Giddy-up, Kentucky!

 2 Jun 2022--Got here to Lexington this past Monday to visit "an 'almost' bucket list item" of Jeannie's, the Kentucky Horse Farm.  We went to the farm on Tuesday only to find out that it was closed...lol...but the young girl at the entrance said we could go in and look around.

 

On our way to the farm, we saw this guy helping a mother duck and her little chicks cross the road...so cute!

For our short stay in the park, we got to see some people, actually quite a few people, practicing with their horses...these are all Western Quarter Horses, bizarrely trained to always keep their heads down.  Whether they are walking, slowly trotting, or doing some sort of fancy 3 step, notice that they all have their heads down the whole time.  They seem horribly depressed-looking to me, so I don't know why anyone would want to train their horse to look like this, but I guess it's popular in horse circles.  lol

So after a short while watching the depressed horses-lol-we headed to downtown Lexington.  There really wasn't much to see, and there were surprisingly few people walking about.  This is the County Court House, built in the early 1800s and since refurbished.  It was the site of both the slave auctions and the whipping post, for those slaves deemed needing it.  

  

  

A couple interesting pics...curly-cue light posts, a rainbow street crossing, an eternal flame for firefighters who lost their lives in the line of duty, and the the center-most point of the city.  Lastly, the Lexington sign at the base of the court house.  (Clearly, we didn't fix the phone for a selfie before realizing all the letters appear backwards if you don't.) 

    

In the visitor's center we learned that 95% of the world's bourbon is made in Kentucky, and that Mary Todd Lincoln was born here...just a mile or two from this spot.  And who doesn't love a painted horse!  Especially with Jeannie peaking over the back! lol

   

A few things stand out when you drive around this area.  One is how many fences, and double fences, line these roads and fields.  Lexington is known as the Horse Capital of the World, with 450 working horse farms, and every farm has multiples of these fences to not only keep the horses from getting out into the street, but to separate the paddocks that keep certain horses separate from others.  We were told that these fences cost about $18,000 per mile to build, so with miles and miles of them in just this area alone, it is a considerable sum spent on each farm. 

 

These stone fences line lots of roads and properties, sometimes for miles, and date back mostly to the early and mid-1800s.  If you click on the pic to make it bigger, you will see that there is no mortar holding them together.  They were built by Scotch-Irish stonemason immigrants, who later taught slaves how to do it.  The stones are limestone, which brings up a 3rd thing that stands out here.  Lexington and the surrounding area sits on limestone, and whatever minerals that limestone puts out leads to incredibly green grass as far as the eye can see.  It is really, really pretty here.

 

So on Tuesday we finally make it to the Kentucky Horse Farm.

 

There are different barns showing off different horses, so our 1st stop was the Hall of Champions.  These 3 horses are all champions, starting with "Western Dreamer", who is now 28 yrs old and the only gelding to have won the Triple Crown.  The 2nd horse is "Mr. Muscleman", a trotter who won over $3 million dollars in his career.  And the 3rd horse is "Win the West", a pacer who took in almost $4 million dollars in his career.  Trotters and Pacers are the horses that pull the little buggy behind them with the rider in it.  The difference between them is that the trotter runs like we would--when his right front foot is out his left back foot is back--so like your arms and legs go opposite when you walk or run.  A Pacer on the other hand, puts both his front and back leg on each side out at the same time--so his right front and right back legs are hitting the ground at the same time.  They are actually bred this way to keep the trait going. 

   

Next we went to the Parade of Breeds show, which had a little more action.  They brought out about 6 different horses, but I only included these four.  1st up is the Chincoteaque Pony, a pony native to a small island off the coast of Virginia, and then we had a Halflinger--a very pretty mare from Austria. 

 

The best were the next 2.  First up is Frodo, a Friesian horse from the Netherlands...here's a shout-out to our friends Ellen and Jolanda from Amsterdam!  He was really big, dwarfing the 1st 2 horses, and looked beautiful when they got him running around.

 

And this was the best.  This is an English Shire--a war horse going back to medieval times when the knights would fight.  It is the biggest of the draft horses...fun to watch!

  

Me, a little nervous, petting Frodo.

 

Off to the draft horse barn.  Along with the English Shire, draft horses were originally bred for warfare...the armor worn by the soldiers used to be really heavy so the horses had to be able to bear that weight.  Here you see Cathy with a 1600 lb Clydesdale, the most well known horse, and then I am with a Belgian, who because of it's work ethic is the most numerous in North America and Europe.  He weighs in at 2300 lbs!

  

 A couple of the coaches displayed.

  

Finally, we went to one of the 2 museums, this one being the "International Museum of the Horse".  There was simply too much to take in here.  I think there were 3 floors of exhibits, but by the time we got to the final floor we were pretty tapped out.  (We are definitely getting old...lol)  So instead of posting all the pics I took, I'll just leave you with a few fun facts.

This is statue of SSgt Reckless, a much decorated horse who served in the Marines in the Korean War, and is buried at Camp Pendleton.  Next we learn the origins of why we drive on the right side of the road.  Look at the picture and see where the driver of the coach is sitting.  He sat on the last horse on the left, and therefore could see anyone coming in the other direction.

 

I don't know how I missed this, but according to this telling Paul Revere never rode into Concord at all.  A  Dr. Samuel Prescott is the one who warned the Minutemen that the British were coming.  I am the only one who either forgot this, or never actually knew it? lol

  

I would have bet big money that it was a man who invented the side saddle for women...lol...but, alas, it was Anne of Bohemia back in 1381 who did.  And who knew that they milk horses in Kazakhstan?  Finally, it's interesting that for the 1st Kentucky Derby in 1875, 13 of the 15 riders were African Americans, including the winner!

   

A sampling of dresses worn at the Derby over the years.

Last of the fun facts:  Did you know that horses get new shoes every 6-8 weeks?  Or that they eat about 20 lbs of hay and grain a day, and drink 6-10 gallons of water a day?   

We were all pretty tired after our day here--if you ever come plan on a 2-day stop just to get thru the museums. lol  

Tomorrow we are touring the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (their name for it, not mine--lol)  The name alone demands we visit it. lol.  Stay tuned!