Enjoy three days of family-friendly entertainment and activities at the Virginia Horse Festival March 27-29 at The Meadow Event Park in Caroline County.
There will be a special kids area filled with inflatables, pony rides and more. Little ones also will enjoy the antics of dogs in the canine agility demonstrations Saturday and Sunday. And the more than 70 clinics, demonstrations and seminars are sure to entertain young and old alike.
The exciting finals of the Extreme Mustang Makeover will be held Saturday night and festival goers will be able to see how tamed the wild horses have become. “Training a wild mustang is like putting a 1,000-pound deer in a round pen and trying to catch it,” said Richard Gardner of Chesapeake, one of more than 20 other adults and youth who took in wild mustangs from the Mustang Heritage Foundation in the fall.
When the event rolls around, they will have had 134 days to train the horses before exhibiting their skills during the makeover event. The trainers will show their horses on Friday and Saturday during the horse festival, and the top 10 will compete in the finals Saturday night. After the competition, the mustangs will be auctioned.
The Extreme Mustang Makeover is just one of many special events included in the cost of 
admission to the festival. “This festival will be both educational and entertaining for longtime members of Virginia’s horse community, as well as for those who are fans of horses or thinking about becoming horse owners,” said Glenn Martin, the program manager.
New and potential horse owners can get a leg up by participating in a New Horse owner Certification Course Friday and Saturday. Those completing three of the five educational classes will get a certificate and a free membership in the Virginia Horse Council. The certification course is sponsored by Virginia Tech, Virginia Cooperative Extension, the Virginia Horse Industry Board and the Virginia Horse Council.
For more information or to register, contact Dr. Bridgett McIntosh at [email protected].
A special Secretariat birthday celebration also will be part of the festival. Members of the Secretariat team will sign autographs, and descendants of “Big Red” will be on the grounds all weekend long. There will be a special VIP Secretariat reception on Saturday night, and ticketholders will be entertained with storytelling and personal recollections from authors Bill Nack and Kate Chenery Tweedy, along with jockey Ron Turcotte and trainer Charlie Davis.
Additionally, there will be plenty of shopping and food vendors on hand. Merchandise will include alpaca clothing, wine glasses, horse hair jewelry, Western wear and all manner of horse supplies, trailers and tack. Food vendors will be serving up barbecue, hot wings, kettle corn and more.
The three-day festival at The Meadow Event Park in Caroline County is for horse owners, riders and enthusiasts. To see a complete schedule or to purchase tickets, visit our website.
Event hours:
Friday – 1-9 p.m.
Saturday – 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sunday – 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Tickets: Until 11:59 p.m. March 26, online tickets are available for $10 for adults, $8 for children 5-12 (children 4 and under are free). A three-day festival pass is available for $20.
After that, admission is $15 for an adult one-day ticket, $10 for a child’s one-day ticket (ages 5-12) and $25 for the three-day festival pass.
This article is sponsored by The Meadow Event Park
