STARKVILLE — After 24 years at the reins, Mississippi Horse Park Executive Director Bricklee Miller announced that she is retiring from her position at the end of June.
Miller thanked the city’s board of aldermen during its Tuesday night meeting for the opportunity to serve the horse park and said she is proud of how much growth the facility has seen during her tenure.
“Under my leadership, we have had 1,440,000 people come to the events, and … those events have generated a $63 million economic impact for our area,” Miller told the board. “… So there again, we’re growing, thriving, not slowing down. People want to come because it’s just an absolutely amazing place.”
Miller, who also served as the District 4 Supervisor for Oktibbeha County from 2015 to 2023, became facility director of the horse park in 2000.
Since then, she said the park has seen more than 60,000 visitors annually with an average of 50 events each year, like the Rotary Classic Rodeo, the Lucky Dog Barrel Race and the Golden Triangle Kennel Club of Mississippi Dog Show.
The horse park is funded by a partnership between Starkville, Oktibbeha County and Mississippi State University. To Miller, the partnership has been “a fairytale story that few people across the country can tell.”
“There have been two-part partnerships (in our community), but it was the very first three-part partnership between the city, county and university,” she said.
Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins, who also represents Ward 6, said the park’s success can be largely attributed to Miller’s leadership.
“Our city has benefitted from your leadership, your service, your commitment and your dedication enormously,” he said during the Tuesday meeting. “As you mentioned, the horse park has become a landmark, and you have had the can-do attitude at all times. … The facility is a thriving facility because of your leadership.”
Mayor Lynn Spruill echoed Perkins’ sentiment, adding that under Miller’s direction the park has also become an economic driver for both the city and county.
“She has brought an incredible amount of enthusiasm to a project that is brand new,” Spruill told The Dispatch. “She has put her heart and soul into it, and you see it in every event and in every aspect of the things it has brought to the city. From an economic development standpoint, it has been … a driver, and we have been the recipients.”
Miller shared that when the horse park opened in 1999, Poor House Road was unpaved. At the time, the neighboring Sunnyland Estates subdivision contained only one house.
Once the road was paved, the subdivision developed. The facility also drove the expansion of natural gas distribution and fiber internet in the area, she said.
“It’s just a way to show that a facility in an area can be an economic developer too, not just a driver,” Miller said. “And that’s what the horse park has done.”
The park has received numerous accolades during Miller’s term, including being named National Producer of the Year by Better Barrel Races and being a six-time recipient of the Justin Boots Best Footing Award. The facility’s success, Miller said, has boosted the horse park to the same level as larger facilities across the country.
“We have 100 acres,” she said. “We do everything in house … (Other facilities) are not better because they’re bigger. It’s the quality of what we offer here in this community.”
Following her annual review of the park, Miller requested $50,000 from the board for the next year of operational costs for the last time. Miller told The Dispatch MSU has not yet named an interim director for the facility.
There will be a reception honoring Miller’s 24 years of service from 4 to 6 p.m. June 27 at Harveys in Starkville.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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