A Lake Placid horse show competitor rides My Touch during a Hunter event at the Lake Placid Horse Show on Tuesday. (Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

LAKE PLACID — While the 56th annual Lake Placid Horse Show kicked off on Tuesday at the North Elba Show Grounds, the show’s Communications Manager, Marty Bauman, said things look different this year.

The grounds underwent massive renovations over the past year that Bauman said are world-class and are better for both the riders and horses.

“We flip-flopped the hunter rings and the jumper ring,” he said. “We’ve added some riding spaces and we use it in the warm-up rings and everything. That was very important to exhibitors, you know. These horses are quite valuable; they’re expensive and they need to have high-quality footing, so the horses are safe when they jump these fences.”

While the grounds are a bit different, the events remain the same as the Lake Placid Horse Show will continue through Sunday, June 29 and it will be followed by the I Love New York Horse Show from July 1 to 6. The two shows will be highlighted by Grands Prix, as this week’s big event has a $100,000 purse, and next Grand Prix has a $75,000 prize.

Last year, the Lake Placid Grand Prix was won by Brian Moggre, while Laura Chapot won the I Love New York Grand Prix. Both are expected to return to the events this year, according to Bauman.

He added that the grounds are now International Federation Equestre (FEI) sanctioned. This means that for these sanctioned events, riders will earn points for FEI world rankings, which allows them to draw in some top riders.

The grands prix are one of over 100 classes of competition featured each week. The action will start at 8 a.m. each show day with classes running until approximately 5 p.m.

There are about 1,148 stalls and approximately 850 horses for this week’s show, according to organizers. While in the past, they’ve had higher numbers, Bauman said they had a lot more interest this year and had to put around 400 individuals on a wait list.

“We cut it off, we didn’t just take everyone, even though every extra horse that comes is more entry fees, more money for the horse show,” he said. “But you don’t want to be showing till 7 and 8 o’clock at night.”

Bauman said it’s important to make sure that everything is wrapped up around 5 p.m.

“So the exhibitor can get into town and enjoy the town, enjoy the lakes and also go shopping, go out to dinner,” he said. “So the town benefits more, the exhibitors like it better and we have a great horse show.”

The two-week-long event will also bring back some of its side shows, including the Doggie Costume Contest, which will return on Sunday, July 6 at noon during the I Love New York Horse Show.

Admission to the Lake Placid Horse Shows is $8 on weekdays — except for Tuesday, when the event is free — and $10 on weekends. Children under the age of 12 are admitted free when accompanied by an adult. Tickets will be available at the entrance gate.

For more information, contact the Lake Placid Horse Show Association at 518-523-9625 or visit lakeplacidhorseshows.org.