BERLIN– A new series of historic horse tours will celebrate the $500 million Maryland equine industry.
The Maryland Horse Industry Board, a program of the Maryland Department of Agriculture, unveiled the Maryland Historic Horse Trail initiative at Ocean Downs on Sunday, July 13.
“The state was founded in 1633 and horses came here literally from the beginning,” said Ross Peddicord, executive director of the Horse Industry Board. “Literally the history of Maryland mirrors the history of horses in Maryland.
“The feeling was a lot of our horse history is being lost – how do we recapture that?” Peddicord continued. “We have 24 people on our horse history committee, and we started inventorying all the sites in Maryland where horses played a big part in the settlement of the state. There were so many; we worked with the state office of tourism to break it into sections.”
The first section, focusing on Worcester and Wicomico counties, was dubbed “Horses at the Beach.”
“They identified 11 sites and over the past year they collected the vintage photos, they wrote the background stories, they researched it, and we gave them money for a website and for brochures,” Peddicord said.
Sites include Assateague National Seashore, Ocean Downs Harness Racing, the Atlantic Hotel in Berlin and Glen Riddle Farm. The farm, once the home of Man O War and War Admiral, is now a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.
Former Annapolis Mayor Ellen Moyer, Fager’s Island Managing Director of Hotels Angela Reynolds and Worrall Publications editor Margaret Worrall did the majority of the legwork, identifying sites and writing all of the text for the self-guided tours.
“We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the trail would look like, where it would go and how to tell the story of the horse in a lot of different ways,” Moyer said. “It’s not just about horseracing – it goes back 300 years. It tells, at all of these different sites, different stories about how the horse was so important to our culture and to our economic stability.”
Berlin Mayor Gee Williams, who has worked on the project for more than a year, said the program had “unlimited possibilities.”
“Many people are not aware of how deeply rooted horses are to our economy and culture in Worcester County,” he said. “This will hopefully open up a whole new world of opportunities, particularly where there are people that love learning about it. I always say the earliest settlers in Worcester County were the ponies at Assateague – nobody can trace our heritage earlier than that.”
The “grassroots” group will have a presence at the Maryland Horse Forum on Aug. 7 and at the Maryland State Fair. Signage and a phone app are in development.
“There are all sorts of trails in Maryland; there’s a wine trail, there’s the Civil War trail and there’s even an ice cream trail,” said Peddicord. “It’s a way of connecting the dots and this is an effort to do this.
“Our goal is to get new people involved in the horse industry – bring new people in to get more seats in saddles and more seats as spectators at our horse events.” Peddicord continued. “We want to grow the industry and make more people aware of us.”
The move is also the first step of a larger, statewide initiative.
“This is a model and we hope our experience and what we were able to do in Worcester County can be replicated in other parts of the state,” Moyer said. “Cecil County, Baltimore County and Southern Maryland all have great histories of the horse.”
For more information visit www.mdhistorichorsetrails.com.
The Maryland Horse Industry Board, a program of the Maryland Department of Agriculture, unveiled the Maryland Historic Horse Trail initiative at Ocean Downs on Sunday, July 13.
“The state was founded in 1633 and horses came here literally from the beginning,” said Ross Peddicord, executive director of the Horse Industry Board. “Literally the history of Maryland mirrors the history of horses in Maryland.
“The feeling was a lot of our horse history is being lost – how do we recapture that?” Peddicord continued. “We have 24 people on our horse history committee, and we started inventorying all the sites in Maryland where horses played a big part in the settlement of the state. There were so many; we worked with the state office of tourism to break it into sections.”
The first section, focusing on Worcester and Wicomico counties, was dubbed “Horses at the Beach.”
“They identified 11 sites and over the past year they collected the vintage photos, they wrote the background stories, they researched it, and we gave them money for a website and for brochures,” Peddicord said.
Sites include Assateague National Seashore, Ocean Downs Harness Racing, the Atlantic Hotel in Berlin and Glen Riddle Farm. The farm, once the home of Man O War and War Admiral, is now a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.
Former Annapolis Mayor Ellen Moyer, Fager’s Island Managing Director of Hotels Angela Reynolds and Worrall Publications editor Margaret Worrall did the majority of the legwork, identifying sites and writing all of the text for the self-guided tours.
“We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the trail would look like, where it would go and how to tell the story of the horse in a lot of different ways,” Moyer said. “It’s not just about horseracing – it goes back 300 years. It tells, at all of these different sites, different stories about how the horse was so important to our culture and to our economic stability.”
Berlin Mayor Gee Williams, who has worked on the project for more than a year, said the program had “unlimited possibilities.”
“Many people are not aware of how deeply rooted horses are to our economy and culture in Worcester County,” he said. “This will hopefully open up a whole new world of opportunities, particularly where there are people that love learning about it. I always say the earliest settlers in Worcester County were the ponies at Assateague – nobody can trace our heritage earlier than that.”
The “grassroots” group will have a presence at the Maryland Horse Forum on Aug. 7 and at the Maryland State Fair. Signage and a phone app are in development.
“There are all sorts of trails in Maryland; there’s a wine trail, there’s the Civil War trail and there’s even an ice cream trail,” said Peddicord. “It’s a way of connecting the dots and this is an effort to do this.
“Our goal is to get new people involved in the horse industry – bring new people in to get more seats in saddles and more seats as spectators at our horse events.” Peddicord continued. “We want to grow the industry and make more people aware of us.”
The move is also the first step of a larger, statewide initiative.
“This is a model and we hope our experience and what we were able to do in Worcester County can be replicated in other parts of the state,” Moyer said. “Cecil County, Baltimore County and Southern Maryland all have great histories of the horse.”
For more information visit www.mdhistorichorsetrails.com.