Today at Arabian Sport Horse Nationals (SHN), my fellow Arabian horse lovers and I were treated to a preview of the new Arabian Horse Galleries at the Kentucky Horse Park's International Museum of the Horse. The Purebred Arabian Trust funded a 9,000 square foot building to be added on to the existing museum, although they are still requesting donations to finish the exhibit. Those of us at SHN were invited to a special presentation (with a sales pitch artfully thrown in) to see what the museum would be like when it opens in spring of 2010.
The Arabian Horse Galleries will be largely geared toward teenagers, but it's really going to be something to see for everyone. There is going to be a thing where you get to create a holographic horse to guide you through the museum. You get to choose the characteristics you like most, and the guide is created on a card that you slide at each exhibit to hear more about it. Either when the museum opens or shortly thereafter, there will also be a temporary exhibit called Gift from the Desert, which will be more geared toward adults, featuring art and artifacts from the Arabian desert.
We were greeted by three young women in formal evening attire. We looked down at our muddy clothes (and Patience was still in her show clothes) and felt our sweat-matted hair and suddenly felt way under dressed. However, there were a couple of other people who looked like they'd actually touched horses that day, so we went on in and sat down in the museum's theatre.
I don't know the specifics of how many people showed up, but there were a lot, including some notables like the great Bazy Tankersley and her family, Lance Walters and other AHA bigwigs, and the grand poobah of the museum, Bill Cooke. We watched an inspirational video showing how the idea for the Arabian Horse Galleries came about as well as a glimpse of what will be in there. It was pretty cool.
After the video, we had a speech from a woman who I don't think introduced herself-if she did, I missed it. Anyway, she talked about how old and great this breed is, how every person who has an Arabian is part of something bigger than themselves, etc. Did you know that the domestication of horses began just a few hundred years after the invention of the wheel, and the prototype of the Arabian horse came not long after? It's pretty amazing to think about.
Unfortunately, we had to leave before the end of the presentation and the tour of the building, but I understand there isn't really anything in the building yet anyway. However, while we were wandering the grounds today, I got to see just a tiny bit of the park, which I really haven't seen all week. I got to see Bask's grave, as well as Bask Elect, who was owned and loved by Martha Murdock...he had an amazing show career, despite being blind. I walked by the Hall of Champions but didn't have time to look inside. I did, however, see John Henry's grave.
There was a three-day event at the park that started yesterday and ran today as well. It was pretty fun to see those crazy eventers bombing around the stadium jumping course! I had hoped to see some cross country, but had no such luck.
I did get to see some Grand Prix dressage this morning, when Patience rode. There were three in the class, but sadly all three had problems. Mimi Stanley went first with her EA Cygnus, and he apparently decided he wasn't interested in dressage today. I think Mimi rode him about as well as anyone could (she is quite a rider!), but he was a real poop and they scored in the 40s. Patricia Harper went next on her horse, HS Pageno. Her test went better, and her horse does a great piaffe, but she went off course and I believe had some other mistakes. She ended up scoring 52.979.
Patience and Mary Jo Wertheimer's OKW Entrigue ("Ricky") were last. Ricky injured himself a few months ago and has been laid off, so it was a gamble to bring him. He looked OK in the warm-up, but by the time he got in to do his test, he must have been tired because he was obviously off. He tried his little heart out, but he just wasn't up to the work and scored 52.447 for Reserve Champion.
Saturday night at SHN is always exciting and the time to go if you can only go for one session. The jumping mini-prix, freestyle dressage, obstacle carriage driving and show hack final all happened tonight and it's really a great show! Kristin Hardin won the mini prix, Mimi Stanley won the musical freestyle on EA Cygnus, Taylor Nedurian won the carriage driving with SA Outrageous, and Jackie Alkin won the Arabian Show Hack on AM Chance Command (owned by Bazy Tankersley).
SHN is winding down and is almost over for another year! As always, we will all be taking home a lot of great memories.