kidsbarn
When the youngest tourists and visitors arrive at the Kentucky Horse Park this summer, they will find an exciting new interactive exhibit created just for them. The new Kids’ Barn opened as the Horse Park began its main season, in mid-March.
This barn is full of hands-on exhibits, including some touchable real ponies, and was designed “to open their hearts and their imaginations to horses,” said John Nicholson, executive director of the Horse Park.
Turning the former draft horses’ barn into the Kids’ Barn began when the renovation of the Horse Park’s Big Barn was completed in August 2011. Thunder, Lightning and the other draft horses were moved to the Big Barn, and most of their old stalls became mini-exhibit rooms. Some stalls remain for live horses.
“We spent all winter getting ready,” said Laurie Mays, the Horse Park’s director of youth and community education. She said that the hardest part of the project was “the organization of the different entities.”
Why a new exhibit just for children? The Horse Park staff members and others in the equine industry realized that, even as popular as the park is with kids, they would really enjoy more hands-on exhibits scaled to their size.
“It’s one more thing we learned from the World Equestrian Games: the great job [they did] in connecting young people and horses,” said Nicholson.
He added, “We made a commitment we would continue to enhance that. One of the functions of the Horse Park is to promote horses to young people who have so many options available.”
“We have a lot of kids that come every year, and we wanted to do something just for them,” said Mays.
Signs for the different sponsoring organizations show visitors some of the many facets of the equine industry. They can see how these organizations work together and benefit from each other.
“We want to instill a love and fascination of horses,” Mays said. “It is our goal to get them not only interested in horses themselves, but to learn about the great expanse that the equine industry is, and that it can be a part of their hobby and career.”
Kids’ Barn exhibitors include the American Farriers Association, the U.S. Humane Society, Young Rider Magazine, the Carriage Association of America and Kentucky 4-H Clubs. Safety is stressed in such exhibits as those of Saddle Up Safely from University of Kentucky HealthCare and the Park’s education department.
Rood and Riddle Equine Veterinary Hospital’s exhibit of a foal emergency room contains a near-life-size model of a sick foal, complete with intravenous line and nasal cannula for oxygen. UK’s Ag Equine exhibit also focuses on science and equine health.
Kids can learn about feeding horses, practice grooming and braiding tails on wall exhibits, and trace the evolution of horses (Morehead State’s exhibit). The U.S. Pony Club’s area and the Kentucky Horse Council’s section show the diversity of horses by color, markings and breeds.
Mays expects that exhibits will change over the next few years on a rotating basis.
“We want the barn to stay fresh with new ideas and concepts and allow people that visit the park every year the opportunity to continue to learn,” she said.
“We are hoping that some of the organizations already present will just change the type of exhibit they produce, as well as hoping to attract different organizations to become a part of the Kids’ Barn,” she added.
Horses will change, too.
“We have the plan to have a rotating pony breed every week, so that we can showcase different types of ponies and small horses. This will allow children and their parents to learn about different breeds that might be suitable riding partners,” Mays explained.
Rowdy (a miniature horse), Rio (a Shetland pony) and Bluegrass (a Chincoteague pony) are already favorites with young visitors. They will often be in the Kids’ Barn because they belong to the Horse Park’s education department and are used in programs for children.
In the future, Mays hopes to “see different authors, entertainers, clinicians and famous faces (both human and equine) come to the Kids’ Barn for hands-on, informative lessons.”
Such informal sessions will give kids “the opportunity to meet different people and horses that they wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to,” Mays said.
She sees business potential, too. This type of program “will cater to the equine professional who specializes in education and youth,” she said.
Equine professionals looking for young students would benefit from appearing at the Kids’ Barn as well, Mays said.
“There are lots out there, and I would like to see the Kids Barn as a place where we can bring it all together,” Mays explained.
For Nicholson, catering to a younger generation of horse lovers creates the kind of magical experiences that are central to the Horse Park’s mission.
“One of the best things that happens every day at the Horse Park is the first time a little girl or little boy touches a horse and creates that bond,” Nicholson said.