TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/988448
Nor can you raise thoroughbreds, of course, without post and rail—often mile after mile of it. But every fence has two sides. From the inside of a horse farm, its first purpose is to keep mares and foals off the freeway. From the outside, a fence can seem a symbol of a more fundamental seg- regation. As the tide of urban expansion laps arounds their ankles, moreover, Bluegrass horsemen have often shared their neigh- bours' sense of alienation. Country is coun- try, town is town, and never the twain shall meet. The only ground uniting them tended to be that which divided them. Happily, here on the very city limits of Lexington, you can discover a new enlight- enment. On the face of it, nobody should feel more defensive, more jealous of their heritage, than the custodians of Mill Ridge Farm. But sit down a while with Headley and Price Bell, respectively son and grandson of the venerable Alice Headley Chandler, and you will take the pulse of a brand of conser- vation that is all dynamism; you will see swords of cultural resentment being forged into ploughshares of co-operation. Some other time, it would be fun to come back and hear more about Mill Ridge's own story; to go back to the 1964 mating, be- tween Attica and Sir Gaylord, that persuad- ed a generation of Europeans to dismantle barriers of another kind. (The result was Sir Ivor, the first American-bred colt sold at auction to win the Epsom Derby.) Diesis stood here; Gone West, too. Never mind all