I love small town festivals. Every small town in America seems to have its own version, often named for some local food, like Centerville, Tennessee’s Banana Pudding Festival or New Bethlehem, Pennsylvania’s Peanut Butter Festival (why have I not been to this?) These celebrations usually involve some sort of cook-off and maybe some sort of pageant where a lucky young lady walks away with the title of “Miss Mac and Cheese 2014” or whatever.
Here in Kentucky, we’re best known for two things: horses and fried chicken (not necessarily in that order.) So naturally, there is a chicken festival, held in the small town of London. I’ve never been to that one, but this year I did go to the Festival of the Horse, held in Georgetown, a town that borders Lexington to the North. One of the highlights of this festival is the annual parade, which shuts down a few downtown streets and attracts quite a crowd of spectators. Some riders wear costumes and others just show up with their horses, but you see a pretty wide variety of breeds and types.
Leslie PotterLeslie Potter is a graduate of William Woods University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Equestrian Science with a concentration in saddle seat riding and a minor in Journalism/Mass Communications. She is currently a writer and photographer in Lexington, Ky.Potter worked as a barn manager and riding instructor and was a freelance reporter and photographer for the Horsemen's Yankee Pedlar and Saddle Horse Report before moving to Lexington to join Horse Illustrated as Web Editor from 2008 to 2019. Her current equestrian pursuits include being a grown-up lesson kid at an eventing barn and trail riding with her senior Morgan gelding, Snoopy.