{"id":19744,"date":"2013-08-28T16:50:22","date_gmt":"2013-08-28T21:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=19744"},"modified":"2013-08-29T06:40:48","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T11:40:48","slug":"horse-farm-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=19744","title":{"rendered":"Horse Farm Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

After living in Lexington for 25 years, I finally got around to taking an official tour of the area.\u00a0 My mother-in-law was in town for a few days, and we thought it would be fun to do.\u00a0 Ironically, I have ridden my bicycle on every road of the tour, but it was nice to get the added bonus of a tour guide telling me exactly what I was seeing.<\/h3>\n

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\"Tour<\/p>\n

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The company we used is the oldest tour company in the area, and they did an excellent job.\u00a0 The price was very reasonable, and each tour is about three hours long.<\/h3>\n

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\"Historic<\/p>\n

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We started out in downtown Lexington.\u00a0 This restored log cabin is one of the oldest structures in the city.\u00a0 It’s a shame there is a light pole beside it.<\/h3>\n

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\"Hunt-Morgan<\/p>\n

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This is the Hunt Morgan house.\u00a0 I am president of the Town and Country Garden Club, and the historic garden at this home is our annual project.\u00a0 I was taking photos as the bus was moving so some of the angles are less than desirable.<\/h3>\n

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\"Henry<\/p>\n

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This was the law office of local statesman Henry Clay.\u00a0 He ran for president three times but never won.\u00a0 He is considered one of the top U.S. senators ever and was called The Great Compromiser.\u00a0 His beautiful estate, known as Ashland, is also open for tours to the public, but they are not affiliated with this company.<\/h3>\n

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\"keeneland<\/p>\n

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After riding through the historic areas, our van headed to Keeneland<\/a>, which is a beautiful and historic race track known throughout the world.\u00a0 This paddock area is where the horses are walked before the races and where the jockeys mount their rides.\u00a0 During race season which is the month of April and the month of October, it is packed with people.<\/h3>\n

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\"Jockeys\"<\/p>\n

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These historic jockeys are dressed in the farm colors of the horses that won major races so far this year.\u00a0 That is my mother-in-law who was recovering from hip surgery.<\/h3>\n

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\"Keeneland<\/p>\n

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It was odd seeing the track and stands without people.\u00a0 Keeneland has artificial soil to help protect the horses from injuries.\u00a0 It has been quite successful.\u00a0 And by the way, Keeneland has a beautiful little shop full of great clothing, shoes, and decor.\u00a0 It is open even during the off-season.<\/h3>\n

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\"Keeneland<\/p>\n

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Keeneland has been used to film movies that involved horse racing because it is the most beautiful, and traditional track in the country.\u00a0 Parts of Secretaria<\/em>t and Sea Biscuit<\/em> were both filmed here.<\/h3>\n

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\"IMG_6279\"<\/p>\n

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After Keeneland we visited two horse farms where we could get out of the van and get up close and personal with some horses.\u00a0 This home is a typical horse farm home.<\/h3>\n

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\"IMG_6267\"<\/p>\n

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This house, which you can barely see, was the inspiration for Margaret Mitchell’s Tara in Gone With The Wind<\/span>.\u00a0 She came to Keeneland for the races, saw this home, and patterned Tara after it.\u00a0 Isn’t that cool!!!<\/h3>\n

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\"IMG_6268\"<\/p>\n

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The colts are almost as big as their moms and will be weaned soon.\u00a0 I mentioned that in this pos<\/a>t.<\/h3>\n

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\"Popcorn<\/p>\n

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Our final stop before returning to Lexington was Old Friends<\/a>, the retirement home for horses.\u00a0 I gave you a tour of it here<\/a>.\u00a0 This is Popcorn Delight, the resident actor, still hamming it up for the camera.\u00a0 He is showing us his tattoo which all thoroughbreds have as a means of identification.\u00a0 If you are new here, than let me tell you a cute story about Popcorn.\u00a0 His mom is Afternoon Delight who was owned by Burt Bacharach and Angie Dickinson.\u00a0 Afternoon Delight also lives at Old Friends.\u00a0 Anyway, Popcorn played one of the Sea Biscuits in the movie of the same name.\u00a0 He has a Screen Actor Guid card and earned $10,000. for playing his role.\u00a0 He donated it to the farm.\u00a0 Isn’t that cute.<\/h3>\n

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\"kitty\"<\/p>\n

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Old Friends also has a bunch of cats running around in case horses aren’t your thing.\u00a0 Hearing some interesting facts about where I live made me love it even more.\u00a0 So, if any of you are planning to visit Lexington, or if any of you locals haven’t been on the tour, I highly recommend it.<\/h3>\n

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Click here to follow us on Facebook.<\/a><\/h3>\n

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Take care.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After living in Lexington for 25 years, I finally got around to taking an official tour of the area.\u00a0 My mother-in-law was in town for a few days, and we thought it would be fun to do.\u00a0 Ironically, I have ridden my bicycle on every road of the tour, but it was nice to get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19744"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19744"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19762,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19744\/revisions\/19762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}