I’ve been chilling with my Chromies this week. A gracious friend invited me along for her birthday party and The Chrome Experience and what an experience it was! Two time Horse of the Year, California Chrome will soon be shipping to Chile for their breeding season. There are just a few more dates to visit with Chrome while he is still at home, in America.
Living in the Horse Capital of the World, I get to see a lot of champions but by far, my favorite is California Chrome. I have made the short trip to the farm in my neighboring city on multiple occasions. Chrome lives at Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, KY. Founded in 1976 and occupying 1,600 acres of gorgeous horse country, it is a beautiful place to visit. When Chrome was healing his cannon bone between races I saw him twice. When he retired from racing to become a stallion, I paid him a visit again. This week, I visited the charming champ once more. He has 3 more dates to receive visitors next week and then he will begin to prepare to travel for quarantine and the Chile breeding season, not to return again until nearly Christmas.
Chrome can strike the most stunning of poses. He is aware of his large fan base and he enjoys hamming it up for the Chromies. I enjoyed taking pictures of him and with him in the paddock that leads from his barn to the breeding shed. I also got to see him in his stall and then released into his private pasture which he announced with a pleasant nicker.
A few of Chrome’s first foals live on the farm too. I liked petting the foals and admiring the mares at one of the barns on the property. Some were turned out in the fields and others were in the stalls with their mares. The foals range in age from a few weeks to a few months. Some of the foals already enjoy being petted by the visitors. The horses at Taylor Made learn early that they have adoring fans who love them.
Please, enjoy the photos from my most recent visit and be sure that I will be back to see him in early 2019. It will still be years before we will be able to enjoy watching a Chrome sired foal race. I hope they are champs like their father.
As we anxiously await the third jewel of the Triple Crown my mind is constantly drawing parallels to the 2014 edition. I remember it had been so long since the fans had a Triple Crown winner but I was so certain that a flashy chestnut who did all his preps in California and then stunned in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes would surely win. Unfortunately, Chrome was stepped on and injured at the start of the Belmont Stakes. That wound led to his finish in 4th. I pray that Justify, another flashy chestnut with a California career and all the other Belmont contenders have an injury free race. Check back next week for stories on The Acorn and the Belmont Stakes as I prepare myself and my followers for an unprecedented weekend of racing.
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How can I obtain this story in printer version. Would love to have it
I am sorry to say that I would not know how to do edit it to print format. Thanks for asking.