My Royal Experience: The Horses

  Happy new year everyone! Another year has come and gone. Although 2014 was great, let's all make 2015 even better.

  Now, after a long delay, here is the second post about my experience at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.

  I've already talked about the food, the shops and the other animals, but what I really bought the tickets to see was the horses. Numerous competitions were held throughout the day where you could watch riders of different levels compete.

  What was also great was that the stable area was open to the public. That meant you could walk around, pet all of the horses and meet other horse people. Well, almost. There was a section of the barn where the public was not allowed to enter; the FEI location. Which is understandable.

  But, that doesn't mean that you couldn't get up close to your favourite riders anyway. If you hung around the stables long enough, you'd be able to see international athletes walking by you and watch them warm up in the ring. In fact, we passed by Beezie Madden on her way to the arena for her course walk and we sat and watched Ian Millar ride past us in the warm up ring too many times to count. That made it quite a unique experience.

  What was also unique was the stable itself. The stable, called the Horse Palace, is huge. There are so many stalls that I didn't even bother to count. But what makes the Horse Palace really unique is it is two levels. There are horses stalled on both the bottom and top levels of the stable. To get to the top level, there is a ramp where horses are always going up or down. If you're unable to make it up the ramp, there's even an elevator to help you reach the top too.

  The Horse Palace was a great place to visit. Who knew there was a stable like this in downtown Toronto! You can even take lessons there year round if you live nearby.

 We had a blast walking around the stalls and saying hello to the horses. I even ran into a friend (who I haven't seen in about 7 years) who was competing that day, which was a very nice surprise.

  Thank you for reading and I wish you all a wonderful new year. Don't forget to read the other posts about my experience at the Royal if you've missed them:

Part 1 - My Royal Experience: The Venue

Part 2 - My Royal Experience: The Horses

Part 3 - My Royal Experience: The Shows

Until next time, happy riding!