William Shatner's Kentucky horse racing career

“To boldly go where no man has gone before” — not at the helm of the USS Enterprise soaring through the galaxy, but behind the reins of a horse-drawn roadster in Louisville.

Actor William Shatner is best known for his role as Captain James T. Kirk on the original “Star Trek” TV series, but he’s also been a regular at Kentucky horse shows like the World Championship Horse Show and the Rock Creek Horse Show .

Saddle me up, Scotty

Shatner’s love for horses started on-set during the first season of “Star Trek,” back in 1966. He and co-star Leonard Nimoy — aka Mr. Spock — shared a quiet moment over breakfast with an animal actor during the filming of the episode “Shore Leave” at Vasquez Rocks .

“Now, I love the other kinds of location moments too,” Shatner said of the episode in an interview from his book . “But standing near a settled horse, with no pressure to do anything other than absorb the morning and eat the sandwich, that was magic.”

Shatner’s love for horses continued throughout his acting career. He even rode his own horse during the film “Star Trek Generations” + owned and operated horse farms.

Warp speed — straight to the Bluegrass State

Shatner won his first Kentucky show in the 1986 Kentucky State Fair Horse competition when he took first place in the Amateur Gentleman Five-Gaited category. He has competed regularly since then, as recently as last year when he was inducted into the Horse and Pony Hall of Fame at the age of 93 — talk about living long and prospering.

Photo courtesy World Championship Horse Show

He didn’t compete in this year’s state fair ( we checked ), but you can still spot James Tiberius right here in LOU — William Shatner’s face adorns a PassItOn billboard on Lexington Road extolling the reader to — what else — “Boldly go.”