Olive Hill has come up with an excellent way to celebrate the Labor Day weekend that will take advantage of the growing interest in adventure tourism and highlight the greatly improved opportunities for horseback riding in western Carter County. While the first-ever Traveling Horse Rendezvous will be Sept. 4 through Sept. 7, we would not be the least bit surprised if becomes an annual event that annually attracts increasing numbers of horses and their riders.
All breeds of horses are welcome at the gathering, which is a celebration for horses, trail riders, mules and horse-drawn vehicles. The last holiday weekend of the summer will include a parade, horse show, trail rides and a cookout.
To help assure its success, the Traveling Horse Rendezvous has been organized by a wide-range of groups representing all aspects of the community. Representatives from the Smokey Valley Farm, the Carter County Shrine Club, Olive Hill Chamber of Commerce and the city of Olive Hill have joined with individual horse owners and riding enthusiasts to help plan the weekend.
The event capitalizes on efforts under way in Carter County to develop an extensive multiple-use recreational trail system along with facilities and infrastructure to support visitors and users of the trails. Carter Caves State Resort Park — the community’s primary tourist attraction — recently announced plans to develop trails and campsites for horses and their riders.
“We have an opportunity to be a pretty premier destination for trail riding,” said Bob Coleman, owner of Smokey Valley Farm and one of the event’s key organizers and advocates, adding that the region offers some of the best scenery and terrain for trail riding in the world. “It’s a little known secret and it’s almost not accessible for the people outside,” he said.
Coleman is right. While other, more rugged regions of eastern Kentucky may be better suited for ATV trails, Carter County seems ideally suited for horseback riding.
The weekend will begin with a trail ride at Carter Caves at 1 p.m. Friday, followed by live music from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday at the Carter County Shrine Club Park.
There will be a relatively short trail ride down an approximately two mile section of old C & O Railroad bed, now a Rails to Trails path in Olive Hill, beginning at the Shrine Park at 6:30 a.m. Saturday and ending at the old C & O depot in downtown Olive Hill.
A parade showcasing a variety of horse breeds and their uses will be at 11 a.m. Saturday in Olive Hill, followed by a horse show at 1 p.m. at the Carter County Shrine Club Park and Showground. A cookout will also be held after the horse show and live music will be performed after the show until 11 p.m.
There will be extensive trail rides on both Sunday and Monday.
Participants must pre-register for trail rides, the parade and horse show. Admission for trail rides and parade entry is $10 per person. Children 12 and under are free.
While they think the event has a lot to offer, organizers realize the Traveling Horse Rendezvous may not be an overnight success and the turnout for the first year may be small.
“A successful event, regardless how big or small it is in the beginning, is that those that do come will come back and tell others what we are doing,” said Coleman.
That’s the right attitude. Riders are a rather close-knit community and the best way to build an event like this is to show riders that you have something to offer and let them spread the word to others.
