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While the campground at the Kentucky Horse Park is fine, the real reason for staying here is to actually tour the park. We hadn’t investigated when the park is open prior to reserving our spot so it was a good thing we had booked 5 nights. Since the park is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, we still had time visit on Wednesday or Thursday before pulling out on Friday. The park’s schedule may also explain why the campground was pretty empty early in the week. Another perk of staying at the campground is being able to get a reduced rate at the Horse Park. Normal general admission is $20 per person and $5 for parking but staying at the campground you can buy your tickets at the campground store the morning you plan to visit the park and get tickets for $16 and free parking. Tickets to the park include free admission for the next day as well. The park is less than a mile from the campground but we found it easier to simply drive over.
It’s a big place with lots to see and do. Obviously there are horses - over 100 of them - plus there are several museums and various shows throughout the day. This park isn’t just about thoroughbreds but all breeds of horses so it will be quite different than our tour at Jonabell Farm earlier in the week. It wasn’t clear to us that we could experience everything in just one day so based on the weather forecast, we opt to make sure to get all the outdoor things done first. Then we can either fit in the museums later in the day or come back during the rain expected tomorrow and finish things up.
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| Secretariat Monument Near Entrance to Park |
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| Main Entrance to Kentucky Horse Park |
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| Foals |
The first scheduled activity is the horse grooming in the Big Barn. Calling it big isn’t just hyperbole. At 475 feet long and over 75 feet wide, it is indeed BIG!
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| Staff Sergeant Reckless - USMC |
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| BIG Barn |
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| Inside Big Barn |
There are probably close to 20 horses in the barn this morning, the majority of them being large draft horses. There are a couple of volunteers or staff that have several of the horses out of their stables and are either bathing or brushing them.
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| Looking Nervous During Bath |
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| Better with Hose Away from Head |
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| A Thorough Brushing |
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| Waiting for Grooming |
I realized Clydesdale and Percherons are large horses but being this close to them really drives home that fact. They seem to enjoy the daily bathing and grooming or have just come to accept it as a morning ritual. On the western end of the barn are a sampling of horse drawn carriages. Several are quite fancy while others are more utilitarian.
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| Checking Out the Visitors |
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| Fancy Carriage |
The next scheduled event is the horse drawn trolley ride and guided tour of the park. There was already a long line of people waiting when we arrived. Each trolley can take 20 or so people and takes about 15 minutes to make the loop around the park. There were at least two trolleys in service so the wait wasn’t that long. Each one is pulled by 2 draft horses that likely were groomed earlier in the day for their morning work assignment. Our guide gave us all sorts of information about the history of the park.
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| We Should Fit on this One |
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| Made It on the Last Row |
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| Our Team Ready for Next Load |
After our ride we stopped by the Mounted Police barn which is right next door to the trolley stop. Inside are 8 horses that are part of the police staff for the park. Several of the officers were present as well to clean stalls or groom their horses as well as answer questions we might have. |
| Mounted Police Barn |
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| A Look Inside |
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| Koda Gets his Stall Cleaned |
Our next scheduled activity was a showing at the Hall of Champions. On the walk there, we stopped at the massive covered arena. With seating for over 1000 people and a 130’ by 300’ show ring. They do have lots of events scheduled throughout the year so it might be interesting to visit during a large show although campground reservations would likely need to be made well in advance.
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| Large Covered Arena |
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| Hall of Champions Barn on Hill |
The Hall of Champions is a pretty barn off by itself surrounded by four fenced in pastures. This is where four of the eight retired champion horses live out their lives. It’s a nice setup and it’s clear they are treated quite well. Behind the barn is a small covered ring with stadium style seating where two of the past champion horses will be brought out to about 30 visitors. First was the horse named “Won the West” - a standardbred pacer. They showed some of his wins on monitors around the ring before he is brought out to a large cheer from the group. His style of racing is where his rider is in a 2 wheeled sulky pulled behind the horse.
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| Path to Hall of Champions |
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| Won the West |
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| Enjoying the Attention |
Next up was “Mr Muscleman” - a standardbred trotter. Trotters pull the rider in a sulky as well but their gait is different from a pacer. It’s hard to describe in words the difference in the gaits between a pacer and trotter but there are videos that show the difference. Look it up to get an idea of how the horse’s legs move for each gait.
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| Mr. Muscleman |
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| Right Side View |
After the show, the two other residents of the Hall of Champions were looking out their stalls windows to check out the crowd as we all filed past. We headed back to the main entrance to grab our cooler from the car to have lunch at one of the picnic tables scattered around the park grounds.
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| Point Given (2001 Preakness & Belmont Winner) Says Hi |
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| Current Champions at Park |
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| Go For Gin (1994 Kentucky Derby Winner) |
The next show was the Parade of Breeds show. As we walk over to the arena where the show is held, we stop by a few others buildings along the way. One barn is designed for kids. The displays have lots of hands on elements to teach the youngsters about parts of the horse or how to brush a horse. Next to the kid’s barn was a miniature obstacle course for kids to pretend they are show jumping.
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| Salyers House |
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| Chris Plays Edith Ann |
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| Parts of the Horse |
The Parade of Breeds show takes place in a large outdoor arena with bleacher seating on three sides. There are probably well over 100 people here for the show. About six different breeds of horses are brought out one at a time. The announcer will describe the type of horse including when, where and why it was used for the job it had. Each of the riders or handlers were dressed in period clothing. It was a rather entertaining show.
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| Fancy Dress for Riding |
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| Elaborate Saddle Fringe |
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| Taking Horse for a Run? |
We were close to the Big Barn so we popped back in to see if anything was going on. Several horses were being bathed and groomed. I suspect with this many horses, keeping them looking good is a continuous job for the volunteers.
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| Step-Stool Required |
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| A Bathing Beauty |
Some of the other buildings were open for touring although there were no live presentations taking place. We found the shop that did leatherwork for reigns and saddles to be interesting.
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| Leatherworking Shop |
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| Afternoon Carriage Ride |
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| "The Phoenix" |
We had a little time before the last show of the day so we headed into International Museum of the Horse. We discovered this is a very large museum and could not be completed quickly. So we decided to save the several museums for tomorrow. But here is a glimpse.
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| Two Horsepower |
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| One Donkey Power |
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| Old Stagecoach |
The last show at the Hall of Champions was not held in the arena behind the barn but in along the side of two of the pastures. With the large crowd, it was difficult to get a good view or hear the presentation. The woman giving the presentation stood next to the fence with a bucket of food to keep the horse interested in being over by the people. First was the horse named Go for Gin - winner of the 1994 Kentucky Derby and second in the other two races for the Triple Crown. The second horse is named Funny Cide winner of the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. This one had a muzzle of sorts over its mouth to help keep it from grazing as easily. Plus the woman said he could be rather mean and would try to bite her otherwise.
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| A Muzzled 'Funny Cide' |
It was late afternoon by this point and we were rather tired so we headed back to camp to relax before coming back the second day to tackle the museums. It turned out to be overcast but not rainy the next day so doing the outdoor shows on the sunny day and the museums on the cloudy day worked out well for us. We headed back to the International Museum of the Horse and proceeded to where we had left off yesterday.
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| Old Sears Delivery Cart |
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| Lots of Trophies |
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| Horse Themed Displays |
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| Camel with Horse |
Like I mentioned, this is a huge museum with hundreds of displays. Many of the displays have monitors with short videos explaining some aspect of horses or how they were used. It was almost overwhelming especially for the two of us who aren’t really horse people. But we spent almost 90 minutes going thru this museum and learned a lot.
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| Racing Purses Used to be Purses |
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| More Trophies |
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| Old Phaetons |
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| Conestoga Wagon |
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| 1977 Triple Crown Winner Seattle Slew Memorabilia |
The other museum we visited is adjacent to the parking lot and has its own entrance. The American Saddlebred Museum is undergoing a major remodeling so one large portion of the place is off limits. The part that is open has a few displays and of course the gift shop.
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| American Saddlebred Museum |
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| "Supreme Sultan" |
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| Harness Buggy |
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| Artwork in Museum |
By now we are “horsed out”. While we enjoyed our visit to the Kentucky Horse Park and the other things we did in the Lexington and Louisville areas, it’s time for us to move on and head south towards our winter destination of Florida. The most direct route would take us through Atlanta. We've done that before and find no pleasure in that idea. So we will route to the west of Atlanta and shoot for Rome Georgia. There is a large geocaching event there each year and we understand the caches in the area are pretty good. Our timing isn't great since the event was held just 3 weeks earlier, but it should still be fun to see a new area. The drive from Lexington to Rome is about 360 miles so an overnight stop at the Elks Lodge in Knoxville Tennessee will split the distance in half. There are no hookups, but the lodge has a large parking lot for dry camping. We arrive to find three other rigs already there, so we pick a spot on the other side of the lot and settle in for the night. Other than some noise from traffic on I-40, it was a fine spot for the night.
