Okay, so in these photos, you see exercise riders at the Thoroughbred Training Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Over 900 racehorses and 100 trainers quarter here to learn the ropes! These are racehorses learning their trade, or tweaking and refining their trade. Here is where they can get their "gate card" which is their official permission to run at our country's race tracks because they have proven they can load into and leap out of a gate. Here is where exercise riders earn about 10$ a ride to jump on novice baby race horses. The place has two tracks, one you see in this photo, and then a second which is only a 5/8th mile on the inside of this larger one. It was an amazing facility! We got to meet and speak with a trainer, Mike Cameron. We got to see Chris McCarron's North American Riding Academy, it was awesome.
Okay, so here was the perfect day, and it occurred on Saturday, April 25th, when I finally got in the zone on my Full celebration weekend. I woke up and felt the cool breeze of early morning. I heard horses whiffling and snorting. I made coffee and had my morning java and chocolate mousse with Revelry and the Paints and Palimino. I drove out to the Thoroughbred Training Center and took a tour. I took a driving lesson with Breimer. I visited a horse farm and talked with a young college student with two paint horses. I went to Rolex and watched the Cross-Country. I met David O' Connor's mother, Sally O'Connor, who was working as a fence judge! I visited the Kentucky Horse Park and saw Funnycide and visited John Henry's gravesite. I took a tour of the Driving Center and looked at all the amazing sorts of carts, carriages, gigs, and phaetons. I saw Secretariat and Man 'o War's statues and visited Violet's and Hailee's relatives, War Admiral and others at their burial ground. I went to an art museum and saw Scott Tree's photos of Arabians and Fay Moore's sports paintings of equines. I went home and had a glass of wine with the horses back at Gayla. And then I had a relaxed dinner at Galvin's in Georgetown while reading In Service of the Horse, reading how David O' Connor's groom cares for his horses. Then I slipped into a sleep, as horses snorted and puffed and made agreeable happy noises!
