We arrived back in Lexington on the 3rd August (happy birthday Charlie). The main reason for returning to Kentucky was that we were fortunate to be able to book a tour of Three Chimneys Stud Farm at Midway KY.

 

  Three Chimneys Farm is one of the premier breeding farms in Kentucky. They provide shuttle stallions to Australia, in fact, two of their stallions had left for Australia a few days before we arrived. Big Brown is standing at Vinery Stud in the Hunter Valley NSW and War Chant is standing at Yarradale Stud in Western Australia for the 2011 breeding season.

 

We found a covered bridge about 30 miles from the farm so decided to drive over and take a look. The bridge had been damaged during flooding in 1997 so it is not in use but maintained for visitors to the area.

Our tour time was 1pm and as we arrived in the area 45 minutes early decided to find a bite to eat before heading to the farm.

What better than sharing one Darlin’ Jeans Granny’s grilled sandwich. It was yum and we both really enjoyed it. This place was really old world but very popular with visitors and locals.

The tour was fantastic, we only toured the stallion area but were really impressed with the barns and the whole set up. The stallions we saw were; Flower Alley, Sky Mesa, Dynaformer, Lewis Michael by Rahy who is retired and is living out his days in luxury at Three Chimneys Farm.  The stallions each have their own box on the farm, four to a barn.

Previous occupants brass nameplates remain on the box along the name of the current occupant. Each stallion has their own day paddock and is turned out everyday weather permitting. Also found it interesting that all stallions with the exception of one or two are exercised on the track or hot walker every day to maintain their fitness

Seattle Slew won the Triple Crown (1977) and stood at the farm for all but the last month of his life. The farm has a statue of Seattle Slew which is popular with visitors.

So that’s it all the things we wanted to do have been checked off for the road trip now we just have the drive back to Dallas to begin the next phase of our trip. Visiting family in Abilene and a trip to Aspen with Scott and Leonie.

We are heading home (Dallas) via Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and will cover as many miles as we can each day.