The Airbnb in Perry County, known as the Miniard House, is located on an old family farm near Leatherwood. Also on the property is the new Appalachian Horse Center facility, where free-roaming horses in eastern Kentucky will be brought to receive treatments, interact with humans and eventually get adopted to forever homes.
Perry County Judge Scott Alexander said using this farm to help Perry County has been discussed for years. At the ribbon cutting ceremony, he said he hopes to see the site expand to include a native animal zoo.
“We're going to grow this farm into a major attraction, not only with the horses, but everything else that's going on,” Alexander said.
The space is down the road from a large off-road park where local officials said visitors from several other countries were there the same day. There’s also a Civil War battlefield site in the area that has a reenactment group.
Alexander said it’s great to see this farm “come back to life” and to work with so many people to bring tourism to Perry County. He said more Airbnbs and businesses are opening up in the community, along with outdoor activities like off-roading, fishing and hiking.
“We're learning that people are loving it when they come here,” Alexander said. “The mountains are so beautiful, our trails are so beautiful, and so we're trying to turn those one- and two-day stays into three- and four-day stays by giving them more options to do while they're here. It's really catching on.”
The Appalachian Horse Center is a nonprofit organization that’s been built on volunteers and donations for 10 years. Executive Director Shauneece Wade said the center is needed to help with overpopulation.
“As long as their population’s under control and they remain on the mountain tops where they began, it's not really a huge deal,” Wade said. “But once there's too many horses for the amount of grazing they have, they start coming off into the roadways, which is a danger to them and motorists.”
Free-roaming horses have been in eastern Kentucky for nearly 50 years, and originally came from agreements between neighbors to let horses graze on flat, reclaimed mining land. In 2008, people couldn’t afford to feed their horses anymore and left them out to graze where they might stand a better chance. That’s when overpopulation started to become a problem.
To help fund the facility, Wade said there will be multiple revenue streams including donations, adoption fees and an on-site gift shop with work from local artists.
“This has been a dream that we have had for 10 years, so today, it is finally coming through to fruition,” Wade said. “This is going to be the first step in the rest of a lot of these horses’ lives.”
State Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, said conversations about the project started at a barn dance in 1999 when he was in Kentucky’s House of Representatives.
“It's been a fun thing for us to get funding for but you see the county, the city, the state and other agencies that are all here in one place, here at this farm, because we've got big visions here for us,” Smith said. “That shows you everybody working together. That's kind of really what you all want to see, isn’t it?”
Some of the people who were at that original barn dance have passed away over the years while the community’s been growing.
“They were here before all this stuff happened, just to have a good time, and wanting other people to be able to come to a part of Kentucky where we still have barn dances and we still have fellowship, and you can walk outside and and grab a refreshment and find somebody you have something in common with, and to go back and have this wonderful experience,” Smith said.
The public was also invited to attend this event. Anita Holland, a lifelong resident of Perry County, came to the event because it was her great uncle’s farm.
“I have a lot of memories of this place, and I'm just so excited about what they're doing with the property now,” Holland said. “And I know Denver and Irene (Miniard) would have been very, very happy to see what is developing here.”
