Looking for some 'Horse-pitality' in Kentucky

 

For the second year, Fred and I will ride two days of the Horsey Hundred in and around Georgetown, Ky. during Memorial Day weekend. (Also, our Atlanta friend Cindy is joining us this year.)

As we prepared to head up to north-central Kentucky, an area so famous for breeding, raising and racing steeds that it is referred to as "horse country," I started wondering why Kentucky? I found this in a 2010 Slate article. 

They claim that because Kentucky’s hills are filled with limestone, the bluegrass that grows there is rich in calcium. This supposedly builds unusually strong bones in horses. (Spring water with a heavy limestone component is allegedly also what makes Kentucky bourbon so good.) 

Other reasons––less mystical and more historical––are:  Wealthy Virginian horse families began to settle in the state in 1770, and while other states were beginning to outlaw horse racing, Kentucky embraced the sport and began to build race tracks in the 1880s.ettled in the the state in 1770, and brought their horses and horse operations with them, and later in the 1880s, while horse racing was being outlawed in the northeast, Kentucky welcomed the sport and began to build race tracks.