Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event

Every year during the last weekend of April, Kentucky Horse Park located just outside Lexington hosts the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event. It is one of only six three-day events in the world that are ranked at the highest level, four stars (CCI****). During the event, horses and their riders compete in three categories: Dressage (Friday), Cross-Country (Saturday) and Jumping (Sunday). We went to look at the cross-country competition this year.

The park is huge. It felt like we walked a mile just to get to the competition ground from the parking lot. Moving from one obstacle to another also involved lots of walking (The course is just under four miles long, with 33 obstacles along the way). So wear comfortable shoes and bring light chairs. I thought our folding lawn chairs were pretty light in the morning, but as the day went on, they felt heavier and heavier.

It's our first time attending the event. We didn't really know what's going on, how the obstacles were arranged on the ground etc. We walked the ground randomly, moving from one obstacle to another. Some people liked to follow the route. Others seemed happy staying at the same spot the whole day. Either way I think you'll have fun.

1. Here they came, No. 20 Courageous Comet and his rider Becky Holder (USA) at Obstacle 25: 2nd Water.


2. Obstacle 25 has three jumps, this is 25c: Sycamore Rails.


3. No. 21 Hollywood and his rider Kelly Sult (USA) at Obstacle 25c.


4. No. 23 Radio Flyer and his rider Dorothy Crowell (USA) at Obstacle 6: Cedar Hop.


5. Ground patrol.


6. No. 25 Kirby Park Irish Jamie and his rider Cammy O'Rourke (AUS).


7. Lots of people bring their dogs to the event. Among them, George was one of the cutest. He just sat there, watching people/dogs passing by.


8.


9. After lunch break, the first team to go was No. 31 Tipperary Liadhnan and his rider Kim Severson (USA). This was at Obstacle 28/29: Duck Marsh. They needed to jump a series of four ducks.


10. No. 38 Livingstone and his rider Hawley Bennett (CAN) at Obstacle 1: Flower Box.


11. No. 48 Merloch and his rider Bonnie Mosser (USA) at Obstacle 5: Flower Basket.


12. The last team we saw of the day was No. 54 Hugh Knows and his rider Karen O'Connor (USA). This was at Obstacle 8: Hammock.


13. The next team to go was No 55. Frodo Baggins and his rider Laine Ashker (USA). They had some kind of accident at an earlier obstacle so we never saw them coming to the obstacle where we were at. While waiting for the race to restart, we saw this cute little girl in her pony harness running around.


14. We waited for over an hour, still didn't see any sign of restart, so we left the race early. On our way out, we passed the Jumping arena.


15. As we walked to our parked car, two horses eating nearby noticed us. They both walked to the fence, stuck their heads out, waiting for us to pat them.


16. There are many horse farms near Lexington. We took a drive, and saw this one.


17. And this one.


18. Before coming to Lexington, I have read about Panda Garden on wenxuecity. It is supposedly the best Sichuan restaurant in Lexington, maybe even in Kentucky. We tried it out. It really is good: excellent food, good service, and fair price. Highly recommend. The restaurant is called Panda Cuisine now. It is located at 2358 Nicholasville Road. If you are going north on Nicholasville Road, the restaurant is on your right hand side.