About Kalarama Farm
“I would not hesitate to speculate that there is somehow, on the pedigree of almost every Saddle Horse which enters the show ring today, Kalarama breeding. In fact,” wrote American Saddlebred historian Lynn Weatherman, “it would be the poor gambler who gave odds against it.”
Unmatched in its longevity, Kalarama has had a most significant impact on the Saddlebred horse. An integral part of American Saddlebred history, near Kalarama's entrance lies the grave of the great Kalarama Rex. After lying dormant for several years, the revitalization of Kalarama began when the farm was purchased by Mr. & Mrs. Paul Hamilton.
Since that purchase in the early 1960s, Kalarama has based its business on the quality of its breeding and training program. The breeding program is managed and directed by Paul Hamilton's daughter Joan. Born with a love for horses, Joan is the driving force behind one of the nation's leading breeding establishments.
In the world of American Saddlebreds, the potential of young horses is assessed not only by evaluating their conformation, but also by evaluating their performance potential while in training. For this reason, there must be a solid training program to bring them to success. The training duties are directed by Larry Hodge. Larry, who has been training horses practically since childhood, has moved up through the ranks under the watchful eyes of the world's most respected horsemen — and under Larry's skilled training, the careers of some of the most notable horses have flourished.
But there is another presence here at Kalarama that is bigger than life itself. That presence is in the form of champion stallion Harlem Globetrotter. Joined by other formidable members of Kalarama's breeding program, Harlem Globetrotter, breeder Joan Hamilton, and trainer Larry Hodge have brought to Kalarama and its clientele a remarkable string of championships over the years ... and to the American Saddlebred world, many years of unparalleled enjoyment and success.
The Early Years
In the early 1960s, the remaining 110 acres at Kalarama Farm was purchased by Paul Hamilton.
From nearby Fredericktown, the Hamilton family was quite familiar with Kalarama Farm. The teenaged Joan, one of Paul and Frances’s eight children, was a member of the Washington County 4-H American Saddlebred Breeders Club. Taking her project seriously, Joan raised a fine colt by Vanity Sensation out of her Beau Fortune club mare donated by Thomas Morton. When she sold her yearling for a good price at the Tattersall’s auction, the family was instantly hooked on Saddlebreds. They bought, showed, and sold horses and ponies for themselves on the Kentucky County Fair circuit. For Hamilton, however, buying Kalarama Farm was taking the family’s hobby to a completely different level.
He then subdivided the farm, and built homes … but Joan and her mother Frances were opposed to the subdivision, considering it an encroachment onto Kalarama Farm’s necessary acreage. When Hamilton took down the stone pillars at the entrance to the farm, and donated them to the Springfield Women’s Club, his wife put her foot down. The family’s takeover and insightful direction of Kalarama Farm had begun. Retrieving the pillars, Joan later had them placed at the farm’s driveway entrance, where they welcome visitors today.
Today's Kalarama
Paul Hamilton remodeled the two-story Thurman mansion in 1972, and the Hamilton family moved to Kalarama. The training operation continued as several consecutive trainers based their operations out of the large white barn.
In 1977, Larry Hodge leased the facility and arrived at the legendary farm, bringing with him a small string of horses and clients, starting his public training stable under the Kalarama Farm banner. Soon, horses he brought with him were to be known as World’s Champion Three Gaited Pony Suitable For Framing, Reserve World’s Champion Five Gaited Glenbrook’s Country Boy, World's Champion CHRazor Sharp, and his own stallion Valley Stonewall. Valley Stonewall, a son of Stonewall Jackpot, by Stonewall King, was noted as sire of the World’s Champion Valley Queen Of Color.
Returning from a management position at the family’s just-sold company, Joan Hamilton delved into Hodge’s growing business. His talent was becoming quickly recognized, and drawing an increasing number of outside horses to Kalarama Farm. “I tried to help,” said the matter-of-fact, quiet-mannered woman. “But,” she chuckles, “Larry didn’t need me to help him with training.”
So, armed with her breeding experience as a youngster, Joan Hamilton began research to locate the breeding talent that would become synonymous with Kalarama Farm. “First, I attempted to purchase CHLa La Success for a broodmare. That didn’t work out, but I learned of another horse — a two-year old stallion with ideal breeding — that was available.” He was by New Yorker out of Putting On Airs; his second dam was the great fine harness mare and stellar producer CHSupreme Airs. It wasn’t a simple transaction given that the promising young stud had become more endeared to his owners by the day, but the determined young woman insisted on closing the deal. Purchased from Crabtree Farms in Simpsonville, Ky., Harlem Globetrotter joined Spring Valley’s Deliverance and Lord O’Shea, both of whom were standing at Kalarama at that time.
"As with most expensive horses, the buzz about the business was about how much he cost," Joan recalls. "But I had given that little consideration. I was so focused on his pedigree, and when I saw the individual was just as outstanding, I was sure he was a horse I could live with for a long time. Later, it was revealed to me that 'the price' was a record one.
“It was a lot of money to spend,” Joan says of the purchase. “Afterward, I consulted Billy Mountjoy, whose opinion I trusted because it was time-tested and honest. I asked if I had bought a good one,” she remembers. The legendary breeder assured her, "You’re 'blank-blank right, he's a good one -- he was a good one the day he hit the ground!”
Separating the entity’s divisions into one focusing on training and sales, and one housing the breeding operation, allowed Hodge to concentrate on developing stock for open, amateur, and juvenile divisions. Joan, in the meantime, methodically set about building one of the Saddlebred industry’s most respected breeding operations.
A widely regarded student of parentage, she began accumulating the broodmares whose foals by Harlem Globetrotter were to populate the American Saddlebred world’s show rings, stables, and breeding farms for the next twenty years.
"Personally, I have never seen a breeding horse which couldn't be improved upon. Some undesirable qualities can be bred out or bred around in a lifetime, and some cannot. So, it's important to know which of those qualities one can live with,” says the practical Hamilton. "I got lucky. Harlem Globetrotter breeds on so many good qualities required of a champion. I've found nothing to prevent his sons and daughters from being useful horses." Citing the qualities that she admires most about the stallion’s get — substance, conformation, bone durability, endurance, good thinkers, ability, and presence — she points out that one is no more important than another.
A critical decision, ironically, impacted both divisions of the farm. Harlem Globetrotter was purchased to be a foundation sire, but he developed into a top-notch five gaited horse, winning the Kentucky State Fair World’s Championship Horse Show Five Gaited Stallion title. By then, Hodge was savoring the taste of winning with a true stake horse, and nothing else in the barn could rival the game, talented stud. The Hamiltons had a decision to make. Would they pull the high-priced horse from the show ring to produce the get the farm needed to build its future, or would they allow their talented and competitive showman and trainer to continue to chalk up wins?
“It was the right thing to do,” Joan says, reflecting on the decision to move the handsome black Harlem Globetrotter to the breeding barn, even though he was considered fully capable of winning more world’s championship titles. “He was bought to be a breeding horse, and he became, with Larry, a nice show horse,” she elaborated. “We were tempted to keep showing him. We had Larry, we had the wins, and we felt the pressure.
“Time,” she mused, “has proven us right.”
Indeed, it has. Since his arrival at Kalarama Farm, Harlem Globetrotter sons and daughters have amassed almost 60 world’s champion titles; 50 percent of the champions were born to the farm’s broodmares. His get have earned more than $550,000 in winnings, and one of his daughters — CHGarland’s Dream — was the 1998 and 1999 Five Gaited World’s Grand Champion, with Hodge aboard. In addition, Hodge himself has trained and developed horses to win more than 100 world’s championship titles, including three World’s Grand Champions in all divisions. Hodge — defying the odds — returned the 12-year old breeding stallion to the ring after an eight-year absence. Harlem displayed his extraordinary aptitude for performance when he claimed the 1992 and 1994 World’s Champion Five Gaited Stallion titles.
“People all over the world know and love this horse,” said Hodge after one of Harlem Globetrotter’s world’s championship wins. When the stallion’s son Harlem’s Hot Dice (out of the Genius Bourbon King mare Dice Girl) was taken to Germany to be presented at the multi-national equine event Equitana, the Europeans were in awe. “Hot Dice had good conformation and a great mind. People could touch Hot Dice [a champion-producing stallion], pull on his tail – people who had never ridden an American Saddlebred got up and rode him. In fact, we rode him as a pleasure horse and a gaited horse, and drove him in harness. After assessing the Europeans' reaction, I realized how much I had taken for granted the great mind of the American Saddlebred. Afterward, we exported twenty Harlem Globetrotter sons and daughters to Europe,” Joan recalls.
In the meantime, Paul Hamilton began purchasing parcels of property surrounding the farm as opportunities arose, further demonstrating that the family’s commitment to the farm and its history has been an almost lifetime passion. Today, Kalarama Farm’s 150 horses graze the lush, bluegrass pastures which surround the 400-acre property. The farm grows its hay, and horses of all ages are permitted — no, encouraged — “to be horses,” Joan points out during a tour of the many pastures that divide horses of various ages and gender. “During any given foaling season, our mares will foal from 20 to 40 foals,” she says. “Kalarama is a working horse farm.”
Harlem Globetrotter’s legion of fans spans several continents, and Kalarama Farm serves clients all over the world. His semen has been shipped to Australia, England, and Canada, and his sons and daughters have been exported to Germany, Switzerland, and France. His reputation rivals, if not eclipses, that of his early predecessors at Kalarama Farm’s fabled breeding barn. Like those stallions before him, his progeny — and that of the farm’s roster of outstanding stallions — are well equipped to keep Kalarama Farm in the record books for a long time to come.
Kalarama: The First Fifty Years*
In 1904, architect Frank Brewer designed a home for Judge Isaac H. Thurman, and oversaw its construction on the site of a 1790 brick mansion belonging to Kentucky’s first county court clerk. Thurman, a long-time Kentucky circuit judge, and his wife moved to the white-columned mansion on 300 rolling acres. The farm was partially located within the small county seat town of Springfield, established in 1793 and named for the nearby springs in Washington County, Ky. The importance of Kalarama Farm to the American Saddlebred breed had claimed its start.
Legend has it that one of the first guests at the farm was a Catholic priest, who was also a Greek professor; although it is unclear whether he was a professor of Greek or a professor from Greece, one might assume the former. The priest was said to have marveled at the bluegrass countryside and called it ‘kalarama,’ from the Greek terms ‘kalo,’ meaning beautiful, and ‘horama,’ meaning sight. Upon hearing it, Mrs. Thurman chose the name for the farm, which soon became the base of operations for Judge Thurman’s engulfing enthusiasm for Saddle Horses.
The judge hired Frank G. Peters, a promising horseman from the Springfield area, in 1906 to develop Kalarama Farm’s fledgling program. Peters selected the farm’s first herd sire, Red Bird G, a grandson of Cabell’s Lexington. The first show horse from Kalarama was Bourbon Belle, a daughter of Bourbon King out of Anne King, herself by a son of Harrison Chief. Retaining the show mare, Thurman set a precedent that is followed at Kalarama even today: keep and breed the best mares possible, to the best stallions available.
Bourbon Belle was eventually bred to Rex Peavine, producing the colt King Vine, who would become the sire of S.J. Thompson’s great mare Spelling Bee. Spelling Bee would become the second dam of CHWing Commander.
Another Kalarama Farm foundation mare was Lula Chief, by Montgomery Chief. She was shown by Charlie Dunn, whose first job away from home was at Kalarama Farm. During those early years, many great horsemen received basic training at the Thurman establishment, and were forever grateful for the opportunity offered them.
By 1912, Judge Thurman had become quite prominent among Saddle Horse breeders, and was elected to the board of directors of the American Saddle Horse Breeders Association. His honesty and hospitality would pay great dividends in the years to come, and surely helped to establish Kalarama Farm’s presence and appeal in the Saddle Horse marketplace.
What established the farm as a cornerstone in the Saddle Horse breeding business, however, was the acquisition of Rex Monroe — a popular son of Rex McDonald — who served hundreds of mares from 1905 until 1932.
Rex Monroe was a handsome brown stallion carrying an impressive full, natural tail. Shown sparingly in his younger days by John Hook, he was unbeaten, with two blues from the great St. Louis show to his credit. He was nine years old when Thurman and his partner Peters paid an amazing $10,000 for him.
In addition to being an imposing individual, Rex Monroe’s pedigree was almost pure Denmark. His dam was by Herzog, by Gaines Denmark, and his second dam was by Sumpter Denmark, by Gaines Denmark. He first stood to outside mares at the high fee of $50, but his book was always filled. Thurman finally sold the 27-year old stallion in 1930 because practically all of the Kalarama broodmares were his daughters, but not before Kalarama Farm had become known far and wide for the stallion’s produce.
The Kalarama Farm patriarch’s concentration on breeding and showing young horses, then selling them, resulted in a most successful operation. The Thurman and Peters partnership was dissolved in 1916, but the men remained friends and continued to deal with one another to their mutual benefit. By this time, Joe Walker was a full-fledged trainer and the judge’s son L. Ray Thurman was gaining recognition as a trainer and showman.
Ray Thurman’s first top show horse was Nancy Thurman, by Rex Monroe out of Lula Chief, the mare Charlie Dunn had shown for Kalarama. Despite the fact she was a red-hot number, Nancy Thurman won over 100 blues in her show career. She was once hit by a car, and was deathly afraid of moving vehicles. This caused her retirement from the ring at age eight.
After much deliberation, Judge Thurman directed Walker to ride Nancy Thurman over to Silver Creek, Ky., 65 miles distant, to the court of Rex Peavine. They spent the night at Danville, and were up at daylight, nearing the Hockaday farm the next morning. Lounging hound dogs saw horse and rider coming down the road and were off to give Joe and Nancy a wild greeting. The mare swelled up and strutted in to the Hockaday establishment. Enjoying the sight, Jim Hockaday made a prediction:” I expect Rex to get his best colt out of that mare.”
He was prophetic. In August of 1922, Nancy Thurman foaled Kalarama Rex.The precocious bright bay youngster became the only son or daughter of Rex Peavine to win the yearling stake at the Kentucky State Fair. He was chosen to replace Rex Monroe as the head sire.
Judge Thurman died in 1932, but had seen the culmination of his breeding program, Kalarama Rex, become an outstanding sire. L. Ray Thurman went into partnership with his mother, and Kalarama’s glorious years continued.
The fame of the farm had spread far and wide, and one of the eagerly anticipated events of the horse world was the Kalarama auction sale of weanlings and yearlings. Noted for its honesty, the sale helped disperse Kalarama horses to all corners of the nation.
In addition to the horse farm, the Thurmans owned several other farms in the area, where they prided themselves on raising purebred cattle and good mules.
It was in 1937 that another carefully planned mating became a huge success. Inspired by the Kathryn Haines – Sun Flower cross of previous years which had resulted in the great Kate Haines for Bob Moreland, Ray Thurman determined to reverse the process. He had the good Sun Flower mare Spoonbill bred to Kalarama Rex, getting Society Rex.
The popularity of Kalarama Rex as a breeding horse had grown to such proportions, that by 1938, he was not even advertised at stud. Instead, the Kalarama Farm ads featured the junior sires, Hallmark Peavine, by Moreland Peavine out of the great broodmare Blanchita, and Gay Bandit, by American Born out of Cynthia Peavine, by Kalarama Rex.
Kalarama Rex had achieved the pinnacle of success as a breeder in 1935, when he became the nation’s number one sire on Saddle and Bridle’s Sire Rating, and retained that position for seven consecutive years — a record unmatched.
It would be impossible to list all of the get of Kalarama Rex who became famous show or breeding horses, but we will attempt to name the best. Among them were Allen Adair, Blue Hawaii, Nellie Pidgeon, Fairy Slippers (the dam of Victory Ace), Noble Kalarama, Meadow Majesty, Royal Gold, Kalarama King, Kalarama Colonel (sire of CHColonel Boyle), Broadland’s Kilarney, Royal Rex Sea (the sire of Bobby Sea), Kalarama Denmark, Kalarama Command, Gallant Kalarama, Kalarama In Grey, Ridgefield’s Rex, Startling Kalarama, Royal Kalarama, Kalarama Richlieu, Kalarama Bittersweet, and a host of others.
Frank Bradshaw came to Kalarama Farm as trainer in the late 1930s and remained until 1943, when he was called to service in World War II. Working closely with Joe Walker — about whom Bradshaw said, “He had the finest pair of hands of any man I ever saw sit a Saddle Horse,” — they made champion after champion, often sweeping Kentucky State Fair futurity events.
Kalarama Farm suffered its worst disaster on the fourth of July, 1936, when fire thought to have started from defective wiring destroyed the training barn and ten show horses. The barn was rebuilt.
World War II took its toll on the Saddle Horse business, and Kalarama Farm was not exempt. After then-trainer Frank Bradshaw was inducted, Ray Thurman and his mother decided to dissolve their partnership with a dispersal sale in September, 1944.
Two significant events occurred prior to the sale. Ray Thurman had sent the good Kalarama Rex mare Briney Breezes to the court of American Ace, and that spring, Indiana Ace was born at Kalarama. He was probably American Ace’s best son, and sired Indiana Peavine before Indiana Ace was exported to South Africa.
Then, on September 12 and shortly before the sale, Kalarama Rex died. Joe Walker felt the death of the great stallion keenly. He had been in the stall when he was foaled, cared for him throughout 22 years, and helped dig his grave, located at the entrance to the farm. The grave marker, erected by the American Saddle Horse Breeders Association, is still present today.
The 1944 sale was one of the most memorable auctions in Saddle Horse history. Seventy-two head paraded before the famed George Swinebroad, and sold for a total of $77,000, averaging over $1,000 each.
Topping the sale was a stallion who was making a name for himself: Society Rex. He was to found a dynasty of his own, with “Society” becoming as popular a prefix on the names of show horses as that of his sire.
Ray Thurman was determined to keep the farm running, and had selected Society Rex as the successor to his sire Kalarama Rex. In partnership with A. Hastings Fiske, Indianapolis, Ind., Thurman had the final bid on the horse at $7,500.
Thurman and Fiske leased Kalarama Farm from Mrs. Thurman, continuing as before. Another sale was held in 1948 to end the Thurman-Fiske partnership. Fiske bought Society Rex and left him at the farm, but in February of that year, the stallion was sold. The buyer, from Asheville, N.C., built Mar-Beth-Top Farm (named for his daughters) five miles out of Springfield. Also at Mar-Beth-Top was Kalarama King, who had won the stallion stake at Louisville for Chester Caldwell. He was by Kalarama Rex out of Spelling Bee.
Until his death in 1957, Society Rex was one of the foremost stallions in America. His get included the great CHLady Carrigan, CHDelightful Society, Society Ann, Something Wonderful, Secret Society, Special Assignment, and Night of Folly (whose dam was by Gay Bandit). There was also a host of top show horses with Society in their names.
Kalarama Colonel was a great rival to Society Rex at stud. He was owned by Ike Lanier, a close friend of the Thurman family. Kalarama Colonel stood at Kalarama Farm until Lanier built his Grasslands Farm at Danville. Frank Bradshaw went to work there after leaving the service, and trained several horses for Ray Thurman in addition to Lanier’s stock.
The final Thurman sale at Kalarama Farm took place in 1952. Joe Walker passed away in 1968.
Kalarama Farm was finally sold by the Thurman family in 1962. Ray Thurman remained a director of ASHBA (American Saddle Horse Breeders Association) — now the American Saddlebred Horse Association — until his death in 1972, a post he had held since 1929. One of his lesser-known accomplishments ensured the continued success of his family’s farm. Thurman established the Washington County 4-H American Saddlebred Breeders Club, to which mares and stallion fees were donated. Youngsters were assigned a mare to care for and breed; the resulting produce was sold at Tattersall’s, the public Saddlebred auction in Lexington, whose services were donated, as well.
*Excerpts reprinted with permission: 
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