Around Lexington lies 1,000's of acres of blue grass horse farms. If the grass were left to grow long it produces a little blue flower, thus the name. We drove many miles and observed ranch after ranch with miles of white or black fences, trails, jumping facilities, some with race tracks on site and if you don't have a mane, long perky ears or bridle with your name on it your not a local here. Like a picture on the wall, it really has more feel to it once you're here. We have nothing but good feelings seeing this part of Kentucky.
Shown in the Champions Ring at the Kentucky Horse Park are many past derby winners and just old horses that are donated by their owners to represent their breeds. This beautiful speciman is named Cigar, a 1990's horse who was unbeatable, now retired and living the good life here. He was purchased for $15,000 and won over 9 million for his owners in prize money
and was sold again for $25 million for stud and charged $75,000 a pop only to find out he was sterile and no insurance! Kentucky is also known for it's bourbon and we can attest to the quality of Maker's Mark, Woodsen and Buffalo Trace to be high quality bourbons, all having a different take on how to make their whiskey. All use 50-80% corn and some use wheat, some use rye, all use malted barley during the distilling process and they all have different opinions about where to store, how long to store, what toast or char to use in the barrels and whether or not to blend. The distilled spirits are aged in 53 gallon barrels to produce color and flavor and sometimes end up producing only 6 gallons of finished whiskey(the small barrels in this photo are trial sizes). After visting 3 distillaries, housekeeping chores and a golf day..................the journey continues
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