Studly Horses 2/09/09

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Wednesday 2 september
Bags and breaky 7am Leave 8am

The pastries at breakfast were delicious. We headed off in fairly nice but drizzly conditions to the National Irish Horse Stud. I thought it was going to be a boring stop, but it was a lovely, peaceful morning. The highlight was seeing Vintage Crop, who’s in retirement there. We saw the stallions, especially Invisible Spirit, who had covered 110 mares that season and is worth over $US 60 million. They know when the mares are in season by using a teaser horse. The guide, David, was informative and interesting. I had a quickl walk through the Japanese gardens, picked some clover and back to the bus by 10:40. It was a long drive to Killarney and John filled in the time by holding a limerick competition. It was lots of fun and everyone got right into it. That kept us awake for a bit of the trip.  We had to stop just outside Killarney at a gift shop and got a free Irish Whiskey. I bought Britt’s shamrock earrings here. I was impressed with Killarney on the drive in, but after a short walk through the town, I discovered it wasn’t as fancy as I first thought.
We all met at the bar at 6:45 for some free drinks. It was a nice and social evening. I got a little leather luggage tag, as a gift for being a ‘repeat customer”. Dinner was a very nice buffet.

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