Tag Archives: Kentucky

Kentucky – First the Horses. . .

We just returned from a driving trip to Kentucky.  What a beautiful state.  And, when you have horses, bourbon and quilts – how can you go wrong??

The horses were at Churchill Downs in Louisville.

We missed the horses exercising, but had a great tour of the Barns.  First, we say the working horses, those horses that are the outriders, that the trainers ride, etc.  These are th bigger, or older, or retired horses that now do a different kind of work from the race horses.
Then we went to the barns for the race horses.  They were being cooled down after their workouts.  It was a great tour.

 

The tour was an extra fee above the admission to the Kentucky Derby Museum, but was well worth it.  Especially if you are a horsy person like me.

Then, we went to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.

We arrived when they opened at 9:00 am and were heading back to the car at 4:30 as they were getting ready to close.  We had seen the horses in the Hall of Champions, both thoroughbreds and standardbreds.  We went to a Paso Fino Grand Champion Show.  This is a gaited breed, very high stepping.  We learned alot about a breed we were unfamiliar with.  We also saw both Horses of the World show.  The black Fresian above was one of the stars.  Beautiful horse.  And there is the Museum of the Horse and the American Standardbred Museum.  We missed the last one; we ran out of time and steam.
I would highly recommend both Louisville and Lexington.  The food is great and the people very friendly.  Great places to explore.