Photos By John Nation
Spring. Black fences surround the 2,000 acres of prime pastureland in Summer. Local veterinarian Dr. Bryan Boone (top) pauses between rounds of ultrasound scanning potential broodmares. At sunrise, two mares and their offspring share a foggy field with grazing cattle. Stallion Menifee, since sold by Stone Farm, commanded one of the farm’s highest stud fees last year and merited his own fan (above), even if it was held in place with baling twine. Staci Hancock (upper right) checks on 1982 
Autumn. Stallion manager Jerry “Gumby” Richardson, broodmare manager Jerry Hobbs (in hat), and farmhand Jeff Shout (partially hidden) turn the weanlings out (top, left). With the workout track soggy from rain, an exercise rider elects to work the horses around the perimeter of the training barn (top right). Frost sparkles on a spider’s web on a cold fall morning and an eagle watches over Hill Top, the family residence three-quarters of a mile inside the main gate. In late October, leaves fall near the tree-lined open pastures for mares and frisky weanlings frolic in the afternoon sun (bottom). Winter. On many mornings Arthur Hancock (left, top) reaches the office at dawn, makes himself a cup of coffee and begins business by computer and phone. Cativa and her eight-day-old filly foal trot briskly through a light snow and farmhand Michael Spencer uses a pitchfork to spread fresh straw in the stalls of the foaling barn. A week-old foal out of mare Shoppingwithbetty naps undisturbed by a dusting of snow. Moving inside on a bitter Sunday morning in February (bottom), Spencer carries bales of hay to distribute throughout the shedrow.
