We spent the day at the Kentucky Horse Park. We had intended
to camp at their RV park, but they were fully booked with a three-day event over
the weekend. For non-horse people, a three-day event is 1 day of dressage, 1day
of cross country jumping, and 1day of show jumping. The Americans call it stadium
jumping.
By the time we arrived, the event was over and the park was
quiet, except for all the packing up happening. We collected a park map and a
list of things to see and headed off. We walked around the massive arena space to
the Big Barn to see the draft horses.
Their pride attraction is Jace – a 19.1hh
big guy. We stood next to him in his stable, he is a very tall horse! Well over
our heads. As well as strolling around the barn and meeting the draft horses,
they had a demo of harnessing one up. The lass doing the narrating kept telling
us the horses were up to 18,000 pounds weight, not 1800 pounds. Made the
audience laugh. The harnessing demo was interesting to watch, its been a while
since we have seen a harness horse tacked up.
We then went up to the Hall of Champions to see some of their
famous horses. It didn’t mean anything to us Aussies, as we don’t follow the American
racing, but we had introductions to a champion pacer, a champion trotter and a
champion quarter horse. The quarter horses are raced in the US, over a quarter
mile (hence the name) as they are actually faster than a thoroughbred over that
distance, clocking in at around 50mph (t-breds at 45mph). The thoroughbred will
pick them off once they get over the quarter mile, as they are built to
maintain the speed over greater distances.
We they saw the Parade of Breeds. It was light on today – we
saw a Morgan, a Chincoteague, a Gypsy Vanner, and a Friesian. The riders were
in costume, and they circled the arena showing the different paces.
The little Morgan was hyped up and worked himself into a bit
of a sweat. The Morgan horse breed started with one little stallion called
Figure, who was stronger than a draft horse, faster than all the local horses,
and had an amazing temperament.
Next was the Chincoteague, another American breed of pony from
Assateague and Chincoteague Islands. They are reportedly descended from
shipwrecked horses and every year they are rounded up on Assateague Island, swum
to Chincoteague, and sold at auction.
Then the Gypsy Vanner, a distinctive pinto breed, smaller
than a draft horse but with the feathering of the fetlocks.
The Friesian was a lovely horse, bred for knights to ride
and now used in period movies for their striking looks.
After all the demos were done, we went to the Horse Museum.
Lots of exhibits were closed, it looked like they had some problems with the
roof. But we saw a historical timeline of horses, a carriage display, a big exhibit
devoted to the Arabian horse, horses in sport and a few other bits and pieces.
Driving back to the RV park was interesting. The old GPS was
specifically for RVs so it avoided narrow roads, tight turns etc. The new one
is a standard car one, so it took us down some pretty narrow roads again today.
Bit squeezy when big horse trucks come
the other way. The upside is that we got to see some stunning country. The road
wound through bright green paddocks with post and rail fencing. The paddocks had
sleepy foals flat out in the grass with mums hanging over them dozing on their feet.
In the distance white barns, and stone houses dotted the green fields, and
trees overhung the roadways and stone walls. Just picture perfect!
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