Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Newmarket



Newmarket is known as the home of horse racing in England, and since it is just a few miles from Cambridge, Mom and I decided to 'investigate it' yesterday, so off we went~


Home to 60 stud farms and over 2,000 race horses, you would expect this to be a large town, but it isn't. There are only 15,000 people who call Newmarket home. 1 in 4 people work with the thoroughbred industry, and there are over 180 equine (horse) veterinarians (and even an equine swimming pool!)

We were told to go to the National Stud, a farm Queen Elizabeth began in 1967. We took a tour and were impressed~500 acres dedicated to raising these beautiful horses! This time of year was the perfect time to go, because many of the foals have just been born!


There were 14 separate building units. This was the stallion unit.


Each stallion had his own acre "kingdom."


This beauty's name is Cockney Rebel. Winner of several prestigious races.


We learned a lot about raising Thoroughbreds, what an operation!

They say you can tell a horses configuration (what they will look like as a mature animal) almost immediately after birth. This little foal our guide told us would be a great "sprinter"


You can buy one of these little beauties for only about $100,000.00 (and up)~

We were content just to look~

2 comments:

Teacherperson said...

That would have been neat to see. Boy, all these posts came all at once!

Mark said...

I always thought Jim was the National Stud of England