Last day in Kentucky

Our last day in Lexington was only a half day as the plane left early afternoon. We took a trip to Keeneland racetrack - it is allowed that you can go there in the mornings and watch the workouts. Beautiful facility, stone buildings and that green green grass everywhere. 

 Entrance into the place doesn't much look like a race track!

 But it got busy behind the stands. Watching the workouts was fun, lots of riders on the track, some galloping, some talking, some just walking the horses around.

 And then, blasting by was a few young horses out for a fast workout.

And the jockeys are all painted the colors of the winners of the prestigious
 race there.

We had breakfast in the cafe there, rubbing elbows with owners, exercise people, trainers and caretakers. Fun experience.

And more in Kentucky

A few fun sights around the Kentucky Horse Park. Lots going on with demonstrations, the usual museums and the trade fair.

 Mounted police cruised the park, with extras around on cross country day to keep the huge number of spectators (and the dogs! lots of dogs) in line. Most of these horses were draft crosses, big super quiet horses that put up with the commotion without blinking.

 Watched a driving demonstration with these lovely horses as a pair and a Haflinger single driven by a teen. The demo'ed the "cone" division of combined driving.

 This pair are Georgian horses... Freisen/Saddlebred crosses that are also paints. Attractive pair!

And the shopping was always a draw. With literally hundreds of vendors there, just couldn't take it all in! And then that's that thing you saw yesterday that you just had to go back the next day to buy.....

And the winners...

The awards ceremony was done right after the last competitor went. Lots of ceremony - and lots of awards! The competitors came out mounted and dressed up, and the presenters were dressed well, as were the grooms. 

 Andrew Nicholson from New Zealand won the competition on Quimbo- finishing on his dressage score. That's a huge accomplishment! Also, his groom won the prize for "best groom".

 Gin and Juice with Hawley Bennett-Asad from Canada placed 7th - and another award for the highest place young rider.

 Bruce Davidson aboard Ballymoe Castle placed 4th - and yet another award for the highest placed American rider.

Will Faudree on Pawlow - another American - placed 6th.

Andrew Nicholson placed both first on Quimbo and 3rd with Calico Joe.
William Fox-Pitt placed 2nd with Seacookie.
Buck Davidson placed 4th with Ballymoe Castle RM and 9th with Mar De Amor.
Lynn Symansky on Donner placed 5th... and won best conditioned horse.
Will Faudree and Pawlow were 6th - and did you know, the Americans riding in red coats - means they have ridden for the American team in international events. It's a well earned right!
Gin and Juice with Hawley Bennett-Asad was 7th.
R-Star and Kristi Nunnink placed 8th - and she's a rookie!
And Kate's favorite to cheer on, Peter Atkins and Henry Jota Hampton aka "Hennie" placed 10th.

Kentucky Horse Park Stadium

The stadium part of the competition begins with much fanfare. Riders go in the order of their current placings, so the top competitors are the last to go. Remember these horses gave their all yesterday for the cross country ride and are a bit tired today. Lots of rails came down and the placings shuffled around a great deal.

 Hawley Bennett-Awad from Canada riding Gin and Juice had a fairly nice round with one pole down.

 Jumps were varied and were to depict Kentucky. Here's a horse jumping neatly over the "mountian" jump, with a water jump/paddlewheel in the foreground.

 William Fox-Pitt and Seacookie (GBR) clear this jump - and all the others! No faults for them.

And the lovely Quimbo ridden by Andrew Nicholson of New Zealand had a fault free round as well.

Final Horse Inspection

The final day of competition starts with an inspection by a veterianary panel. The horses are groomed up to the max and riders - also dressed appropriately - jog their horses past the jury. The vets are looking that the horse is sound and in good health before continuing the competition. We did see one horse "spun', meaning that he did not pass the inspection. Several were asked to trot thru several times to give the panel more time to decide. 

Bruce Davidson in his signature red socks! trots out Mar De Amor, a big Selle Francais bred horse. He passes without a problem.

 Australian Peter Atkins trots out his Henry Jota Hampton to pass. This pair was a crowd favorite as "Hennie" has a website - sometimes rider Peter sports a helmet cam while riding! Got big applause!

 Bruce Davidson again with Park Trader, an Irish Sport horse.

 Kristi Nunnick with R-Star. This is a success story of real devotion. This horse was caught in a barn fire and survived, but with massive burns on her side and back. The owner patiently took the time, effort and considerable expense to bring this horse back with great vet care. You can see the scars on her back, and great care still must be maintained to keep the skin on her back from rubbing while being ridden. These too are crowd favorites.

Great Britian's William Fox-Pitt with Seacookie. They passed as well.

After cross country

After a day on cross country watching the great rides, we decided to try to find a place called Thoroughbred Park - Kim had read about in a magazine. Thank goodness for Kate's GPS, we found it. Place is a gem! A small corner park, with lots of statues and plaques about the greats in the thoroughbred industry. Great history lesson!Not just race horses here!

A great scene of horses thundering down the race track. So detailed were these life size statues, it was amazing. 

So well done, you can see the buckles, straps, even the type of shoes on the horses feet and which kind of boot or wraps they were on their legs. 

And this little foal, hidden behind the bushes...

Cross Country!

Finally! cross-country day arrives, and we are ready for it. The day was cloudy and cool... perfect for the riders and horses. We managed to watch the fences we had staked out earlier and then some!Becky Holder riding her Can't Fire Me beautifully over one of the "skinnies". 

 Peter Atkins and "Hennie" jumping the Weldon's wall. This jump is much bigger than it looks with a HUGE ditch in front and it's wide too. Takes a big effort from the horse. Hennie does it perfect.

This combination of jumps was turning right from the track to the brush fence, down into some water, thru the water and over the goose. Some riders had problems here, it was close to the end of the course.

This is a HUGE tree, roots intact, with a big ditch under it. Catch a Star and Caitlin Silliman sailed right over it.

Phillip Dutton and Fernwood Eagle drop into the water jump known as Head of the Lake. This complex of jumps takes lots of concentration...

As Meghan O'Donoghue and the Pirate continue over the ducks.

This was a great day to watch cross country. We even had time to hit the trade fair. Shopping galore! One colisuem and surrounding tent city all for horse shopping. Talk about paradise, huh?

Woodford Reserve

On our second day in Kentucky, exploring the area continued with a trip to see how they make bourbon. We chose the Woodford Reserve, official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby. Beautiful drive along a creek to get there and a good view of "wild" Kentucky. The facility was just as beautiful, huge stone buildings set along the creek. Tour starts with seeing the huge vats they cook the sour mash in. Very fragrant! There several of these huge vats cooking the stuff in various stages of "done". The mash is then sent along to other cooking processes til it's tested and ready to go.

Then it's sealed in a barrel and rolled out on these tracks to another building for storage.

Many, many barrels of bourbon aging - they are all labeled and occasionally taste tested by the experts.

After the tour, a sample of the bourbon is passed out and chocolate bourbon bonbons... yum! Relaxing on the porch of one of those great stone buildings.

And when in Kentucky... all things horse. Even the distillery sports it's version of a horse statue. Thanks to some old bourbon barrels!

The evening of day 2 we went back to the Kentucky Horse Park to watch an FEI competition of reining. Something completely different that many of us here had never seen. That was pretty amazing too!

Kentucky Day 2

Day 2 of the Kentucky Rolex is another day of dressage. Yes, it takes 2 days to get thru all those dressage tests. 

Kate opted to stay at the Park to watch the dressage and take part in the special events the show had going on. She got to do a Course Walk with the one and only Jimmy Wofford, which she thought was most instructive. Also lots of interviews and signings of competitors. And she found friends there that she could hang with.The rest of us decided to take a tour of the Thoroughbred farms. Our tour guide was a most excellent speaker and was very knowledgeable about the racing industry. He took us to 3 farms, first one was a breeding farm that housed mares and babies. The babies were very cute! And friendly. Fun to play with them and see what goes on breeding-wise.

Second stop took us to see the famous stallion Monarchos, won the Derby years ago with the 2nd fastest time to date (Secretariat has the fastest). This guy is 17 yrs. old now and very well mannered. Allowed everyone to hug and pat him.

Last stop was the most beautiful farm owned by the Sheik of Dubai. This place is amazing. We toured the one breeding barn (there are about 50 barns on the farm that all look like this!). A few stallions in the barn, but most of the horses are turned out on acres and acres pastureland. And yes, it's all this green!

Kentucky day one again

After a day of dressage, we decided to get moving and walked the cross-country course. And of course, we wanted to see it all so we'd know what to watch come Saturday. This is no small undertaking as the course is more than 4 1/2 miles long - up and down the hills. Plus we spent time examining the fences that were complicated with many options... just how DO you do that?Some jumps were very clever in design.

Some jumps were so very well done and amazing! Who thinks of those things?

Massive jumps abound.

And cute touches everywhere.

And yes, the ducks get jumped too!

Option fences were thoroughly looked at, this one, "The Sunken Road", had several ways to do it, fast and hard... or if you thought your horse wasn't up to that way, slower route, but easier to do. So to speak....