2010 WEG: Sneaking around in Kentucky – and tourist tips

See where you can stand to watch racehorses train? Close enough to feel the thunder of passing hooves. At Lexington's Thoroughbred Center on Paris Pike/Photo by Rhonda Lane

While I was leaving a lengthy blog comment on Discover WEG with Fran Jurga, I realized I could be talking about that stuff here, too.

Don’t get me wrong – I love this Discover Horses blog about the upcoming World Equestrian Games.  I plan to visit regularly (brace yourself, Fran). She thinks of things I don’t, and she finds great stuff that slips below my radar.

But I’m an expat Kentuckian who goes back to play tourist. I can also offer some cool, helpful tips and insights on seeing Kentucky.

But, despite the timeliness of the World Equestrian Games being just around the corner, I’ve been oddly quiet about sharing what I know about having been a tourist in Kentucky.

Keep reading to see why and to pick up the first in a series of Kentucky tourist tips.

Outing myself

I know there’ll be the devil to pay when a lot of people back home read this, but I go back to Kentucky every once in a while to do horse-related things.

Those times when I do go back to visit people? Horse things get squeezed out. The thing is? I really need to do those horse things.

Check out this article I wrote for the Kentucky business magazine “The Lane Report” (no relation to me) to see what going to Kentucky means to me. It’s a mental health thing.

If I don’t make at least one full day visit to the Kentucky Horse Park when I’m within the state lines, I get itchy and resentful.

Adding to my usual KY trip time-crunch are the research trips. My book is set in Kentucky among a bunch of walking horse farms. Even though I grew up on the walking horse circuit, many things have changed since then, so I try to stay up-to-date and informed enough to be balanced about what I depict on the page.

So, while I’m in Kentucky,  I may fit in a weekend at a walking horse show. During the week, I like to schmooze in the barns with the staff and watch them work.  I get great stuff by just spending time hanging out.  That way, I’m around for various procedures, like floating teeth, shoeing, collecting semen and working the horses.

As you can see, when I’m in Kentucky, I have a lot I want to do and need to accomplish.

Only in Kentucky

There is no place like Kentucky for visitors to enjoy horse stuff, up close and personal. Yes, I do want to go to Ocala. And to middle Tennessee. And go back to the Fort Worth area with horse-centric travel in mind. And, yes, if you’re a regular reader here, you know that I’ve been to Saratoga Springs and enjoy it.

But nowhere else but Kentucky celebrates the horse so much – and invites visitors to join in the fun with as many options as can be found within an hour’s drive.

And, if I’m wrong about that, feel free to let me know in the Comments section below.

Kentucky Tourist Tip – horse farm tour maps

Go read Fran’s post and read through the comments – and then come back.

Yes, do pick up a Kentucky map from your local AAA, but I’ve never gotten one from AAA with the horse farms marked. You’ll have to pick that up in Kentucky.

I got mine in a Wal-Mart. (You can see a section of my map below.) The maps are available from other merchants, but you will have to buy them once you arrive in the state. And keep in mind that all the Kentucky maps you see won’t have the horse farms marked.

Before I forget, please keep in mind that you shouldn’t pull up to a horse farm’s gate and ask for a tour. Frankly, decades ago, you could, but not any more. Cutting back on drop-in visitors is reportedly one of the reasons why the horse park was created.

After all, working horse farms are businesses. These days, like many other businesses, I’m guessing they’ve been subject to staff cuts that may not not leave someone with enough time to take an unexpected visitor on a tour.

So, what the map will tell you is where the farms are so you can enjoy scenic drives.

What I find mind-boggling is that the map (see a segment of mine below) only indicates thoroughbred horse farms.

See all the little red horse head profiles? Just a segment of my Rand McNally EasyToFold Kentucky state map/Photo by Rhonda Lane

All those red spots? They represent thoroughbred farms. No quarter horse farms. No saddlebred farms. No walking horse farms. No lesson barns. No standardbred barns. No Anything Other Breed or Discipline That Happens to be in Kentucky farms. Just thoroughbred breeding farms.

Staggering, huh? And cool, too.

Stay tuned for more Kentucky tourist tips.

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Tags: 2010 World Equestrian Games, Kentucky horse farm maps, Kentucky tourist tip, Kentucky travel, KYWEG, scenic drives in Kentucky