Virginia Horse Center

7 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 6 million, supporting 896 jobs. And while those numbers are pre-COVID, Petty believes they’ve never been busier. He reports, “For three or four months in the spring of 2020, we were totally shut down because there could be no public assembly. But once we started back, everyone was ready to go and get out of the house. Most of our events are larger than they have been in the past.” The VHC is hosting new events, too. They’ve rented out 54,777 stall nights in the past year – more than any other previous year. While their primary business comes from the equine events, they do host other large events. In the wintertime, they have events like BMX races and monster truck wars. This past winter, they had 1,137 BMX riders from 39 states. Petty admits, “The VHC competes with everywhere east of the Mississippi. A center like this, it’s not just competing against North Carolina or Ohio or Maryland. You actually compete against the whole east coast.” He doesn’t hesitate to say that labor is their biggest struggle. Their Food & Beverage Manager recently had 11 scheduled appointments for one open position. All of them were no-shows. “The times we’re in right now