Ashland, home to the orator and politician Henry Clay, is also home to more than 150 brilliantly decorated fiberglass horses. Lexington is about ready to put horse mania three entries out on the streets. LexArts CEO Ame Sweetall says the decorated horses are standing on Ashland property as part of a public preview event. Sweetall says about 90 of them are young ones.
“So these are the little foals, the baby horses and some of the large-sized horses that have gone out to all the Fayette County Public Schools and private schools and even educational programs for the kids to paint and have fun in their curriculum doing the horses,” said Sweetall.
Horse mania first appeared in Lexington in 2000 and then again in 2010 when the city hosted the World Equestrian Games. The Ashland preview event ends Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Sweetall says these horses will move out Monday and be all over Lexington through November.
“A lot will be centered kind of in downtown, but we have them all four corners. We’re out Winchester Road and Nicholasville Road and all the different areas,” said Sweetall.
The horses will remain on display for Lexington’s hosting of the Breeders Cup in early November. Then they will be taken to Keeneland to be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the umbrella arts organization.
