The museum's education coordinator, Kristin Roberts, is the perfect tour guide. She worked at an Orange County horse farm which bred and trained racehorses which gives her a keen understanding of the horseracing world and its history. She knows how they trot, how they canter, and whether a horse is a good choice to bid on at the yearly auctions. Roberts has also created new programs for senior citizen groups, and adults, and children with special needs which combines a lesson, a lunch, and a craft and that has proven to be a real first place winner.

 

Everyone can get something from a visit to the Harness Racing museum, she says. "I've done a program for children where they learn about perspective, and then will practice drawing horses running off into the distance, and so must be drawn smaller," says Roberts. Or seniors will have a discussion about the Currier & Ives trotting prints, which were a popular form of artwork in the 19th century, and then color their own take-home picture. For those with special needs, she will lead a discussion about how a horse is prepared in the morning, and then quiz the visitors on their morning routine. With all that the museum encompasses, there's virtually no limit to what a visitor can experience.

 

Among the highlights is the interactive computer touch screens that provide additional information about a particular horse or trainer; having a picture taken adorned with racing gear while sitting aboard a race sulky behind a life-size trotter. There's a timeline of harness racing set up in a renovated turn-of-the-century stable, and of course, a talking horse. After a meandering tour, guests are now ready to enter the world's only 3D harness Racing simulator theatre for the eight-minute movie that puts the theatre-goer into the sulky to see and feel what a harness racing driver experiences during a race. Guests sit in seats that rumble and gently tilt, and feel the wind in their hair as their horse races to the finish. It's just a hoot.

 

There was a real "a-ha" moment during the tour when Roberts explained how a horse race was instrumental in the advancement of Hollywood and the moving picture. In order to settle a $25,000 bet about whether a horse had all four hooves off the ground as it trotted, world famous photographer Eaweard Muybridge spent years using his skills to create a series of photos that caught a horse in motion. Through his "zoopraxiscope," it was proven that all four hooves do leave the ground at one time and a model is on display so guests can see a copy of the footage that won the bet. So, even though Thomas Edison is credited with creating the first movie, it was the invention of Muybridge that pioneered the flicks we view today.

 

As you can see, a visit to the Harness Racing Hall of Fame and Museum is, like that phrase from a movie classic, "like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get."

Sincerely, 

M.J. Goff

Assistant to the County Historian

 

Upcoming events include:

July 3 -Annual Hall of Fame induction dinner

Call (845) 294-6330 for more information, or visit  harnessmuseum.com.

The museum is open 7 days a week from 10am - 5pm*. Admission is free, thanks to the support of the  U.S. Trotting Association.

(*closed on Christmas, New Years' Day, Easter and Thanksgiving.)