Sight-Seeing in the Bluegrass: Part 1

I’ve neglected Lull this week because my mother is visiting from the Land of Lincoln. I haven’t had a chance to write until now, and I have to be quick about it.

We started the week with an early morning tour of a few thoroughbred farms, where I could have stayed all day communing with the horses yet my mother had to be coerced into feeding a single carrot to a single pony. We do not share my equine appreciation.

The stallion pictured in silhouette is a “teaser.” He’s introduced to a female horse to determine her mating readiness. If she shows interest, she’s swiftly transferred away from the scene into a breeding barn, where she’ll consummate her desires with a stallion of provenance. If she’s not interested, which she’ll make clear through kicking and biting the Teaser, both horses will be returned to their respective living quarters until another attempt is made.

Though never allowed to mate with the royalty of the farm, the Teaser is free to pursue the wet-nurse mares (these are the horses kept on hand to provide milk to the blueblood foals whose mothers either reject them or can’t produce milk). Regardless of the Teaser’s consolation prize, I still felt bad for him. The poor bloke was a mere footnote to the tour and didn’t even get any carrots.

Rats. I have to cut this short because The Visitor is awake. I’ll try to post more tidbits later.