Thoroughbred Makeover: The Road Trip
The time for the long haul down to the Kentucky Horse Park was finally here, and poor Arrow was going to have to be by himself for a few days. We left Kansas City, Missouri around the afternoon and our first destination was Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Nine hours seemed a little long, so we stopped overnight at Rock-N-4L Training Facility www.rockn4l.com . We were very familiar with this place because when we adopted Arrow from Makers Mark, we stopped at the same facility heading home. Also, when we moved up to Kansas City from Florida, that was one of the layover barns we chose for the journey. After around 4 to 5 hours of driving, we finally made it to Mt. Vernon. As soon as we got out of the car, we were bombarded by a cute, playful kitten. It was jumping in the air, trying to catch a low flying butterfly. I wanted to take him home! Arrow unloaded like a good boy and walked around calmly. After a little bit of walking, while his stall was being prepared, I headed into the barn down the aisle way. I unwrapped his legs while he was eating and as soon as I left his stall and turned around the corner, three identical kittens were hanging out. These guys were a little older than the butterfly kitten and were just super lovable. Two of them would do the same things at the same time, like mirror images.
In the morning, the barn owner was nice enough to let Arrow into the arena so he could stretch his legs before round two of the trip which was around 3 to 4 hours. However, that morning he wanted no part of going back into the trailer. I didn’t blame him; I mean, would you want to get back in something where you couldn’t do anything for hours? We finally got him to load, and we were back on the road. When we reached Lexington, Kentucky we of course got lost again making our trip an extra 5 to 10 minutes longer. After we entered the horse park and went to the stables, the goal was to unload on the grass. Arrow, at the time, wasn’t the best loader or unloader and I didn’t feel comfortable letting him out on concrete. He unloaded successfully and the journey was complete!