A five-year-old Saddlebred named Mr. Spots died of electrocution Wednesday evening at Kentucky State Fair, and Lisa Lesch said the horse began jumping and running in circles in his stall before he was shocked. Kentucky Venues said remaining animals in Tent F and Tent E were evacuated, while electrical inspectors kept checking the temporary setup across the property.
Lesch said the stable was setting up decorations while the horses were feeding around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. She said Mr. Spots first acted like he was getting bit, then repeated the same behavior after she led him out and brought him back in. She called the on-site vet, and said the whole scene lasted 10 minutes.
Kentucky Exposition Center animals moved
Kentucky Venues said a horse stabled in Tent F on the Kentucky Exposition Center grounds died before the opening of the 2026 Kentucky State Fair. The organization said all remaining animals in Tent F and Tent E were safely evacuated out of an abundance of caution, and that an investigation into the incident is underway.
“We are grateful to the exhibitors, trainers, and staff who moved quickly and calmly to get these horses to safety. Our focus remains the welfare of every animal on these grounds,” Kentucky Venues said. It also said electrical inspectors are continuing inspections across the property to verify compliance with stated policies.
Department of Housing oversight
The state’s Department of Housing, Building and Construction inspects and permits the temporary power, and a spokesperson said the department is working with fair officials to learn what went wrong. Lesch said workers began checking and testing all the temporary power boxes after the barn was evacuated.
She also said a fair official confiscated a power cable she had taped up on top of the stalls. A groom at another stable farther down reported being shocked while trying to plug a cord into the power box before Mr. Spots began acting up, and another stable in the temporary barn next door had five fans short out.
Mr. Spots cable short
Inspectors preliminarily believe that a cable not provided by the show had a short in it, while they wait on necropsy results and check cables and other electrical equipment to make sure what is plugged in matches what the equipment can handle. Lesch said Mr. Spots was electrocuted when his horseshoe-clad hoof stepped on a metal crossbar.
The unanswered question now is what specific electrical fault caused the horse’s electrocution, and the inspection process is aimed at tracing that fault through the cable, the power boxes, and the equipment in Tent F and Tent E.
