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The mane event

Two weeks of Lake Placid Horse Shows began this week

Caroline McLeese rides Casquido 4 on the opening day of the Lake Placid Horse Show on Tuesday, June 28 at the North Elba Show Grounds. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

LAKE PLACID — The Lake Placid Horse Show kicked off its week-long event on Tuesday, June 28, at the North Elba Show Grounds with the jumper and hunter competitions.

The show will end on Sunday, July 3, and will be followed by the I Love New York Horse Show from July 5 to 10. The two shows will be highlighted by a $100,000 Grand Prix; both events last year were won by Alex Matz, who is expected to return this year.

Among those returning is Laura Chapot, a two-time winner of both the Lake Placid Grand Prix and I Love New York Grand Prix.

The horse shows offer more than 100 classes of competition each week for riders at all levels. The competition starts at 8 a.m. each day and ends around 5 p.m.

“Classes are pretty much the same,” Lake Placid Horse Show Association director Lori Martin said. “The only two new things — that are helping the exhibitors immensely — we built new wash racks, where they bathe the horse and we have all new electric on the grounds from the LEAF grant.”

Last year, the Lake Placid Horse Shows featured around 950 horses with 1,450 stalls. This year, however, there will be fewer horses.

Martin said the 2022 horse shows will have about 800 horses and about 1,240 stalls. The Lake Placid Horse Show will have more stalls than horses because some horses are bigger and require a stall and a half and some people like to have more than one stall, according to Martin.

“Our numbers are a little low. For what reason, we’re not sure,” Martin said. “It could be competing shows. Could be the economy. Could be the price of diesel.”

Despite having fewer horses, Martin expects the event to run smoothly.

“Our gate revenue and the attendance have been pretty much consistent over the 29 years I’ve been here,” Martin said. “The revenue is very close from year-to-year. We usually figure 10,00 visitors over each week.”

Along with the horse shows themselves, the Doggie Costume contest will return on Saturday, July 9 during the I Love New York Horse Show.

Admission to the Lake Placid Horse Shows is $3 on weekdays and $5 on weekends. Children under the age of 12 are admitted free when accompanied by an adult. Tickets are available at the entrance gate.

There are not any bleachers this year at the Lake Placid Horse Shows; therefore, spectators should bring their own lawn chairs.

For more information, visit lakeplacidhorseshows.org.

Starting at $1.44/week.

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