Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington, Kentucky - part 2

Continuing with our day at the Kentucky Horse Park...

We headed to The Big Barn for a Draft Horse Presentation.

The land for the Kentucky Horse Park was part of the Walnut Hall Stud Farm. Some of the buildings, including The Big Barn, were also part of the stud farm. We heard that it is the largest wooden barn in the US. 

It is, indeed, big!

I had noticed that the draft horses had interesting looking shoes...

I intended to get a picture of their shoes while in The Big Barn, but I forgot...

... here is a zoom-in on the two horses that pulled the trolley that we rode on.

I was wondering about the purpose of the clip on the front -- I asked in the draft horse barn, and found out that the shoe is a little larger than the hoof, heavier, and the clip helps to ensure that they don't have undue pressure on the hoof from hard surfaces (so their foot doesn't have a tendency to "slide forward" on the shoe, if I understood correctly).

Manny, an American Cream Draft horse, one of the two draft horses who had pulled our trolley, finishing his bath and rub down before returning to his stall.

I asked one of the folks who worked in the barn about the American Cream Draft horse breed -- I said I had never heard of it. He shared that there are not many horses of that breed. It came about in the 1940s, at about the time that farming started being done more by tractors -- so there wasn't as much need for draft horses in farming. (a little more information about the breed can be seen here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Cream_Draft and https://www.acdha.org/)

For the draft horse presentation, the handler brought "Pat" out to talk about draft horses and to demonstrate harnessing. At this point, she has put the collar on -- the collar is what the horse leans into to pull.

The rest of the harness on

Harness room in The Big Barn. Each horse has their own harness customized to their needs (so they don't have to be adjusted every time they are harnessed).

The next scheduled event was "Facts and Fun at the Museum" in the International Museum of the Horse, so we walked over there...

In the room where the presentation was to be held, there was a wall with "horsey" sayings. How many do you know or use?

The fellow who did the presentation talked with us about the skeleton of the horse and similarities and differences to human skeletons.

We continued after the presentation going through the exhibits in the museum -- they were very well done...

Three foundation stallions of the Thoroughbred breed

There was a gallery of the museum dedicated to the history of the Arabian horse breed. Here is a snippet of information from the website:

Opened in 2010, the Al-Marah Arabian Horse Gallery is an exciting exhibit that utilizes both interactive technology and historical art and artifacts to teach visitors about the history of the Arabian horse. Beginning with the earliest domestication of the Arabian in the Middle East, the exhibit follows the breed through history as it spread across the world to Europe and, eventually, the United States. (https://kyhorsepark.com/explore/international-museum-of-the-horse/exhibits/) 

I thought this particular information in the Arabian horse exhibit was interesting, particularly since the fellow who had done the "Facts and Fun" presentation indicated that horses rarely survive breaking a leg (even just one leg). I can't imagine how he survived three broken legs and thrived!

Our final scheduled activity was the Equine Academy at the Breeds Barn. It appeared that each of the three young women working with the horses in the ring while we were there were working on training their horse in some specific area. This one in the picture was working on maintaining the "single-foot" gait (you may notice the microphone around her head -- she talked with us while riding). Another lady was on a Standardbred horse and was working on his comfort level in being in the ring with people around the outside. I think I understood that each of the horses is brought in from owners who want training for their horses (like this is "custom" work done for a fee).

In the Breeds Barn, I saw this sign...

... and then I saw this kitty. It was a very friendly (and somewhat overweight) kitty!

As we were leaving the Kentucky Horse Park, there was an area that honored Man o' War -- in that exhibit, there was information about stride length...

There were markers indicating the stride length of three famous race horses: John Henry, Secretariat, and Man o' War.

More information about Man o' War can be found here: https://kyhorsepark.com/explore/man-o-war/

We enjoyed our visit to the Kentucky Horse Park!