Horsing Around

Good morning, my friends. It’s our last morning in Kentucky. We’ll be heading due west when we get underway, crossing back into Illinois (and into the central time zone), and then backtracking a little bit to a COE (Corps of Engineers) park for the night. From there, we'll move on to Missouri the next day. It’s going to be a lot of driving over the next couple of days. It’ll be a good test for my seat cushion. My hip is doing better. I thought I felt a little twinge yesterday while we were out, and so I took a dose of naproxen. It feels fine while I’m sitting here.

So let’s talk about horses, shall we? No, that is not a horse. It’s Smitty. Please. Where are your manners? 

Sadie was soaking up the morning sunshine after a frightful night of rain.

We took off fairly early (for us) to make our way to the Spendthrift Farm. I’ve tried to get the picture below several times. This barn is just about a mile from where we’re staying. It’s a rustic barn with a quilt block. There’s a very small window where I can get the whole barn and quilt block, but there’s no place to stop on that narrow road. We finally drove down the road when there were no other cars behind us. Mike stopped, and I stepped out onto the truck's running board for this shot. It isn’t ideal, but it’s the best I could do.

Driving on, there are lots of barns around Lexington. It’s no wonder Lexington is known as the horse capital of the world. 

And it is lovely here. You have to see the endless acres of green grass and wood fences to appreciate the beauty. It reminds me a little of Ireland. 

Substitute wood fences and horses for the stone walls and sheep, and you’ve got it. Here's another picture.

 

Here's another with some horses off in the distance. It seems like an idyllic place to be a horse.

Ah…here we are. We had a friendly exchange with a man posted at the gate.

He told us to head down this driveway and take the left fork.

This sign confused us. With Mike in the truck, wouldn’t you think they’d want us to go to the right?

Parking at the visitor center, we went inside. Inlaid in the floor were the winnings of the 2020 Kentucky Derby by their horse, Authentic.

Here's the Kentucky Derby trophy.

On one of the tables were these plaques listing all the winning horses from just one sire, "Into Mischief."

These pillows were stationed around. I see a quilt block in that emblem.

After watching a couple of short videos about the history of Spendthrift Farm, we boarded this shuttle for a ride around the place.

As we drove off, we saw just one of an army of mowers who keep the grass cut to a suitable length.

Here's one of many barns we saw at just this one farm.

Below is a stallion named "Flasher." He doesn't get to breed, but he gets to flirt with all the mares. Observing how the mares respond to him gives an indication whether they are ready to be bred. And simply being with Flasher puts mares "in the mood." Poor Flasher. It must be a frustrating life.

Moving on, we came to a paddock with some mares and their foals. These foals were born around January.

This is one of the mares. Can you see how her nose bends to her left? This happened in utero because she had a leg over her nose that caused it to crook to the side. She was the sweetest thing. Very friendly.

The mare below starts life the same dark brown of the other horses. As she gets older, she begins to lose the dark color. Eventually, she will be completely white.

I took this picture so you could see how the fences are chewed. This is done by the foals. Like babies, they are teething. They explore their environment with their teeth.

Here's a frisky colt chewing at the fence as I took his picture.

Here's another foal born two months ago. He was a little shy.

Eventually he came up to the fence.

We had a good nose and ear scratching session.

Do you see the foal on the right side of the image below? He's flat in the grass. We saw several napping like this. It looks like a comfy place to lie down.

These were some of my favorite horses on the tour. 

Smallish. 

It must be hard finding an appropriate saddle.

Looking off in the distance, we could see another barn.

These are two of their winning stallions. They are retired now and will spend their days wooing the mares. Their names are posted on the fence.

Here's another barn complex.

This next stallion is "Goldencents." He's the sire of this year's Kentucky Derby winner, Mystik Dan. He's getting special treatment these days. Our tour guide told us that the Derby was barely finished when they started getting emails from horse people asking if there were any slots open on his breeding schedule. It costs $250,000 to breed a mare with one of their stallions. Sometimes mares travel as far as South America or Australia to be bred at this farm.

We enjoyed our tour very much. The gift shop was open when we returned to the visitor center, and I picked up this small refrigerator magnet.

Okay, so we have a long drive today. I don't have a lot of time to chat. You understand, don't you? When we meet again, we'll be in Illinois. Fingers crossed we don't encounter any more bad weather as we pass through Illinois, Missouri, and Kansas on our way home. We'll breathe a little easier when we reach Colorado in about 12 days.