Current Location: Kentucky Horse Park Campground, Lexington, Kentucky

Today we got to visit the Horse Park on our own schedule. The last couple of times we’ve been there, we’ve been with others and for whatever reasons didn’t get to see quite everything or do everything we wanted to do. Today, we got to get in those last few things we’ve wanted to do there.

Before we went to the park, though, we did laundry first thing before the washers started filling. Good thing, too, as there was a pretty good number of people that popped in to check and left because we had all three washers filled with our stuff. For such a large campground, they could probably do with larger laundry rooms. We got the laundry done and put away then headed over to the park.

We paid our admission and signed up for the 12:15 horseback ride. It was a little after 11:00 when we got there. We browsed the gift shop and ate lunch at the restaurant in the park. Then we wandered over to the horse ride area. After filling out paperwork, we were ready to ride. Val rode on a dark brown Tennessee Walker named Greg. Malcolm rode on a white draft cross horse named Dan. It was a fun ride through the park for about 40 minutes. Helmets were optional on the adults, but Val and I decided to wear them,  just to be safe. The entire ride went without incident.

Malcolm and Dan ready to roll.

Val and Greg.

Best view in the world (through a horse’s ears).

The group in front of Malcolm (Val just ahead).

After the horse ride, we walked through the very large International Museum of the Horse. It was a fairly interesting museum. You could literally spend hours if you read every single sign through the building. The following exhibit was the first one inside.

Horse history exhibit.

The other area we wanted to see was The Hall of Champions. This is where several retired race horses are kept. They have a show a couple times a day, but we weren’t there at the right time. However, one of the handlers did bring the horse “Cigar” out for some fresh air and we got to see him.

Cigar out for some fresh air.

One of the areas we walked through (and had been through before) was the farrier. You can watch them work when they are working on a horse. Today we lucked out and they were there putting new shoes on one of the Belgian draft horses they use to pull the trolley wagons.

Getting new shoes.

And, just for kicks, here’s one of the miniature donkeys that were grazing in one of the areas near the kids’ barn.

Miniature Donkey

We drove back over to the trailer and cleaned up a bit, then got dinner ready to cook. Our friend Gregg came over. We haven’t seen him in forever. He was Malcolm’s best man in our wedding and has lived here in Lexington the whole time. Val’s sister Annie came over, as well. Coincidentally, Annie was Val’s maid of honor in our wedding.

We grilled out and sat around to catch up for a few hours. Once our visitors left, we packed up all the outside stuff, brought the bikes in and brought in the awning. We’ll take our time packing and hooking up in the morning and stop by the dump station to clear out the tanks before we head to London, Kentucky tomorrow.