TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1008281
Lyon paces the barn aisle like a nervous parent, praying for a smooth delivery and a healthy foal as Summer Wind Farm manager Bobby Spalding and his team oversee the birth. A few minutes later, Spalding calls Lyon over to see the big, beautiful chestnut colt by Union Rags lying com- fortably beside his dam in the deep straw. Lyon breathes a sigh of relief and immediately jumps in to towel off and welcome her newest addition. Watching Lyon tend to the foal and observing both her level of comfort in the stall and the mare's comfort with her owner's presence, it is clear that the Little Rock, Arkansas, native is a true horse lover who spends plenty of time bonding with her animals. "It is such a passion. I love it," Lyon said earlier in the day as we sipped sweet tea in her stunning Kentucky home with her constant companion, Mikey the Jack Rus- sell, sitting between us. "I love being out there in the field with the babies more than almost anything. Now that [my husband] Frank is gone, it gives me something to look forward to. Every day, I can wake up and think, 'I wonder if so and so is going to foal today or I wonder if this foal is going to race or I wonder if something we bred is in the races today that we can go watch.' It is some- thing that gives you a reason to get out of bed, so I am very grateful." The creation of Summer Wind Farm is a love story in more ways than one. It is the culmination of Lyon's life- long dream and love of horses, as well as a major part of her and her late husband's own love story.