The Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event is an eventing competition held at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky on the last weekend of April. Horse and rider duos compete at the highest level in the sport under the CCI5*-L designation. Prize money of $400,000 is distributed among the top placings.<\/p>\n
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Although the event’s name continues to reflect its roots as a three-day competition, the Kentucky Three-Day Event currently takes place over four days (Thursday through Sunday). Due to a large number of entries, both Thursday and Friday are devoted to Dressage. Cross-Country is on Saturday, and show jumping is on Sunday. Join us for this exciting weekend of world-class equestrian competition.<\/p>","excerpt":"","slug":"the-kentucky-three-day-event","image":{"url":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Defender-Ky3Day.jpg","id":12091,"extension":"jpg","width":1535,"height":496,"filesize":129048,"sizes":{"medium":{"width":300,"height":97,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":8544,"url":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Defender-Ky3Day-300x97.jpg"},"large":{"width":1024,"height":331,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":40577,"url":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Defender-Ky3Day-1024x331.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"width":150,"height":150,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":5842,"url":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Defender-Ky3Day-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"width":768,"height":248,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","filesize":27946,"url":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Defender-Ky3Day-768x248.jpg"}}},"all_day":true,"start_date":"2026-04-23 00:00:00","start_date_details":{"year":"2026","month":"04","day":"23","hour":"00","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"end_date":"2026-04-26 23:59:59","end_date_details":{"year":"2026","month":"04","day":"26","hour":"23","minutes":"59","seconds":"59"},"utc_start_date":"2026-04-23 00:00:00","utc_start_date_details":{"year":"2026","month":"04","day":"23","hour":"00","minutes":"00","seconds":"00"},"utc_end_date":"2026-04-26 23:59:59","utc_end_date_details":{"year":"2026","month":"04","day":"26","hour":"23","minutes":"59","seconds":"59"},"timezone":"UTC+0","timezone_abbr":"UTC+0","cost":"","cost_details":{"currency_symbol":"$","currency_code":"USD","currency_position":"prefix","values":[]},"website":"https:\/\/www.kentuckythreedayevent.com\/","show_map":true,"show_map_link":true,"hide_from_listings":false,"sticky":false,"featured":false,"categories":[],"tags":[],"venue":{"id":5521,"author":"2","status":"publish","date":"2023-07-24 18:19:42","date_utc":"2023-07-24 18:19:42","modified":"2023-08-10 19:49:59","modified_utc":"2023-08-10 19:49:59","url":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/venue\/parkwide\/","venue":"Parkwide","description":"
Limited only by your imagination, the Kentucky Horse Park has\u00a0more than\u00a01,200 acres of beautiful Bluegrass and can host events of all types. From weddings to dog shows, let our Non-Equine Special Event staff help you tailor your event. We also have indoor facilities to host cocktail receptions, meetings or small banquets.<\/p>\n
The park has indoor facilities as large as the Alltech Arena to accommodate thousands, or\u00a0conference rooms to host a dozen people,\u00a0as well as\u00a0acreage across two Kentucky counties that allows us to never fill up, so no event is too big or too small.\u00a0Our event staff have a variety of turn-key event options ready to go to make planning easy, and they are happy to sit down with clients to customize itineraries and menus for truly memorable visits to the park.<\/p>","slug":"parkwide","address":"4089 Iron Works Pkwy","city":"Lexington","country":"United States","state":"KY","zip":"40511","phone":"859-233-4303","website":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/events\/your-event\/available-facilities\/","stateprovince":"KY","json_ld":{"@type":"Place","name":"Parkwide","description":"<p>Limited only by your imagination, the Kentucky Horse Park has\u00a0more than\u00a01,200 acres of beautiful Bluegrass and can host events of all types. From weddings to dog shows, let our Non-Equine […]<\/p>\\n","url":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/venue\/parkwide\/","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"4089 Iron Works Pkwy","addressLocality":"Lexington","addressRegion":"KY","postalCode":"40511","addressCountry":"United States"},"telephone":"859-233-4303","sameAs":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/events\/your-event\/available-facilities\/"},"show_map":true,"show_map_link":true,"global_id":"kyhorsepark.com?id=5521","global_id_lineage":["kyhorsepark.com?id=5521"]},"organizer":[{"id":11503,"author":"63","status":"publish","date":"2023-11-19 15:19:25","date_utc":"0000-00-00 00:00:00","modified":"2023-11-19 15:19:25","modified_utc":"0000-00-00 00:00:00","url":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/organizer\/equestrian-events-inc\/","organizer":"Equestrian Events Inc.","slug":"equestrian-events-inc","website":"https:\/\/www.kentuckythreedayevent.com\/equestrianeventsinc","json_ld":{"@type":"Person","name":"Equestrian Events Inc.","description":"","url":"https:\/\/www.kentuckythreedayevent.com\/equestrianeventsinc","telephone":"","email":"","sameAs":"https:\/\/www.kentuckythreedayevent.com\/equestrianeventsinc"},"global_id":"kyhorsepark.com?id=11503","global_id_lineage":["kyhorsepark.com?id=11503"]}],"custom_fields":[],"json_ld":{"@context":"http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"Event","name":"The Kentucky Three-Day Event","description":"<p>The Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event is an eventing competition held at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky on the last weekend of April. Horse and rider duos compete at […]<\/p>\\n","image":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/Defender-Ky3Day.jpg","url":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/event\/the-kentucky-three-day-event\/","eventAttendanceMode":"https:\/\/schema.org\/OfflineEventAttendanceMode","eventStatus":"https:\/\/schema.org\/EventScheduled","startDate":"2026-04-23T00:00:00+00:00","endDate":"2026-04-26T23:59:59+00:00","location":{"@type":"Place","name":"Parkwide","description":"<p>Limited only by your imagination, the Kentucky Horse Park has\u00a0more than\u00a01,200 acres of beautiful Bluegrass and can host events of all types. From weddings to dog shows, let our Non-Equine […]<\/p>\\n","url":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/venue\/parkwide\/","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","streetAddress":"4089 Iron Works Pkwy","addressLocality":"Lexington","addressRegion":"KY","postalCode":"40511","addressCountry":"United States"},"telephone":"859-233-4303","sameAs":"https:\/\/kyhorsepark.com\/events\/your-event\/available-facilities\/"},"organizer":{"@type":"Person","name":"Equestrian Events Inc.","description":"","url":"https:\/\/www.kentuckythreedayevent.com\/equestrianeventsinc","telephone":"","email":"","sameAs":"https:\/\/www.kentuckythreedayevent.com\/equestrianeventsinc"},"performer":"Organization"},"is_virtual":false,"virtual_url":null,"virtual_video_source":""}