Paul Hamilton
Paul Hamilton
“He allowed me to learn to make mistakes, and to live with those mistakes.” Joan Hamilton about her father, Kalarama Farm owner Paul Hamilton
A grey-haired gentleman pulls the rake that grooms the
shavings-covered aisle at Kalarama Farm’s stalls at the Kentucky State Fair World’s Championship Horse Show in Louisville. He wears a tie, despite the stifling heat rising in waves from the pavement surrounding the barns. It’s late afternoon, tack room curtains are drawn and the stalls are quiet, and the evening’s show will resume in a couple of hours. As a visitor approaches, he smiles. “Is Larry or Joan here?” asks the visitor. “No, but they’ll be back about five,” he offers. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
On this occasion, he takes a name and numbers, smiles and chats, and makes sure the visitor knows her request will be forwarded to Kalarama’s trainer or breeding manager. Polite, modest and helpful, he doesn’t pry about the nature of the inquirer’s business with Kalarama Farm.
He had the right to do so, if he wanted. After all, he owns the place.
Paul Hamilton’s admiration of American Saddlebreds began when a neighboring farmer routinely brought out his fancy American Saddlebred horses on Sundays, near the Hamiltons' family farm in Fredericktown, Kentucky, where they raised mules, horses, crops, and children. The showy horses captured Hamilton’s attention, a fascination that wasn’t easily set aside.
Beginning in 1956, he attended, with young daughter Joan, the Saturday-evening “stake night” of each year's World’s Championship Horse Show, and followed American Saddlebred happenings and breeding trends through Saddle & Bridle magazine. Even though they were in the audience to see grand stars such as CHLady Carrigan, CHMy My, CHValley View Supreme and CHDelightful Society, CHThe Lemon Drop Kid, and CHColonel Boyle, “we really weren’t concentrating on anything other than what we were doing with our horses,” Joan remembers.
Hamilton indulged his eight children’s – and his own – interest in horses by buying, showing, and selling horses and ponies on the one-night horse show circuit, where Paul and Joan were seen regularly. The family handled their own training, grooming, and trailering, as did many families they competed against. The stock they owned wasn’t necessarily the pedigreed version; in fact, at one time, Paul purchased an entire field of horses, brought them home, and shaped them into re-salable horses. The animals were meant to be useful, he believed, and hard work was a virtue Hamilton believed in and impressed upon his children.
When daughter Joan sold for a nice price a registered American Saddlebred yearling she had raised through her local 4-H club, Hamilton’s interest in American Saddlebreds — especially five-gaited horses and purebred broodmares — surged. A few miles away, the prestigious and historic Kalarama Farm was well known to locals for the quality of its produce, their show ring successes, and the buyers that came from far and wide to transact business with owners the Thurman family. The judge’s son L. Ray Thurman was generous in his leadership to the 4-H club — ironically, the association proved to be prophetic for Kalarama Farm and its future owners, the Hamiltons.
By the early 1960s when Hamilton purchased Kalarama, the farm’s position among top Saddlebred breeding and show stables was challenged by establishments inside and outside of Kentucky. At first, Hamilton leased the barn to a few consecutive trainers who operated their own training stables out of the historic building. By 1972, Hamilton had remodeled the Thurman mansion, and moved his family to Kalarama.
Hamilton’s acute business instincts led him to make a handful of important decisions which helped ensure Kalarama’s success under his ownership: he contracted with personable, young, Knoxville-born trainer Larry Hodge, and he allowed his daughter Joan to convince him to purchase the two-year old stallion Harlem Globetrotter.
“Dad's always been interested in what we’re doing, and keeps an eye on the horses we’re working and breeding. He’s had input into some of the breeding decisions, too,” Joan said.
After watching horse after horse trot out of the long white barn and into the ring to become world’s champions, Hamilton decided that he, too, wanted to see the sights from the inside of the show arena. After he sold his road-building business and retired in 1986, Joan and Larry selected the road horse Dr. Pepper for her father to drive. Hamilton quickly stepped into the bike and became adept at the lines — and thereby ended his tendency to affectionately critique Larry and Joan's performances in their show-ring endeavors. “After the class, Dad would be quick to tell me that we could have improved on this, or should have done that differently," Joan chuckled. "He always said he had a license to criticize since he didn't show horses himself. So when we got Dr. Pepper for him, he won, and won ... and won. After he claimed a Kentucky County Fair championship at Louisville,” Joan mused, “he hung up his silks. Told us he believed that he would stop while he was winning — but that's not all he stopped," she tells in good-spirited fashion. "We didn't hear any more 'suggestions' about our performances from him!”
It’s been several years since Paul Hamilton showed a horse himself, but his business skills and love of American Saddlebreds have kept Kalarama in the winner’s circle for another 30 years … and positioned the farm to continue adding to its spectacular record for many years to come.
“He allowed me to learn to make mistakes, and to live with those mistakes.” Joan Hamilton about her father, Kalarama Farm owner Paul Hamilton
A grey-haired gentleman pulls the rake that grooms the
shavings-covered aisle at Kalarama Farm’s stalls at the Kentucky State Fair World’s Championship Horse Show in Louisville. He wears a tie, despite the stifling heat rising in waves from the pavement surrounding the barns. It’s late afternoon, tack room curtains are drawn and the stalls are quiet, and the evening’s show will resume in a couple of hours. As a visitor approaches, he smiles. “Is Larry or Joan here?” asks the visitor. “No, but they’ll be back about five,” he offers. “Is there anything I can do to help?”On this occasion, he takes a name and numbers, smiles and chats, and makes sure the visitor knows her request will be forwarded to Kalarama’s trainer or breeding manager. Polite, modest and helpful, he doesn’t pry about the nature of the inquirer’s business with Kalarama Farm.
He had the right to do so, if he wanted. After all, he owns the place.
Paul Hamilton’s admiration of American Saddlebreds began when a neighboring farmer routinely brought out his fancy American Saddlebred horses on Sundays, near the Hamiltons' family farm in Fredericktown, Kentucky, where they raised mules, horses, crops, and children. The showy horses captured Hamilton’s attention, a fascination that wasn’t easily set aside.
Beginning in 1956, he attended, with young daughter Joan, the Saturday-evening “stake night” of each year's World’s Championship Horse Show, and followed American Saddlebred happenings and breeding trends through Saddle & Bridle magazine. Even though they were in the audience to see grand stars such as CHLady Carrigan, CHMy My, CHValley View Supreme and CHDelightful Society, CHThe Lemon Drop Kid, and CHColonel Boyle, “we really weren’t concentrating on anything other than what we were doing with our horses,” Joan remembers.
Hamilton indulged his eight children’s – and his own – interest in horses by buying, showing, and selling horses and ponies on the one-night horse show circuit, where Paul and Joan were seen regularly. The family handled their own training, grooming, and trailering, as did many families they competed against. The stock they owned wasn’t necessarily the pedigreed version; in fact, at one time, Paul purchased an entire field of horses, brought them home, and shaped them into re-salable horses. The animals were meant to be useful, he believed, and hard work was a virtue Hamilton believed in and impressed upon his children.
When daughter Joan sold for a nice price a registered American Saddlebred yearling she had raised through her local 4-H club, Hamilton’s interest in American Saddlebreds — especially five-gaited horses and purebred broodmares — surged. A few miles away, the prestigious and historic Kalarama Farm was well known to locals for the quality of its produce, their show ring successes, and the buyers that came from far and wide to transact business with owners the Thurman family. The judge’s son L. Ray Thurman was generous in his leadership to the 4-H club — ironically, the association proved to be prophetic for Kalarama Farm and its future owners, the Hamiltons.
By the early 1960s when Hamilton purchased Kalarama, the farm’s position among top Saddlebred breeding and show stables was challenged by establishments inside and outside of Kentucky. At first, Hamilton leased the barn to a few consecutive trainers who operated their own training stables out of the historic building. By 1972, Hamilton had remodeled the Thurman mansion, and moved his family to Kalarama.
Hamilton’s acute business instincts led him to make a handful of important decisions which helped ensure Kalarama’s success under his ownership: he contracted with personable, young, Knoxville-born trainer Larry Hodge, and he allowed his daughter Joan to convince him to purchase the two-year old stallion Harlem Globetrotter.
“Dad's always been interested in what we’re doing, and keeps an eye on the horses we’re working and breeding. He’s had input into some of the breeding decisions, too,” Joan said.
After watching horse after horse trot out of the long white barn and into the ring to become world’s champions, Hamilton decided that he, too, wanted to see the sights from the inside of the show arena. After he sold his road-building business and retired in 1986, Joan and Larry selected the road horse Dr. Pepper for her father to drive. Hamilton quickly stepped into the bike and became adept at the lines — and thereby ended his tendency to affectionately critique Larry and Joan's performances in their show-ring endeavors. “After the class, Dad would be quick to tell me that we could have improved on this, or should have done that differently," Joan chuckled. "He always said he had a license to criticize since he didn't show horses himself. So when we got Dr. Pepper for him, he won, and won ... and won. After he claimed a Kentucky County Fair championship at Louisville,” Joan mused, “he hung up his silks. Told us he believed that he would stop while he was winning — but that's not all he stopped," she tells in good-spirited fashion. "We didn't hear any more 'suggestions' about our performances from him!”
It’s been several years since Paul Hamilton showed a horse himself, but his business skills and love of American Saddlebreds have kept Kalarama in the winner’s circle for another 30 years … and positioned the farm to continue adding to its spectacular record for many years to come.
Copyright, 2005 Kalarama Stud, Inc., and Kalarama Farm, Inc. Photo credits
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