We have original, licensed Secretariat jewelry by Jane Heart available in our Kentucky Horse Park Gift Shop.

The styles include a large and small pendant, charm, charm bracelet, brooch, and cuff links.  They are available in sterling silver and 14k and 18k gold.

Designer Jane Heart stated, “I am honored to have the license to design jewelry for Secretariat.  He, indeed, followed his heart with his tremendous passion for running and has been an inspiration to me to continue to follow my own heart. Being an extra in the movie was indeed a thrill and later seeing it to experience the drive and confidence of Mrs. Chenery achieving her dreams was a memorable event for me. The voice of Chic Anderson from CBS television said it all, 'He is running like a tremendous machine!' May these designs of Secretariat also inspire you to pursue your dreams and reach the highest level of your ability.”

Each piece is stamped with the name Secretariat™ on the back and arrives in a gift box with a blue satin pouch.

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each piece goes to the Secretariat Foundation which benefits various horse charities including horse rescue and laminitis.

Call 859-259-4244 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Meet the Kentucky Equine Humane Center's Adoptable Horse of the Week: Ginger!

Breed: Quarter Cross 
Color: Chestnut
Age: 6 years
Gender: Mare
Height: 14.3
History: Unknown

Ginger is an attractive young mare who is sound and ready for a new career.  Ginger has excellent ground manners and gets along well with both mares and geldings.  Like all horses, Ginger does best with consistent handling and a routine.  Although they have no previous riding history for her they do know she is quiet under saddle and will need some additional training.

For more information on Ginger or any of the other adoptable horses at the KyEHC, contact them at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or go to www.kyehc.org.

Meet the Kentucky Equine Humane Center's adoptable Horse of the Week: Master Fun.

Meet the Kentucky Equine Humane Center's adoptable Horse of the Week: Master Fun.  He's a 5-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, 15.3-hands, who has a loving personality, is quiet and very easy to handle and groom.

He has no known limitations for a second career.  While he has only been ridden once at KyEHC, they believe he has a lot of potential for multiple disciplines once a regular riding routine is established. He has been turned out with both mares and geldings and gets along well with both genders.

For more information on Master Fun or any of the other adoptable horses at KyEHC, contact them: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or www.kyehc.org.

ATTENTION FARM AND HORSE OWNERS:

With spring on the horizon, you may find yourself in need of qualified part-time help to assist with farm chores, foal watch, grooming, night watch and general horse handling.  The Kentucky Horse Park also understands that during this busy time, farm owners and managers do not have the time to interview hundreds of candidates for various farm jobs nor do they want to invest the expense to advertise in newspapers and magazines.

The Kentucky Horse Park is currently in the midst of their spring Professional Horseman’s Course.  This course brings together a select group of students from around the country who have been chosen to participate in the course based on their background, experience, or desire to work in the equine industry and their dedication to the horse and work ethic.  The course is limited to a small number of students to ensure each student receives the most hands-on experience as possible in skills such as general horse handling, barn management, stall cleaning, grooming, saddling, health care, etc.

This year, rather than spending countless hours reviewing applications from job seekers that have no horse experience, save yourself a lot of time and frustration by contacting the Kentucky Horse Park for your part-time help.  The park can work with your farm to hand select students most qualified for your needs and experience requirements.  The park can also work with students to provide special training in the areas you are seeking in job applicants to provide you with an employee with the custom made skills and experiences you are looking for.

If your farm is in need of part time help this spring or you are looking for a temporary farm sitter, save yourself a lot of time and frustration and contact the Kentucky Horse Park Professional Horseman’s Course Instructors.  For more information on potential student workers please contact Sheila Forbes at 859-259-4305 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .  Let us help your farm find the help you are looking for!!  Student worker positions are limited.

Limited participant registration is still available for the Kentucky Horse Park Certified Horsemanship Association (CHA) Standard Certification Clinic to be held April 7-11, 2011  (application deadline – March 11, 2011)

CHA’s goals are to promote safety, education and quality in horseback riding programs and develop qualified riding instructors for camps, stables, schools and other locations where riding instruction is given.  The clinic is designed to improve teaching techniques and certify riding instructors.  Riding instructors can be certified by the style they teach Western, English, etc.  Nearly 1,000 instructors are certified by CHA each year.

CHA clinics are directed by nationally recognized CHA Clinic Instructors.  Participants have the opportunity to teach several mounted and ground lessons, receive feedback from other participants and the clinic instructors, and to improve their safety, herd and program management skills.

Instructor Polly Haselton Barger has been a lifelong horse woman who has spent her entire adulthood teaching others to ride in a correct and safe manner.  She is a CHA Master Instructor/Clinician and was the 2005 CHA Clinic Instructor of the Year. She is also a CHA Clinician for Riders with Disabilities and Equine Facility Management. Polly has been actively involved with the Tennessee and Kentucky Horse Councils, chairing and/or participating on committees on safety and education. She is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and ran a large riding program for thirty years. Polly has also specialized in fear management for riders, as well as working with at-risk youth. She is a knowledgeable and experienced horsewoman, whose main concern is safety and correct education in the horse world.

Instructor Heidi Potter is a full time instructor, trainer and clinician with over 40 years of horse experience. Her program, “In Harmony With Horses", is designed to improve the relationship between horses and humans in a calm, clear, and consistent manner. Ms. Potter’s work has been greatly influenced by Ms. Sally Swift, the founder of Centered Riding©. She is a Level III Centered Riding Instructor/Clinician, a CHA (Certified Horsemanship Association) Clinic Instructor, certified to teach at the Master Level, and a strong proponent for the ethical and thoughtful treatment of horses. Ms. Potter teaches, trains and conducts clinics throughout the country, as well as at her family's southern Vermont farm, Maple Ridge Stable.

The Kentucky Horse Park strongly supports the mission and purpose of CHA and feels this is an excellent opportunity for any instructor to gain certification or simply brush up or enhance their teaching skills.

Cost of the clinic will be $800/participant, which includes lunch, use of a horse, tack, all required manuals and certification/membership fees.  Enrollment is limited.  For more information or to enroll, please contact Sheila Forbes, Kentucky Horse Park Director of Adult and Professional Education at (859) 509-1441 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .  Registration information is also available online at www.kyhorsepark.com.

THE EQUINE VISION OF ROBERT VAVRA
Kentucky Horse Park to Present a 60-Year Retrospective by the World's Premier Photographer of Horses

LEXINGTON, KY (February 24, 2011) Famed novelist James Michener once wrote, “Though equus has fired the imaginations of painters from the prehistoric hunter-artists of Altamira to Leonardo da Vinci, Velazquez, Goya and Picasso, still in the history of photography no cameraman has recorded the horse with such excitement and personal style as has Robert Vavra.  His photographs are works of art; they are interpretations of the horse as perceptive as those done by Stubbs and Remington.  They are a joy to see, because they evoke the inner nature of the horse.”

Today Robert Vavra is universally recognized as the world’s premier photographer of equines, and his work will be the focus of the Kentucky Horse Park’s next exhibition, Vavra’s Vision: The Equine Images of Robert Vavra, Mar 19-May 30 in the International Museum of the Horse – a Smithsonian Affiliate. The exhibition is being presented courtesy of the International Institute of Photographic Arts.

By portraying the horse in his fresh and very personal way, Robert Vavra has become an icon in his own lifetime. He is the author of 37 books accounting for more than 3,000,000 volumes in print, in eight languages. This retrospective exhibition will delve into the world that Vavra has created through his lens for the past 60 years while circling the globe. In photographs, in film and in print, his images capture the strength, beauty and wisdom of the horse.

There will also be a public lecture and book signing with Mr. Vavra on Saturday, March 19 at 10:30am at the Kentucky Horse Park.

For more information about this exhibition, contact the Kentucky Horse Park’s International Museum of the Horse, 859-259-4232.  For more information on Robert Vavra, go to www.robertvavra.com.

What the critics say about Robert Vavra’s work:

"Internationally acclaimed photographer Robert Vavra's story is amazing..."  -- CNN

"Robert Vavra...might well have been a character Ernest Hemingway invented for one of his books set in Spain...Vavra is elegant in the way people are when everything extraneous has been burned away by the fires and acids of a passionate life."  -- THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

"I did like Robert Vavra's book not only for its so very good photographs but for the text as well. He's no ordinary fellow, obviously..." -- NORMAN MAILER

"Seldom is found in one person an author of Vavra's caliber, a photographer unparalleled and a sensitive chronicler of animal behavior..." -- UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL

"During my lifetime I have met dozens of writers and photographers in dozens of different countries. But I have encountered no one who could both write and photograph with the artistry of Robert Vavra."  -- JAMES A. MICHENER

"Vavra's photographs vault the travel barriers of our strange times..." -- THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Vavra's pictures and words are emotional, romantic and grand." -- COSMOPOLITAN

"I am a great admirer of Robert Vavra and love his beautiful photographs and books. He is a wonderful artist, a poet..." -- LENI RIEFENSTAHL

"...exquisite photographs..." -- THE WASHINGTON POST

"...the photographs are not only stunning artistic success, but more wonderfully, Vavra's writing is equal to his enterprise." --THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

"The focus is personal...poetic..."  -- NEWSWEEK

"...enlightening stories and pictures...what beautiful intimate close-ups."  -- ALFRED EISENSTAEDT

"...remarkable photos..."  -- BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB

"They are superb, totally unhackneyed..." -- THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

"...superlative pictures..."  -- THE SATURDAY REVIEW

"...exquisite...confirms the existence of a pictorial genre that can only be called Vavra-esque - different in kind from all others."  -- JAN MORRIS, THE LONDON TIMES

"Each of them a masterpiece..."  -- THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER

"...glorious photographs singular in their artistry..."  -- PBS

"Robert Vavra is one of these artists, part magician, part alchemist, who is able to create a series of photographs in unforgettable compositions. Only visible are the dunes, the blinding fields of flowers and the vast sky, the epic intimacy of Robert Vavra's vision."  -- PETER USTINOV

"Robert Vavra has moved the mighty and the masses. His photographs are so loved that most of his thirty-three books have never gone out of print, and the words in them have been translated into ten languages from Japanese to Swedish...Peter Ustinov called him an alchemist with his camera. Ernest Hemingway was his friend; Princess Grace of Monaco, Yehudi Menuhin, Ustinov and James Michener wrote his forewords. Michener says there is no better photographer. The book they did together, IBERIA, was more than a year on the New York Times best seller list..."  -- THE ADVOCATE AND GREENWICH TIMES

"...photographs of dazzling artistic beauty."  -- GOOD MORNING AMERICA

Meet the Kentucky Equine Humane Center's Adoptable Horse of the Week: Savannah!

Breed: Pony Cross
Color: Chestnut
Age: 4 years
Gender: Mare
Height: 14
History: Light Riding
Suitability: Any Discipline

Savannah has a great disposition. She likes people but occasionally needs to be reminded that she is not the leader.  She stands well for the farrier and to be groomed and tacked. She has been ridden several times at the KyEHC at all gaits. She will need a confident rider to help her get back in the swing of regular riding. This mare is a beautiful mover and would do well in multiple disciplines.

For more information on Savannah or any of the other adoptable horses at the Kentucky Equine Humane Center, contact them at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or www.kyehc.org.

KENTUCKY HORSE PARK ADULT RIDING PROGRAM

Kick-Start your New Year’s Resolution to Get Fit!

The weather is warmer and the grass is green.  Those New Year’s resolutions to loose weight and get fit are long forgotten.  Let the Kentucky Horse Park help you kick-start and renew that resolution with the Adult Riding Program scheduled from May 4 – 7, 2011, and May 11-14, 2011.

Team up with a friend or just bring yourself to learn balanced seat riding and “feel the burn” of using long forgotten muscles while enjoying the beautiful scenery of the Kentucky Horse Park from horseback!

Participants will learn general horse care while exercising their entire body and getting more fit.  The course is geared toward all levels of riders from beginners to experienced riders who are simply looking for more instruction.  Participants will have daily riding, vigorous riding instruction, and also enjoy relaxing trail rides.

The course is offered in the evenings and on weekends to accommodate adults’ busy work schedules, and participants can sign-up for one or both sessions.

Enrollment is limited to 10 riders per session so register early to ensure your enrollment and get ready to “feel the burn” in a fun and exciting way that beats spending hours walking on a treadmill!

ADULT RIDING

Session One:    May 4-7      5– 7:30pm  W,Th,F;      or 9am – 3pm Sat

Session Two:   May 11-14    5- 7:30 pm   W,Th,F;      or 9am – 3pm  Sat

For more information or to register, please contact Sheila Forbes in the Kentucky Horse Park Education Department at 859-233-4303 or  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Meet the Kentucky Equine Humane Center's adoptable Horse of the Week: Sadler's Cat

Breed: Thoroughbred
Color: Bay
Age: 5 years
Gender: Gelding
Height: 15.2
History: Racing

Cat is a well mannered gelding with an excellent disposition.  He arrived at KyEHC from the racetrack just a few weeks ago but has settled right into life at the farm.  He is quiet under saddle and is ready for a new home and new career.  He gets along well with other geldings in a herd setting.

For more information on Sadler's Cat or any of the other adoptable horses available at the Kentucky Equine Humane Center, contact them at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or go to www.kyehc.org.