Every year the State Fairgrounds continues to upgrade and improve their facilities. This year they are working on a major renovation within the Teco Arena (Lykes) Building. Unfortunately, progress has not gone at the expected pace and it is in a state where it is not safe to have horses and spectators in the building for the duration of our show.

Therefore, we have rearranged many of the show locations in the schedule to accommodate not being able to use the Teco Arena. Because of the late notice, we did not want to change the timing of the classes since travel plans have been made. So for the most part, only the locations are revised.

All divisions will have a portion of their classes outside, and almost all warm-up areas will be outside. We realize this puts us at the mercy of Florida’s summer weather, and we will do our best to work around rain showers, potentially making further adjustments if needed. Plan ahead to have plenty of water on hand for you and your horses during warm-up and showing outside. We may also consider relaxing attire standards (no coats/jackets), so listen/watch for those announcements on your show day.

We will make use of the covered warm-up building adjacent to the East arena as much as feasible. So for many of the Covered East Ring classes, warmup will be in the West Arena area, with the entrance to the Covered Arena being on the announcer stand end, facing the grassy vendor area.

Another upgrade in progress is the Orient Road entrance/security gate. When you arrive at the Fairgrounds, the traffic pattern after turning in from Orient Road will be to immediately turn to the right to follow the road around to the “Red Gate” (as it’s known during the Fair). From that point you continue forward and turn right on the perimeter road as normal, and continue around to the Rabbit barn. The second page of the attached facility update doc has the route shown on a map. This procedure should be marked obviously, and will probably be the only option, because all traffic to the fairgrounds from that entrance follows the same flow.

 We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding through these changes. We have been lucky in the past that our schedule fits entirely in the indoor buildings, so now we will be more similar to many other shows and use all of the arenas available.