By NANCY VORIS
Indiana Correspondent

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The eyes of the world soon will be on the United States, but not in New York, Los Angeles or Salt Lake City. The focus will be on the heartland, at Lexington’s Kentucky Horse Park, for the biggest sporting event in the United States since the 2002 Olympics.

The Alltech FEI (Fédération Equestre Internationale) World Equestrian Games will cover 16 days - from Sept. 25 to Oct. 10. This will mark the first time the event has taken place outside of Europe. It is also the largest equestrian sporting event ever hosted in the United States.

NBC Sports will broadcast the games, marking the largest commitment to network coverage of equestrian sports in U.S. television history. The games take place every four years, with previous sites including Rome in 1998; Jerez, Spain in 2002 and Aachen, Germany in 2006.

“It’s the first time the World Equestrian Games have been held in the United States, and they chose the heartland of America,” said Kentucky First Lady Jane Beshear, an accomplished equestrian who has won national awards. “We feel it’s an economic opportunity for the area, for the world to see the beauty of our land and the hospitality of our people.”

Beshear joined Dr. Pearse Lyons, founder and president of Alltech, and Indiana First Lady Cheri Daniels in Indianapolis to promote the event as part of a six-state media blitz. Alltech, an industry leader in natural animal nutrition based in Nicholasville, Ky., committed in May 2006 to be the first-ever title sponsor of the FEI World Equestrian Games.

With eight world championships at stake in dressage, jumping, endurance, vaulting, eventing, driving, reining, and for the first time as part of the games, para-equestrian events, Lexington will host more than 600 athletes representing 60 countries.

The 1,200-acre Kentucky Horse Park, an equine-themed park and competition facility, completed a new 6,000-seat indoor arena and a new outdoor stadium a year in advance of the games. Road improvements were also added.

The games, with an expected 600,000 spectators, will leave a $150 million economic footprint on Kentucky.

“It has caused the world to look at Kentucky in a different way,” Lyons said. “We’re at center stage.”

He pointed out that Europeans typically take longer vacations than Americans and will take the time for extended visits in the area. Surrounding states could benefit from additional tourism and business opportunities.

In addition to the competitions and a trade show, visitors have several options to learn about horses and Kentucky’s horse legacy.
The Kentucky Experience gives visitors a taste of the Commonwealth’s nine tourism regions, a taste of Kentucky in the Kentucky Product Pavilion and performances by Kentucky artists at the Entertainment Pavilion.

The Equine Village features some of the world’s top equine entertainment acts and clinicians; the kid-friendly interactive Equimania exhibit; Parade of Breeds; the NCHA mechanical horse and cow and Native American Exhibit.

The four-acre Alltech Experience features an open-air garden, interactive exhibits including a Kidzone area exploring agriculture and animal health, daily workshops by animal health experts, a sneak peak at the 2014 Games in France, a beer garden featuring Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale, and a scale model biorefinery, solid state fermentation plant and cogeneration plant surrounded by working windmills, solar panels, algae farms and cows.
The horse park itself includes:

•Thou Shalt Fly Without Wings, a film focused on mankind’s relationship with the horse

•The International Museum of the Horse featuring the special exhibit, A Gift from the Desert: The Art, History and Culture of the Arabian Horse

•A collection of 19th Century horse-drawn carriages and racing vehicles

•The Farrier Shop’s exhibition of the age-old art of horse shoeing

•A display of 24 of the Park’s nearly 50 breeds in the Breeds Barn
Though tickets sales have been high, some tickets for compulsory and finals rounds of competition in all eight sports are still available throughout the 16 days of the Games and can be purchased at www.alltechfeigames.com/tickets, at www.ticketmaster.com, through the Ticketmaster hotline at 1-800-745-3000 or at Ticketmaster outlets.

Grounds passes are available for $25 through the same ticket outlets, with free admission for children 12 years and under when accompanied by a paying adult. Passes include entry for a selected day with access to the Kentucky Horse Park, pavilions, exhibitions, demonstrations and trade show.

Grounds passes are available for 13 days, excluding the competition days of Endurance, Eventing Cross-Country and Driving Marathon. Admission for those competitions requires specific tickets.

The first World Equestrian Games combining championships in all disciplines was held in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1990. Prior to that, each world championship was given the privilege of hosting the event four years later. For example, the Kentucky Horse Park hosted the eventing world championship in 1978 after Bruce Davidson won the championship in 1974.

Alltech and the Kentucky Horse Park is looking forward to the 2018 games, hoping this year’s event will leave a memorable impression on the FEI.

“We would love to have it stay … and come back in 2018,” Lyons said. “We’ll fight very hard to make that happen.”
For more information, go to www.alltechfeigames.com