Kentucky Horse Park Construction for 2010 World Games in Full Swing

Posted by Glenn the Geek on September 6th, 2008 1 Comment Printer-Friendly

The construction at the Kentucky Horse Park for the 2010 World Equestrian Games (WEG) is in full swing. It is estimated that they will be spending $30 to $40 Million at the park in preparation for the games. We will give you periodic reports throughout the next two years in my blog and on The Stable Scoop Radio Show.

The WEG are the world championships for seven equestrian sports – eventing, show jumping, dressage, driving, endurance, vaulting and reining. They are held every four years, right between the Olympics. The 2002 World Equestrian Games in Spain drew close to 300,000 spectators, 800 equestrians from 45 countries, and 1000 media representatives. Organizers here in Lexington, KY expect more than 600,000 visitors representing 60 countries, more than 2,000 journalists and television viewership of at least 500 million during the 16-day event.

I went out yesterday and took some pictures at the Kentucky Horse Park to give you an idea of the scope of the construction. Needless to say there are almost more construction vehicles in the park than horses.

The Kentucky Horse Park New Indoor Arena

The new indoor arena is being built on the far side of the park, over by Route 75. It will be a 6,000-seat, climate-controlled arena that includes a competition space of 45,000 square-feet, and 300 new stalls. It will be great for competitions in the winter as horses will not have to go outside to get to the competition.

Here are some of the construction pictures as of 8-10-2008. The pictures certainly don”t give you an appreciation for how large a building it is.

Here is what it is going to look like when done:

The Kentucky Horse Park New Outdoor Arena:

For those of you familiar with the Kentucky Horse Park the new outdoor arena is replacing the old one. Yes, the old outdoor arena is gone. As you see below it has been replaced by construction equipment and dirt. The stadium will feature 8,000 to10,000 permanent seats, with 20,000-22,000 temporary seats added for the games. There will be more than 91,000 square-feet of competition space.