HISTORY

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The vision of the Friends of the Orange County Horse and Farm Center is of a large, multi-use, state-of-the-art facility capable of attracting local & regional competitions. 

Because Orange County  boosts the 3rd largest population of horses in the State of New York, we are in need of  a safe recreational facilty for our equine residences and there owners.  We also want to keep the money generated from equine related shows, clinic, exhibits here in our county.

The facility will be the destination in Orange County to attract and keep equine events available right in our backyard!  A first class option for tourists, as well as horse people, complete with a covered arena to allow for year-round showing, horse sales, etc., as well as other agriculturally related events.  We envision two (or more) regulation-size ridden dressage rings, One larger regulation-size dressage ring for the combined driving competitors, a grand-prix outside jumping course, a cross-country course, a marathon course for driving competitions, 3-4 warm up rings for 3-4 outdoor arenas, some equipped with lighting for night showing, trailheads or a connection to existing trails in the county and a permanent vendor area. The need for many show rings comes from the need the various disciplines have regarding ring footing – one ring/ring size does not fit all.

A horse park needs to have the ability to host more than one competition per day/weekend and must also be able to attract large shows which would bring 100's of horses to the facility. To attract the larger, multi-day shows, a large amount of acreage is needed. Successful horse parks throughout the country offer RV parking, overnight camping, trailer parking and spectator parking.  Combined driving marathon courses run 3-15 kilometers in length and require 80 to 100 acres; cross-country eventing courses require approximately 80 acres.  There must be acreage for permanent stalls.  Many horse parks have 500 or more permanent stalls with some having over 1000 permanent stalls.