The Twins

Summer vacation: A horse adventure

Emma & Sara Simmons

(8/2021) We love summer vacation. We work hard during the school year. We always do our homework and turn it in on time. We practice our music and do our Science projects. And we’ve both made straight A’s ever since Kindergarten. So when it gets to be summer, we’re ready for some time off. This year our family went to Colorado to visit our grandparents. We’ve never been out West before and it took quite a while to get there. We drive, you see. We drove and drove for 1,600 miles, and that was only on the way there. It took us 4 days to get there, but another 4 days (1600 more miles) to get back home. That's a long time to be cooped up in a car!

But it was actually kind of fun. We got to see so much we had never seen before, like acres and acres of windmills and oil pumps throughout the rural West, tall grass prairies in Missouri, the Great Plains in Kansas and Colorado, and finally the very rocky Rocky Mountains. And all along the way, we saw horses. So if you’ve never been away from the East coast, rest assured that horses are all over the United States. It’s a comforting feeling for horse lovers.

When we finally got to Colorado, imagine our surprise when we drove into our grandparents neighborhood and saw the neighborhood sign, "Flying Horses." Our Mom took a photo of us in front of the development’s mascots! We wanted to get on these huge steel steeds, but they were at least 25 or 30 hands (about 9 feet if you need a hand to feet conversion). A bit too tall to jump on. Our vacation was going really well so far.

We had a great time in Colorado. There are so many horses and horse farms. Everywhere we drove we saw horses and more horses. And while it was interesting to see Western horses, it also made us think alot about Mike’s horses back home. We wondered how Wesley, Kit, and Scott were doing. It kind of surprised us how much we missed our Maryland thoroughbreds. And while we had a great time visiting our grandparents, when it was time to start our journey back home, we were kind of glad because it meant that we would see our three sweet steeds soon.

But little did we know that we still had another adventure to enjoy. Our parents had a surprise for us. After the long drive back through the prairies and plains, the windmills and oil fields, and the zillion acres of corn and cows, we finally arrived in the great state of Kentucky. Yes, horse country. The site of the Kentucky Derby. The state with more Thoroughbreds than any other state in the Union. Home of bluegrass and hotbloods. If you’re a lover of all things horses, we don’t need to tell you how ecstatic we were. Our parents had planned two equine outings for us.

The next morning we went to a place called New Vocations. They work with retired or injured racehorses to get them ready for adoption and new lives off the race track. This was an amazing place with beautiful horses, mostly thoroughbreds. We took a tour of the farm and got to see more than a dozen horses.

Some horses there had to do rehab to help them recover from injuries. Others are very jumpy and happened to nip a lot, habits they learned at the racetrack. These horses had to be taught how to relax and get along with other horses and people before they could be adopted.

As we walked through the barns, it reminded us of how lucky Mike’s horses are. Mike takes such good care of Wesley, Kit, and Scott, all x-race horses. And he’s teaching us to do the same. So many race horses are treated like ‘things’ that have value only as long as they are winning races. If they get a bad injury or don’t win enough races, then they are not important any longer. They are disposable. So are lucky to find their way to people like Mike, others, not so lucky.

Mike treats his horses like they are important no matter if they are sick or well. If Wesley gets sick or Kit gets injured, he doesn’t just get rid of them. He makes sure they have everything they need to get better. And if they need weeks or even months to heal, Mike’s ok with that. He makes sure they get the right medical care and lets them just roam around the fields, grazing on sweet green grass.

The way Mike treats his horses is the way the horse owner in our next Kentucky adventure treated his thoroughbreds. Saxony Farms in Lexington is a beautiful old Southern farm that breeds and raises horses.

When we got there, the owner, Mr Hundley, showed us around and told us about the farm. It was where he was born and grew up so he knew it very well. They only have about a dozen mares and foals and Mr Hundley said he liked it that way. If he has more horses, he told us, he wouldn’t be able to really get to know them. As we walked around the barn and met the mares and their foals, he said that he could tell we were used to being around horses. We told him about Mike and his wife’s farm and horses in Maryland. Mr Hundley said that Mike had done a great job teaching us about horses.

And we were so glad to have been taught so well about how to interact with horses because Mr. Hundley said we could help him lead the horses and foals from the barn to the field. And we got to pet them and watch them play too. We never knew how soft and fluffy foals are. And it was amazing to see them darting and zigzagging around.

By the end of the day, we were so happy to have had two amazing horse adventures in Kentucky. And the next morning, we were more than ready to get back in our car again because we knew it was pointed toward ‘our’ horses back home.