Things to Do in Talladega

Along Stepping Stone Farm's 130 acres of pastures, trails, and tree-studded hills, owner Courtney Huguley provides opportunities for students to hone horsemanship skills and connect with natural surroundings. During lessons, Courtney and assistant instructor Melissa Croxton teach students the basics of saddleseat riding, a traditional English style from which many other methods have originated, including jousting with swimming noodles. Once students gain comfort and confidence during private lessons, the instructors introduce them to group lessons with up to four other riders to master walking, trotting, and synchronized neighing.

Weeklong summer camps are also available for younger riders. During these sessions, each camper is assigned to one specific horse, learning responsibility and companionship.

From their home base at Frank House Municipal Golf Course, the PGA pros at the Harper Miller School of Golf help golfers fix broken swings and patch up holes in strategic thinking. Lessons zero in on the fundamentals of grip, posture, and alignment—key components of a winning swing and textbook ice-cream-cone devouring. Short-game clinics help to develop confidence around the green with practice on the putting stroke, chipping accuracy, and bunker play. The pros also follow students out onto the course for playing lessons, which focus on such course-management tactics as how to choose the right club, when to lay up, and when to lie down and take a moment to enjoy the beauty of nature around you.

Led by director Carla Higginbotham, the instructors of Dance Trance aim to create a fun, lively workout using intuitive, easy-to-follow dance moves and upbeat music. The instructors demonstrate the routine without shouting disruptive directions as students shake and shimmy their way through strength building and cardio drills.

The sleek, dark body of the A-12 Blackbird is invisible to radar detection, but that doesn’t stop it from attracting the attention of every visitor to the Southern Museum of Flight in sight. The retired bomber is just one of the aircrafts in the Southern Museum of Flight’s outdoor collection, and it gives visitors a glimpse of what’s to come. Stepping inside, you can almost hear the purring engines from the Korean War jet or 1920s Huff-Daland crop duster.

Not only does the museum bring high-flown feats of engineering artistry down to earth, it sets its impressive collection of airplanes into realistic dioramas. The exhibits, designed to give life to the history of southern aviation, sprawl across 75,000 square feet and includes photographs, models, original engines, and the tiny gnomes that power them. The Korean War Jets exhibit, for example, uses mannequins and a surprisingly realistic mock-up of Kimpo Air Force Base to tell the story of No Kum Sok, a North Korean lieutenant in the Air Force who defected.