Lexington - Saturday, July 18th

This morning we took a tour of the Kentucky Horse Park on our bikes. It is so huge. Currently there is a Breyer event going on (yes, Breyer is those plastic horses!!) so there are tons of people and not getting hit on our bikes was a challenge! We toured all the rings, including the amazing footing from New York, and the stabling. It really is an amazing place and is kind of similar to Spruce Meadows. Not quite as large but you get a similar feeling.

Around eleven we went to the barn and Oslo and I had a great workout. It hasn't been that warm, low 20s, but the humidity got to both of us and at the end of the ride we were both fairly sweaty!!

The afternoon was filled with a quick shopping trip and lunch. Afterwards we got to watch the polo! Such an awesome game to watch in person. We learned so much about the rules with the help of Chelsea's blackberry. There are 6 Chukkas in a game, each 7 minutes long. Chukkas are like periods. At the end of each Chukkas they must switch ponies just because of the fitness demand of the game. And when they switch ponies, they just jump from one horse to another, no actual getting off and then getting onto the other. Also, there are four players on the field from each team at once and two refs who also ride ponies. It is a very physical sport with checking and hooking allowed! The ponies are usually a cross between quarter horses and thoroughbreds and the best ones usually come from Argentina. Oh, and at half time, the spectators all take to the field and fill in the divets made by the ponies ripping around! It was neat to see hundreds of people all stomping in the divets on the field!

Tomorrow I will ride Oslo again and then we will likely tour around Lexington for a while. In addition, the Ontario horses are supposed to be arriving tomorrow at the park so we will go greet them. Magic and Oslo don't move to the park until Monday though - they are enjoying there large field too much!