Exploring Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington, KY – Tuesday, July 15, 2014

<sup>My appetite returned yesterday afternoon and I was feeling much better this morning.  The weather was spectacular… low 70’s, no humidity and beautiful sunshine.  We decided to take advantage of this beautiful day and go explore The Kentucky Horse Park.  

The Kentucky Horse Park is a working horse farm and an educational theme park.  It is a 1,224-acre  park dedicated to "man's relationship with the horse."</sup>  

^{Right next to the park is The Kentucky Horse Park Campground.} 

^{It has over 250 sites.}

 

 

 

^{Each year the park is host to a number of special events and horse shows.}

 

^{It just so happened that we were here for TWO of the biggest events for children.}

 ^{The North American Junior and Young Rider Championships is the premier equestrian competition in North America for junior and young riders, age 14-21. About 1,100 young equestrians vie for team and individual FEI medals in the three Olympic equestrian disciplines of show jumping, dressage, eventing and the FEI World Equestrian Games disciplines of reining and endurance.}   

 

<sup>The Pony Club Festival is a week-long celebration of all things Pony Club. More than 4,000 Pony Club members from across the country attend and it is held every 3 years. The Pony Club Festival serves the National Championship competition of the organization as well as an educational learning experience. Championship events include: Eventing, Dressage, Show Jumping, Polocrosse, Games, and Tetrathlon.  

When we realized all these things were going on and there would be huge crowds, we thought OMG we sure picked the wrong time to come visit.  However, it turned out to be a wonderful time to visit and see all these amazing young equestrians performing and doing their best!!</sup>

^{But back to today…}

 

^{This morning we drove less than a mile to the official entrance to The Horse Park.}

 

 

 

^{Click on any photo to enlarge or hover your mouse on any photo for a description.}

 

 

^{Before we entered the park,}

^{we saw the statues and tributes to 2 legendary champions!!}

 

^Secretariat

 

 

^{Man o’ War}

^{(Unfortunately, his statue was being worked on)}

 

 

 

^{Our next stop was the Visitor’s Center where we watched the film,}

^{“The Rein  Of  Nobility.”}

 

 

^{After that we headed to one of the three shows at the park.} 

 

^{At the Hall of Champions, living champions are brought into the arena for us to see while we are told their history and get to see some of their races.}

^{Our next show was at the Horses of the World Arena.}

 

 

^{We saw several breeds… here are three of them.}

 

^{Gypsy Vanner                                          Friesian                                        Andalusian}

 

 

^{Following the Horses of the World Show,}

^{we saw the Mare and Foal Presentation in the same arena.}

 

^{Miniature Horse and her Foal, a cute little philly!}

 

 

^{After this we headed back to the motorhome to take a break and get some lunch.}

 

 

^{Instead of driving back to the horse park, we decided to walk.}

^{From the campground, you can enter the horse park through the back roads.}

 

 

^{Actually, you do not need a ticket to wander the grounds, but you do need a ticket to enter the Museums.  That was our plan for this afternoon.  We purchased our tickets at the Campground Store.  By doing that, we got a 50% discount and free parking.  Regular admission is $16 for adults and $5 parking fee.  We paid $16 total :o))  Oh... Your tickets are good for TWO days!!!}

 

 

^{We headed first to the American Saddlebred Museum!!}

 

^{Click on any photo to enlarge or hover your mouse on any photo for a description.}

 

 

 

 

^{Next stop was the International Museum of the Horse.}

 

 

 

^{The Legacy of the Horse exhibit was amazing.} 

^{You could have spent an entire day here there was so much to see and learn.}

 

   

 

^{Near the exit was a beautiful display of quilted horse banners!!!}

 

 

^{Our final stop for the day was The Big Barn.}

 

^{It is a working barn which houses the large Draft Horses that pull the tour wagons.}

 

^{Click on any photo to enlarge or hover your mouse on any photo for a description.}

 

 

 

This is an amazing place and great way to learn about horses!!

 

As we walked back to the campground,

we saw the preparations being made for all the competitions which will begin tomorrow.

Even the campground was becoming a “Horsey” place;o))

After dinner, Bill was outside doing stuff and I was inside catching up on blogs.  I had just read Howard and Linda’s blog about having dinner with Michele and Peg while they were in Knoxville.  At about the same time, I heard a commotion outside and when I went to the door….

there was Michele and Peg!!!

 

This morning, they left Knoxville and were headed to Cincinnati.  They were stuck for several hours on I-75 due to a bad accident.  While we hate that they had a tough travel day...  we are glad that it brought them to the Kentucky Horse Park and we got to visit and share some laughs!!  This lifestyle is truly amazing!! Hope we meet again down the road:o))