Southwest’s top stallions, including the
great thoroughbred racehorse Alysheba,
who won two legs of the Triple Crown in
1987 and sired 11 horses that have gone on
to win high-profile races.
You’d be forgiven if you confused
the stallion barn for an exclusive hotel.
Constructed with cherry wood and cob-
blestone, and with straw in the stalls
rather than shavings, it’s as elegant and
immaculate as it is secure and profession-
al. Framed “silks” line the walls as if in a
museum—jockeys once wore these color-
ful jackets in races to indicate the owner
of the horse and help identify the horse
and rider. The office, which is connected
to the stallion barn, has observation win-
dows and security cameras trained on the
horses, leaving no doubt what the truly
valuable assets are here.
Visitors can watch as stallions are led
into the barn, looking the part in the rar-
efied surroundings and appearing uncon-
cerned about their duty. If you go behind
the scenes at Valor Farm, employees
will explain that teaser stallions of lesser
quality often “tease” the mare so breeders
are 100 percent sure the mare will accept
the male. Once that’s established, they
bring in the expensive stallion.
Driving through Valor Farm is a show
in itself—the manicured grounds and
pond, the miles of fencing, and the “foal-
ing barn/mare motel,” where the mares
closest to delivering are kept. In big pad-
docks, the horses have plenty of room to
run and build leg muscles. The standoff-
ish stallions look back at oglers like they
somehow understand they’re the
main attraction.
And with good reason. Even if you
opt for one of the self-guided tours and
drive through North Texas horse country
on your own, you’re in for a treat. Ranch
after ranch, fence line after fence line,
paddock after paddock, you’ll see man’s
other best friend: horses, in all their glory,
dotting the landscape as far as the eye
can see.
SEPTEMBER 2019 71
A pasture at KaiseRosa
Ranch in Pilot Point.