Splendor in the bluegrass

Horses, history, and pastoral beauty reign in Lexington, Ky.

June 11, 2003|Weekend Planner, Patricia Harris, Globe Correspondent

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Flying into Blue Grass Airport, it's easy to see why this city proclaims itself the "Horse Capital of the World." As you make your final approach, you can see horses grazing on the pastureland that stretches from horizon to horizon. And not just any horses. More than 350 farms in and around Lexington raise prize thoroughbreds that get their strong bones and winning edge from the calcium-rich grass that grows above the limestone bedrock of central Kentucky.

Horse culture and a love of English traditions pervade the region, so it's no surprise that this year's blockbuster exhibition at the Kentucky Horse Park, a museum and a working horse farm, traces the equestrian heritage of the British Isles.

On view through Aug. 24, "All the Queen's Horses" gathers more than 400 artifacts and 60 paintings that show horse and man at work, at war, and at play. Americans have for years seen photos of Prince Charles playing polo, or some might recall that Princess Anne, his sister, rode on Britain's Olympic equestrian team during the 1970s.

The British love of horses has roots almost as deep as human civilization. The exhibition opens with the earliest piece of art ever discovered in Britain, a small piece of bone dating from 10,000 BC. It is painstakingly incised with an image of a horse's head.

The showstopper, though, has to be the intricately embossed and engraved steel horse armor that belonged to Henry VIII. Historians speculate that it may have been a gift from the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I on the occasion of the king's fateful marriage to Catherine of Aragon (his first wife). Almost 80 public and private collections yielded other unique items, including a set of Queen Elizabeth II's racing colors (a purple jacket with gold braid and red sleeves) and Prince Philip's driving carriage, both lent by the royal family.

But the Brits don't have anything on Kentuckians when it comes to devotion to the horse. "All the Queen's Horses" complements the park's own exhaustive exhibitions of all things equine, making it the perfect centerpiece for a horse-focused tour of the area.

The best thing about the horse park is that you can leave the displays and get close to the real thing. Some of the top racehorses in the country are spending their retirement years here, including Cigar, whose record winnings of $10 million over five years in the '90s surely inspires many a breeder's dreams. In all, more than 50 breeds live in the park, and a few of them strut their stuff for the twice-daily "Parade of Horses."