legendary race horses | My Life with NF2

Hi guys! I thought I would clump all our horse experiences into one post. I also updated the Downtown Lexington, KY post with the pictures.

We saw three main attractions: Old Friends, Kentucky Horse Park, and Keeneland (a race park).

Old Friends, in Georgetown, started as a means to provide care and a home for those Thoroughbred racehorses who are classified as retired (but I like to add– retired racehorse champions.) 🙂 We saw a few of these legend horses and heard all about their past victories and what led them to Old Friends. They were very friendly horses and enjoyed their share of carrots while we listened to the guide. You can read all about the different horses and their stories at their website. (Also note: Their facilities were part of the Seabiscuit extras filming and one of the horses–Popcorn Deelites–was one of the eight horses used as Seabiscuit in the movie). 🙂 http://www.oldfriendsequine.org/

Popcorn Deelites is on the left.

Friday after visiting Old Friends, we went to the Kentucky Horse Park and saw just about everything from equestrian competitions in the distance, to a presentation of world horses, other retired champion horses, the Budweiser team horses getting their baths for being presented at Keeneland races the next day, and the museum all devoted to horse history (very neat to see!) Here is the website: http://kyhorsepark.com/

This horse theme was my favorite. 🙂

On our way out, our last stop was to see Man O’ War’s statue. He is actually buried beneath. On the walk there, they had a bunch of different facts about who his offspring were and what races they won. They also had this sign that said that Man O’ War’s stride was 28ft!!!! It took ten of my strides to make his one. Crazy!!

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We also got to Keeneland: Thoroughbred Racing and Sales. They were having a strand of races from October 5th until today. When we first walked in, it was a zoo and we were very under dressed for the occasion (but I did bring my big white hat). 🙂 Have you ever seen Dreamer? The movie was filmed at Keeneland. When you walk it, you recognize it. They have this open area with circle fences and right before a race, the horses are brought out and shown to the people then the jockeys get on and get set out towards the track. We walked in the entrance to the race building right when everyone was putting in their bids at the cash office part and it was so crowded we hardly made it out to see the race. We somehow managed to get to an area where we were right next to the fence so we could see pretty good once we claimed our spot. We also were right in the back of all the horse winner’s pictures as the horses would come and go right at the spot where we were. It was neat to watch all the different aspects of the race…very complicated process again. I felt like I was in a different world! 🙂

During a little intermission presentation, we saw (a) the Budweiser horse team (and Dalmatians) that we had seen the previous day at the KY Horse Park, and (b) a presentation for the disabled jockey foundation. Later when my sister looked on the website that night, we are in the picture. 😀 See if you can spot us…I have my hat on!

http://www.keeneland.com/sites/default/files/shared/6448/PDJFpresentationKLD61.jpg

I am glad to report there were no accidents during the race! 🙂 It was a fun time seeing this sport, as I really went into the weekend not knowing much about horses except being thrown off one by our pony when I was eight. I guess that is why these majestic creatures intimidate me, but they were amazing to watch!