Probably the most photographed farm in Kentucky is the Calumet Farm located on Versailles Road right outside of town. It is world reknowned and if you are lucky you can go on a horse farm tour and it will be one of the stops. Like me. And yes it is the Baking Powder Family (for you US folks).
Quite a few years ago the farm was sold to some family from Poland (I think) and it is for sale again. I don't know if it has been sold or not. So as you enjoy these pictures please know the farm has been neglected (by Kentucky horse farm standards that is).
I'll start with the quintessential central Kentucky photo. Everyone takes this picture.
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| Mare |
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| Horse Barn |
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Inside
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| Cemetery |
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| Tombstone |
Yes, they even have obituaries in the paper for famous horses. Nijinsky is buried somewhere around here but I had to hurriedly snap my pictures. The guide was watching me closely, no doubt wondering why I wasn't hanging on his every word about the great drama of
Alydar . He's buried here too.
Here is a nice serene spot you can reflect on how dang wealthy you must be to have a manicured graveyard for your horses. Note the white jockey. 30 years ago he would have been black and lots and lots of people would have had the black jockey statue in their yards. Kinda like the pink flamingos in Florida, but they have remained the politically correct color.
I liked this horse and she liked me. I would have taken her home, but I didn't have a couple million dollars handy. And that lady? She kept popping up in my pictures! I was tempted to photoshop a moustache on her to disguise her identity so I could uphold my standards of not publishing photos of people without permission.
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Stable Boy
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Frisky Foal Being Weaned
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| The Horse's Ass |
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| Watering Hole |
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| Calumet Office |
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Tobacco
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This photo above was just to date the trip. Tobacco hangs in the barns in the fall, and it smells heavenly when it is curing. Nothing like you would expect.
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| Bye Now! |
10 comments:
That was a very interesting tour of Calumet Farms. I would have never seen it otherwise so thanks for letting me see your part of the world.
Wow. I could never have imagined such a place. A cemetery for horses!? I'd have never thought such a place existed on a residential scale. But, it makes sense to me, I suppose. Rich folk indeed.
This makes me want to go to Kentucky.
An interesting place! : )
Veeery, very nice! =)
Thank you for joining =)
since i am from the south - & my family are tobacco farmers - love seeing the tobacco barn. great shots. love all the details. ( :
This was very interesting...and you have a wonderful sense of humor...I wish you would have put a mustache on the lady. lol And the horse at the end....he DOES look like he's saying, "bye now!" Wonderfully entertaining and educational (for me) post! Thanks for sharing...I will be your new follower!
Thoroughly enjoyed your post Mary. Always something else to take in from another part of the world.
Oh Mary this is a beautiful farm I do not know that much about horses or raising them other than race horses are expensive. Thank you for sharing the tour. Hope all is well. Hug B
Wait, wait, wait.... How did you get a tour of Calumet? They do not give public tours. I am interested how you and your group go on to the farm. I have been dreaming of going through those red gates since I was a kid.
The tour was conducted by the Kentucky Horse Park. The driver apparently selects the farms and he was John Y Brown's chauffeur for a long time and has many contacts. We didn't actually tour the farm we drove up and looked at the barns and horses and the graveyard.
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