Love The Place You Live: Haras du Pin

Not long after we moved here, when we’d driven around a bit, we noticed signs that said Haras du [fill in the blank], all over the place. When we inquired about them, we were told they indicated horse breeding farms, and that the horse-breeding capital for all of France was right here in the town of Argentan. It’s called Haras du Pin. (You can pronounce is Huh-rah-do-pan.)

I can’t wait to tell you about our visit, but first, I need to apologize. I intended to write about William the Conquerer’s Castle in Caen for this post, because we spent Saturday in Caen running errands. But I didn’t get any photos! Not one. So I’m sharing our visit to Haras du Pin instead. It happened one year ago this very month. So the good news is: at least the photos look seasonal. : )

We weren’t sure what to expect when we arrived, but we bought tickets, entered the beautiful grounds and immediately joined a guided tour. It was in French so I didn’t get a ton out of it, but the tour took us around the buildings and into the stalls where we could see the horses.

The stalls were clean and the horses were very well tended.

Some stalls had labels indicating prizes (at least I think that’s what that is. Hah!).

And every stall listed the horse’s parents. The sign above is for Hannah Hill Kemo Sabe (rad name!), who happens to be an American horse. I’m so curious: do they get here by boat or by plane?

After the tour, we were invited to wander the grounds. At first, we thought the grounds were simply a large courtyard surrounded by buildings, but then we got a longer view:

After our visit, we all wanted to go home and watch Secretariat and learn more about horses. It definitely felt like I was visiting a world I know nothing about! Everybody know that young-girls-obsessed-with-horses is common stereotype, but I think I missed that phase. I feel much more curious about, and respectful of horses now as an adult, than I did as a child.

How about you? Did you ever fall in love with horses? Do you love them still?

One more fun fact: Last fall, Maude and Ralph participated in their school’s track and field program, and the regional track meet took place at Haras du Pin! Isn’t that a riot? Ralph also said another fun thing I should mention is that the athletes were served hot cocoa and cake. : )

Friends, I hope Love The Place You Live is helping you get out there and explore your communities. I LOVE reading the reports about your adventures. It’s so fun to see the column grow!

The next Love the Place You Live post will be Monday, September 17th. I encourage you to do something local between now and then, because I’d love to read your writeup! I’ll try to remind everyone a few days before.

Love The Place You Live: August 2012 Linkup

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