Many interesting places

A big part of this adventure has been to go to many interesting venues we might have not chosen as vacation destinations. We seem to be attracted to one-subject museums and parks. A coal mine museum, a potato museum, a fisheries museum, and, more recently, the Baseball Hall of Fame have all captured our attention. Some, like the Museum of Clean,  we went to because they were near where we were camped, while others like the Ford center in Detroit were the reason we were camped where we were. Our current stop, the Kentucky Horse Park, was one of these.

Located in Lexington Kentucky, it is a very large park dedicated to horses and all things about them. Opened in 1978, it was founded to  preserve the land and life style of horse country. In addition to museums, there are facilities for equestrian events and competitions.  In a day and a half, we saw polo being played, hunter/jumper competitions, an all breeds show, and a horse show that reminded us of a classic dog show with small speciality groups competing for ribbons and ranking that may have later led to a "best of show" competition.

Note: Something seems to be wrong with my camera, almost all of the pictures I took were fuzzy and out of focus. These are a few that were acceptable enough to post so someday I can look back on what we saw and did.

I got up early on our first morning there and walked over to watch a jumper competition. The sky was still pink with dawn light. 

I also watched some hunter-jumpers in another ring. The hunter riders are dressed more formally and their presentation is judged on style as well as time and successful jumps.

On our second day, one of the things we saw was a show of  several different breeds of horses at the "All Breeds" barn and show ring. Each presentation was accompanied by an announcer that told us about the breed and the individual mount.

After the show, the horses were brought to the rail for some "meet and greet" time. This horse was an English Shire. Bred as a large war horse his breed was also used as a draft animal. His breed is relatively rare today.

The exhibits in the Horse Museum were both colourful and informative. Not being "horse people" we learned a lot and enjoyed our time. One of my favourite exhibits was about the Arabian breed that is the foundation for our thoroughbreds. 

On Monday I went on a horse farm tour. Craig stayed with the Alfa because he had an appointment to have it washed.

The first stop on the tour was at a yearling thoroughbred auction. The sale prices for the horses we saw ranged from $5000 to $275,000. In the sales data sheet for the day before, the highest price listed was for over $500,000. These are untrained, untested, one year old horses! But their blood lines are all well documented. We were told the buyers could make careful examinations of the horses, their health records, and X-rays of their legs before the auction began.

Our bus driver and guide was a little hard to understand, and I don't remember all of the details he gave us.

We stopped at one very large farm where everything was unbelievably perfect. We were told a crew of 50 men did nothing but cut grass!

This building is actually a barn for stallions

The stalls were very roomy and extremely clean. This guy was taking a nap when we came into the barn. Each stallion has a three acre pasture where he spends much of his time when not working in the breeding shed.

We were told not to try to pet the stallions because they bite!

But we were able to pet some mares on our next stop.

Look at the beautiful wood this barn is made of. No expense is spared to house these beautiful, multi-million dollar ladies.

They all knew our driver and were very happy to see us coming into the barn, because he had given each of us a handful of peppermint candies to feed to the mares.

 

No nipped fingers! Their lips were as soft as velvet.

Sometimes I wish I had another whole lifetime to live. I feel like we just don't have enough time left in this one to do and see all the things we want to do and see. I am happy we got to spend a few days here in Kentucky, but I would also love to be able to be here in spring to see all the foals. I want to go back to the Maritime Provinces so we can go to Labrador in June to see the icebergs, and back to New England in the fall to view the autumn foliage. We may get to do these things, but if not, I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to take our RV across this beautiful country of ours. 

I guess if you live in a tower and have a gold plated commode, you would look down on the regular American people and think their lives are hopelessly desolate. I don't see our great country that way.

I think America is pretty great already and always has been. 

I do not want to go back to the way things were in the past. 

My life is good.