Chris and I were excited to get up early and go to the Kentucky Horse Park. We were able to purchase discount tickets at the camp store and we walked about a mile to get to the main gate-it was a nice walk through a cross-country course. Our first stop was the Saddlebred Museum. We learned a lot about this breed which has been a popular breed in this area and Saddlebreds had been sold here in the past. Trying to make good time, we did not eat breakfast before leaving. We were lucky to hitch a ride on the KHP golf cart to the far corner Farmhouse Café. It's nice that there is cart to move people across the 1500 acre park. Breakfast was relaxing and we consumed a lot of caffeine to power us through the day, healthy-I know.
We watched the Horses of the World show where they parade different breeds around this arena and talk about each one and you can visit with the horses and take pictures before and after-I guess you can tell who was excited about the KHP and visiting with the horses ;-)
Everything was very hands-on and Chris and I really took advantage of all the kid-friendly activities(as you will see below). The in-house farrier was there and it was interesting to talk with her. There was a very small tack shop on the grounds. The kids' barn was neat and a kid really could learn all about a horse here. We walked through The Big Barn which is considered the largest in North America. This barn is over 75 ft. wide and over 450 feet long. The inside was beautiful. They used to hold auctions in the center and there were less stalls than you'd imagine; they were all at least 15 x 15. However, the barn was made this long so horses could get up to full speed down the length of the barn during auctions.
Another neat show we saw was in the Champions' Barn. This barn housed five or so famous racehorses that were in retirement. Our favorite horse was Cigar. Cigar held the record for most money won for over a decade-he won 10 million during his racing career-wow! Funny Cide, the Kentucky Derby winner lives there but was elsewhere for the week. It was a small barn from the early 1900s. You sat around a small ring and a man would tell you about the horse getting ready to come in, show a video of his wins and then the horse would be brought in and walked around for a couple minutes so people could take pictures.
We took a ride in a horse-pulled trolley and walked through the International Horse Museum on the grounds; it was enormous. It's interesting to think that so many breeds we have today including Percherons-a huge draft horse, come from the Arabian. There was a rather large section on the Arabian.
Our last stop was Man o' War's final resting place. Now, I've always been interested in this legendary horse because he was owned by a man named Samuel Riddle. Sam Riddle lived about 5 minutes from where I grew up and rode horses with my great aunt who lived in the same area and shared similar interests. There is a development now where his farm stood and all the streets are named after his famous horses as well as other famous horses like, Secretariat, Whirlaway, Man o' War, War Admiral, etc. Man o' War was so impressive that when he died, mourners came to his casket four days after he died and gave him one last "pat" before they lowered him into his grave, yes, the horse had a casket, and a funeral. The flags were flown at half staff in Lexington after he died. Man o' War's jockey and a couple of his sons are buried around him, too. The burial area is beautiful and very peaceful. Hopefully someday, we'll stop breeding racehorses to have such thin bones and we can have greats like Man o' War and Secretariat again.
I can honestly say, Chris and I had a great time-I may have enjoyed it more though.
We walked back to our campsite, although we were really hoping someone would give us a ride back after walking all day!
I didn't find any type of souvenir at the tack shop in the KHP, their selection was small, so I wanted to head into one of the Lexington tack shops to find something special for Teddy! We made it to one before they closed at 5 and had a really nice conversation with the owners. I bought him treats and we conversed for awhile longer. They work with eventing and told stories of people who come in and cannot purchase anything without texting pictures to their trainers because they don't know what to buy and they all have Hispanic workers who do everything for them. A couple girls in this category came in while we were there. It's a shame. Kids need to pick up poop and feed horses, groom them, watch the vet, farrier, dentist, etc. and learn everything they can about their horse. They should really get into the nitty gritty to appreciate what they have as well as work for their money or lessons or what have you (in my opinion). I think it's safe to say only a small percentage of kids are like this today when it comes to horses. We saw a lot of kids out after 10 or 11 PM, young kids, driving golf carts with a bunch of kids on them, in the road and they just didn't care and neither did the parents. A lot of the kids around the KHP did not seem to appreciate what they had. Oh well :) We had a couple good laughs and left the tack shop.
We ate dinner at a sushi restaurant east of Lexington; it was very yummy! This was our last night. We had a campfire and went to bed to get up and leave at 6 AM. Tomorrow will be my last post :-(
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