and some just downright strange.
Jan. 21, 2023: R. J. Classics, an equestrian show clothing brand, names Lexington’s Kentucky Horse Park as the nation’s No. 1 Equestrian Center.
The company said the park’s museums and exhibits, as well as it being the U.S. Equestrian Hall of Fame, and its numerous equestrian events throughout the year, put the park over the top as an equine center.
The park sits on the former Senorita Stud Farm and was sold to the state of Kentucky for $2.7 million in 1972. By 1978, the Kentucky Horse Park opened to the public.
It is the only park in the world dedicated to “man’s relationship with the horse” and features two museums - the International Museum of the Horse, and the American Saddlebred Museum, as well as facilities for such horse events as a show ring, an indoor arena, a hunter jumper complex and a dressage complex.
The company also named Walnut Grove Estates as one of the top 10 equestrian communities in the country noting Holladay Hills Stable located in the neighborhood, as well as the Estates’ proximity to the Kentucky Horse Park.
It makes sense, of course. After all, we are the “Horse Capital of the World.”
This story was originally published January 25, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
