Photo by Don Stine.

Lexington, KY - This year the Arabian horse community will celebrate the ninth annual Sport Horse National Championship Show. Held this year at the Kentucky Horse Park from September 28th through October 2nd, the show features the finest in Arabian and Half-Arabian sport horse competition, including classes for dressage, hunter-jumper, carriage pleasure driving, sport horse under saddle and in-hand classes.

More than a dozen classes have been added to his year’s schedule giving the show just under a hundred classes and cuts to fit into the five-day schedule. There are new in-hand classes for purebred and Half-Arabian yearlings and two-year-olds, new classes for purebred and Half-Arabian Hunter Hack Junior horses, and a Carriage Pleasure Driving Timed Obstacle competition. There is also an exhibition class for 14.2 and Under Working Hunters. Three arenas will run simultaneously beginning at 8 a.m. each day and one of them, the Rolex Ring, will be split into thirds and run three dressage individual works at the same time.

The Lexington Kentucky Horse Park has become one of America’s premiere horse show venues, partly because of its extreme sylvan beauty and horse-friendly atmosphere. It’s also the home of the Museum of the Horse, a “must see” for everyone visiting the park. The Arabian Horse Galleries were added to the museum in late spring of 2010 and quickly became its centerpiece. Museum curator Bill Cooke was generous in his praise for the year-old exhibit.

“The Museum of the Horse had 160,000 visitors last year,” Cooke notes, “and I believe that the main reason was a combination of the WEG Games and the Arabian Horse Galleries. The Arabian exhibits set some awfully high standards for the rest of us to meet.” The museum is open seven days a week from 9 am to 5 pm until November 1st. In the winter the museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Cooke went on to mention that many visitors were from the horse shows that the Kentucky Horse Park hosts frequently throughout the show season.

The Arabian Sport Horse National Championships have grown into a favorite over the last decade. It’s one of those now rare national shows where the Arabian horse family is able to compete together, a throwback to a kinder time and a much appreciated one at that.