I was REALLY looking forward to Kentucky this year, y’all. We didn’t get to go last year, and I haven’t been away from the farm for more than 24 hours since like… the last time we went to Kentucky in 2023. A change of scenery (and a few days without horses to take care of) sounded like just the ticket.

This year we opted to drive, and luckily my SO let us take his hybrid. 50mpg? Yes please. I literally spent like $100 in gas for the entire 1500 mile round trip. Every time I filled it up I thought surely something was wrong with the gas pump. I’m used to trucks.

Anyway, we left around 5am on Thursday morning, and with a fairly uneventful drive we rolled into the KHP campground at 3:45. We were staying with our friend Kim in her camper, which was fantastic. In years past we’ve rented an RV and either drove it ourself or had it dropped off at the campground. Staying on site is for sure the way to go, it’s just really nice to not have to park or deal with traffic getting in and out of KHP every day. Plus there were multiple times where we came back to the camper to either drop things off, or grab something, or just chill for a bit before heading back into the hustle and bustle.

When we got there we quickly headed over to do a first perusal of the trade fair just to scope it out (and maybe grab a couple things…. ya know…) before heading out to get our what-has-become-tradition kentucky tattoos. Hillary and I got the number 42 (to be explained at a later date) and then we grabbed some dinner and headed back to the camper.

Friday was WET. Like wet wet wet. I was a walking prune all day long. Alex (trainer’s husband and sometimes-fill-in-trainer) had a horse in the 4* at 8:38 so we headed out early hoping to get some breakfast and hit the official merch store before his test. Breakfast was a bust – nothing was open yet at 8 – and as we were standing in the merch tent I started to hear rumblings of thunder. I pulled up the radar and there was a big line of angry red on the radar, close enough to where I was like there’s no way Alex is gonna get through his test before this hits. Sure enough, another horse later they went into a rain delay and sent poor Alex, who was warmed up and ready to go, back to the barn.

We took refuge in the Arion tent for a while, trying to hang out near the stadium, but the delay kept getting longer and longer, so eventually we gave up and retreated to the trade fair. It worked out fine, we were able to watch Alex’s test on the big screen in there, and we made a big thorough lap around all the stores.

By the time we made it through everything it was lunch time, and then we headed back to the rv to try to dry out a little bit before we got in the car and headed over to Spy Coast, a big breeding farm that’s right next door to KHP. Some of you may remember that I bought a dose of Nice de Prissey frozen in Spy Coast’s Valentine’s Day sale, and when I reached out to my contact to see if we might be able to come see stallions while we were in town, she said absolutely. I won’t pass up that opportunity. Seeing them in person is always so beneficial.

They have a lot of stallions on site, all of whom have jumped to a high level. We got an up close and personal view of all of them, and they pulled them out of their stalls so we could get a good look at how they’re put together and see what their general temperament was like. Every time we get to see stallions in this format there end up being some that I thought I’d love from their pics/videos and just don’t, and others that I didn’t love from their pics/videos but like a whole lot more in person. This time was no different.

Luckily Nice de Prissey remained a solid favorite – I really like him a lot – but my other favorite was a stallion they just recently got, Clockwise de Greenhill Z. I wouldn’t mind adding a dose to my tank at some point.

After that we headed to get some BBQ for dinner before blasting ourselves with a very hot shower at the campground (the water pressure is legendary) and were actually in bed pretty early.

On Saturday morning we dipped over to the trade fair again because Ride Equisafe posted on Instagram that they’d marked down their sale stuff even more. I didn’t find anything else to tempt me, but Hillary was cold (it felt a lot colder than I expected) and bought a couple jackets. While she was getting rung up I wandered into the booth next door and realized they had Grand Prix tech fabric show coats on sale for $75. Um, whut. I tried on the navy and gray one and it fit me like an absolute glove, so yup, had to have it.

Then we made our way back up to the Hill for breakfast and FINALLY got our crepe (honestly, how much do I have to pay that guy to open before 9:15, I’m dying of starvation by that point) before heading out on the XC course.

The wind was so cold I ended up putting my show coat on as a middle layer. Kentucky really went for it with the wild weather swings this year. I was wearing shorts on Thursday, was a walking prune on Friday, froze to death on Saturday, and on Sunday I got sunburned. On brand.

Anyway, I had a couple people I was planning to find/meet up with on course, and since Alex wasn’t going until the later group in the 4*, I decided to start trying to find the first person – Jim, the CEO of FLAIR strips. We’ve chatted via Zoom about some products they’re developing and he texted me on Friday asking if I was going to be at Kentucky and if so we should meet up. So I found Jim, we chatted with him for a while and got a look at some prototypes, and then spent a while helping him spot rider numbers and whether or not their horses had FLAIR strips on.

Then Alex was out, and I positioned myself in between the coffin and the Cosequin Cove water so I could see him come through both places. His mare (a homebred!) was on fire and absolutely ate up a tough course. That was fun to watch.

We walked around the course for a bit longer after that, then headed back to the trade fair for lunch and to buy some damn gloves because both of us had frozen hands. We ended up running into Jim again, and he introduced us to his friend JP who owns the brand Zentora. I’d seen several upper level horses/riders wearing the martingale he developed but didn’t know anything about it, so he told us about that and his halter (which had caught my eye on an earlier pass-by but I didn’t stop to look closer). The design and thought process behind both is really cool and innovative so it was super interesting. We ended up talking to JP for longer than I realized and the 5* already started by the time we booked it back out to the course. I missed the entirety of Calvin’s round and didn’t even hear about it until that night when I got on facebook.

We headed over to say hi to Jen at her tailgate first before meandering around the course. Along the way I met up with one of the companies I do social media for, so we could actually get a picture of all of us together for the first time. Then we kept walking, ending up down in the far field where we could see several jumps at once. I was delighted watching Commando come through – absolutely LOVE that horse.

After XC we headed back to the campground for our Patreon happy hour (I think I ate 90% of the cheese by myself) and then back into the stadium for the Grand Prix show jumping. Kent Farrington and Greya were absolutely phenomenal, although I also really loved Eddy Blue.

And then you’ll never guess who we ran into again: Jim. He just kept popping up everywhere. He ended up sitting down by us to watch the GP, and then invited us to go grab a drink at a Mexican restaurant with him and a couple of other people. By the time we got back it was past 10pm, so it was a long day but a very good one. Granted, I think I used up the entirety of my social skills for the next 6 months.

Sunday morning we headed out early so we could make it to the jog (the jog is right up there with XC on my list of cannot-be-missed things… I like to see the horses up close and get a good look at their conformation). Originally we weren’t sure if we’d end up staying for any of the show jumping on Sunday since we had an 11 hour drive home, but we did sit and watch a good chunk of the 4*, mostly to see Alex go. After he was done we made a run for the food so that we wouldn’t end up having to stand in long lines at the lunch rush. We’d made one last round of the trade fair that morning, and thought about staying for the 5* show jumping, but it was such a long break before it started and it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Michi was going to win, so we decided to head home.

All in all it was a great trip to Kentucky, I got some stuff done work-wise, we got to see lots of friends and make some new ones, found some great deals (always a perk), have some fun new stuff to try out, and saw some fabulous horses and riders. Can’t beat that!

Until next time, bluegrass.