It’s been said that of the more than one million passengers who travel to Lexington through its Blue Grass Airport each year, about 600 of those are horses. Though certainly an unusual stat, this mathematical indicator is illustrative of the region’s love affair with the magnificent mammals. Upon arrival, an oversized, gilded-gold and ornately-framed portrait of Big Lex (a Thoroughbred racehorse of the 1800s named Lexington, now the municipal mascot) serves as the unofficial greeter to this city situated “where the South begins.”
Traveling its roads deep into horse country, past acres of green grass and alongside rows of wooden post and rail fencing, a visit to a horse farm here is the equivalent of a tour of Buckingham Palace in London—it’s quintessential Lexington. Of the more than 400 farms, the choices are many. Our choice: Ashford Stud—now home to American Pharoah, the first horse to win the Triple Crown and Breeder’s Cup—is a spare-no-expense equine estate.
