Barn tours in Lexington, KY

[SLW]

We will be in Lexington in late October and are going to add an extra day or two to the trip for some sightseeing. Are there any specific TB farm tour companies that do half day tours you can recommend? Is it better to pick a couple specific farms that do tours and take those in??

I’ve been to Rolex so have enjoyed seeing the KY Horse park on several occasions.

Anyway, when I googled TB farm tours a lot of data came up so I thought I’d ask COTH for recommendations. FTR, we are staying up in Georgetown and will be at the Breeders Cup so Keenland is covered. Eeep.

[ActNatural]

Id recommend going to farms yourself rather than taking one of the guided can tours. I did the van tour the first year and it was pretty lame. Might be fun if you don’t know much about horses but we basically ended up driving around famous farms and getting out occasionally to see a grave or something similar. It was fine but boring at times.

This year, while at Rolex, we did actual farms tours. We went to four farms; Normandy farms, Clariborn farms, and some other barn… Can’t remember but was gorgeous! These are all by appointment and free but donations recommend. You do have to drive to get to them but it’s beautiful country so we didn’t mind. After you visit Claiborne, check out Lil’s coffee house for lunch in Paris, KY. So good! Everything is homemade and the pimenro cheese is amazing. We also did Normany farms that day since that’s on the way to Paris. Normandy was my favorite! We were the only guests that day and got all up in the middle of a huge herd of cuddly broodmares. We were in heaven! Plenty of good winery’s in the area too!!

[SLW]

Thank you for the insight and tips!!!

[bugsynskeeter]

How late in October? Breeder’s Cup is the last weekend in October/Nov 1.

[King_s_Ransom]

SLW – ActNatural is right – private touring is way better. However, since it’s the Breeder’s Cup, they might not offer private tours because they will be very busy. This is what happened when we went to WEG. We called around a bit and were told they do private tours, but not this particular time because there were so many in town doing tours. They DO want you to make an appointment.

We ended up doing one van tour and compared to the private tour we did at Claiborne, it was okay. I would do it again. But the private tour was better. And really, you HAVE to do Claiborne if nothing else. You will get choked up there when you see the cemetery with Nasrullah and Bold Ruler and of course Secretariat.

I mean, if you love horses …

[LaurieB]

SLW, did you see this?

http://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/horse-country-gears-up-with-bc-tours/

[SLW]

[QUOTE=LaurieB;8260878]
SLW, did you see this?

http://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/horse-country-gears-up-with-bc-tours/[/QUOTE]

Wow thank you! I had not seen that tour format and what a great idea to combine all the things that help a race horse in it’s career. I had added the extra days after the races but may have to rethink that to get this tour.

KR- thanks for the tip too! So Claiborne is the one to not miss eh?? As for Secretariat, as a kid my barn use to tour Meadow Stud in Doswell, VA (just beside Richmond) It was dreamy in it’s simplicity but horse focus. Highlight one year was standing in the broodmare field admiring them and the farm manager said “Keep an eye out for this mare’s now 2 year old colt because we have high hopes for him.” The mare, Somethingroyal. Her then two year old colt, Secretariat. Instant fan for life!

[Say_Goodnight_Gracie]

Keep in mind that some stallions shuttle to the Southern Hemisphere in the fall and might not be around at that time. Some farms won’t do fall tours for this reason.