Virginia Horse Center

4 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 6 V I RGINI A HORSE CENTER years as a public-private partnership with the State of Virginia, under the auspices of a publicly appointed board working in tandem with a private board. Together, they raised funds, grew the center and managed to create an Olympic caliber facility. In 2007, the United States Department of Agriculture granted the VHC a loan to take sole ownership of the land and facilities. Today, they operate as a 501(c)(3) charity nonprofit organization. “It has turned out to be just a wonderful venue,” says CEO Glenn Petty. “We are right at the intersection of Interstates 81, which is a major interstate, and 64, which goes back into Kentucky. It’s a perfect location. There’s a hill above the horse center where I love to take people who have never been here before. We go up on the hill, just to look out across the rooftops. Those rooftops are blue, too, which make for a picturesque view, set against the Blue Ridge Mountains. And it’s not just the mountains that make this location picture perfect. We have 300 acres of grass that we have to keep mowed. But it makes the venue just beautiful.” It’s unusual for a horse center to have that much grass, many of them have a fair amount of concrete. So at the VHC, exhibitors love to take their horses out and graze. There are five miles of scenic trails that circle the property and go down to the Maury River, as well. A lot of the exhibitors like to get their show horses out and take a trail ride, given that they don’t often have that opportunity. This bucolic setting allows the exhibitors and horses a chance to meander to the river, (a recently designated Virginia Scenic River), take in the quiet beauty, and just relax. The VHC hosts more than 100 events each year, including local, national, and international horse shows, rodeos, concerts, and educational clinics. The center’s amenities include a Coliseum that seats 4,000, 14 show and practice rings, capacity for 1000 horses, and an internationally rated cross-country course. In the Coliseum, is a 9,000 CEO, Glenn Petty