Nicole Schnell

Hey guys!  Well this week was very exciting!  We toured a ton of different places around Lexington.  We visited various farms, vet clinics, training facilities, race tracks, the Kentucky Horse Park, and the Blood Horse magazine office.  It's only been a week and I feel like I've already learned so much!  I've got a lot of pictures from the different places we visited this week, so feel free to take a look at all of them.  Nicole's Pictures .  Also, if you have any questions about anything you see or I talk about, feel free to post a comment on the blog.  I'll try to answer your question to the best of my ability, or find out the answer from someone else if I can.  I posted a couple of videos as well.  One from the Keeneland horse sale, just take note of how fast the auctioneer talks, it's amazing.  What's also amazing is how much these horses are worth around here!  There's also a short clip from a race we saw Friday night at Turfway park.  We only watched claiming races, so no big name horses were there, but it was very exciting.  We got to go out and stand right up against the rail at the finish line!

I'm going to include a list of links from some of the different places we went this week.  Be sure to check them out if you want to! 

Hagyard Equine Medical Institute - Exclusively equine private practice veterinary hospital in Lexington, KY.

Keeneland Race Course - Race track right outside Lexington on the highway that leads to Versailles where I live.

Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center - Rehabilitation center for horses who have been injured and need proper treatment before heading back to the race track.

Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital - Another exclusively equine veterinary clinic.

Kentucky Horse Park - State funded park which show cases Kentucky's signature symbol, the horse.  The horse park houses offices for several equine organizations, museums for various breeds, and activities for visitors who are interested in anything and everything about horses.

Churchill Downs Race Track - Where they run the derby!

The Blood Horse Magazine - really popular publication around here which goes out weekly to keep owners, breeders, and anybody else up to date on what is going on in the world of horses.  Breeding season the magazine is filled with sire ads from owners trying to intice mare owners to breed to their stallion.

The Thoroughbred Training Center - Just as the name implies, a place for people to work their horses out, and get them in condition for racing!

Turfway Park - Another race course.  Where went went to watch the claiming races Friday night, it's about an hour outside of Lexington up north towards Ohio.