Locust Trace AgriScience Center

The Kentucky Equine Education Project (KEEP) Foundation has launched the Gateway Education Program, a job shadow opportunity for Fayette County high school seniors. The program allows students the opportunity to observe professionals in the equine industry and experience a day in the life of that operation while gaining a real life understanding of careers, career pathways, and the education and skills needed. Students with little to no experience with horses will attend an orientation session at the Kentucky Equine Adoption Center. They will participate in an introductory level equine curriculum...

With an eye on bolstering the available pool of labor, several Kentucky horse farms, along with other industry organizations, have come together and donated $322,000 to the Fayette County Public Schools, which will be creating an all-encompassing equine training program for middle school students and high school students attending the Locust Trace AgriScience Center in Lexington. While Fayette County might seem like a natural breeding ground for future farm employees that wasn't necessarily the case, said Chauncey Morris, the executive director of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, which spearheaded the effort...