Veronica Reed had just graduated from high school when she met Sandy Hatfield, but that brief introduction left an alarming impact on her life.
Born and raised in Colorado, Reed moved to Lexington to pursue a career in the Thoroughbreds industry. While working in the livestock department at Three Chimneys Ranch, she was sent to pick something up from the stables. Peeking into the barn to see who was in charge, she quickly noticed that a woman was in command. She’s petite — at least compared to the powerful studs she handles — with blonde braids and a sharp eye that can see in every detail of the session.
Right from that moment, Reed had a goal. She will also be a stallion manager someday.
This year, that dream came true when Reed took over as stall manager at Three Chimneys. As honorary stallion manager, Hatfield remains a fixture in the stables – at least for this year’s breeding season – but Reed is now at the helm.
When Reed first approached Hatfield about working for her nearly 20 years ago, Hatfield told her to get a little more hands-on experience and come back. Reed did just that, working with young people at Three Chimneys while attending Midway University, before joining the stallion team. When Reed graduated from college in 2008, Hatfield asked her to escort Point Given to Brazil.
The job is challenging, but Reed enjoys an adventure to a new country, where the only thing familiar to her is the stallion at the other end of the shin. She spent several years transporting stallions between the hemispheres, including a five-year period back and forth between the United States and Darley Australia.
Of course, whenever she goes to a farm, she’s not exactly what her new coworker expects.
“The first time I moved to a location in the Southern Hemisphere was Argentina,” Reed recalls. “It is not only a new culture, but also a new language and new people. So when they saw a girl getting off the plane, they were just as confused as I was. But the best thing is that after working sessions and showing that I was there every day, I won their trust in the warehouse. I think you just need to give people time to realize that, yes, she’s a girl, but she can do it too. I think most of it is just being a good person and working hard, and in the end they don’t care what gender you are.”
Reed’s predecessor pioneered the industry as a woman pursuing a career in the male-dominated stallion business in the 1980s.
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Hatfield recalls: “When I first came to town, there were a lot of barns that wouldn’t allow a woman in the barn to see. “I mean if you take your horse to the stall, they’ll make you stay out. There have been so many times that people have come and gone by me and gone to see the first guy they saw. Once people realized that I knew what I was doing and could look after their mares in the stall and make sure they had a good shelter, then I think they understood.”
Hatfield got her love of horses from her father while working on their ranch and racing Quarter horses in Oklahoma. She moved to Kentucky when she received a scholarship from Murray State University’s equestrian program. She spent a summer preparing her young at Spendthrift Ranch and immediately fell in love with the industry. Upon graduation, Hatfield returned to Lexington to pursue an avid management career. She was working at the North Ridge Ranch when the ranch’s general manager Dan Elliott asked her to go to the stallion and pull the mane. Not long after, she returned to the stall for each breeding session and Elliott asked her if she wanted to be the stallion manager of the farm.
“I asked him, ‘Are you sure? You will get a lot of criticism for this.’ But he told me they knew I could do it. So they gave me a great opportunity and I worked as a stallion manager there for two years.”
Hatfield would go on to become a stallion and hatcher manager at Calumet Farm and a stallion manager at Gainsborough Farm. In 2000, she had the opportunity to move to Three Chimneys.
“It’s the most magnificent place I can think of,” Hatfield explains. “Dan Rosenberg was a great rider and rider and Robert Clay and his family were all great. It’s just the epitome of what I want to do and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made.”
From her early days with Seattle Slew, Dynaformer, Rahy and Wild Again, then Big Brown and Smarty Jones, and to this day gunmanHatfield was at the Three Chimneys for all of them.
Hatfield hesitated to choose an all-time favorite stallion, but ended up calling the Silver Charm a special horse. She even adopted one of his children, Silver Indy, who now lives on her own ranch.
“I’ve been here long enough that I’ve got a few headstones out there,” Hatfield reflected. “There are so many of them that you make friends, especially as they get older and you spend more time with them. You get to know them and appreciate them.
Hatfield always tries to take as many tours as possible at Three Chimneys. While most visitors don’t know how unique Hatfield is and her prominent place, or the importance of her contributions to the livestock industry, Hatfield said her goal is to leave a give them a positive impression of the business.
“People have a different perspective when they first come here and you try to explain to them how much we really love our horses and how we take care of them. I think I have changed some views on the horse industry.”
According to Hatfield, the horses are the easy part. When stallions are black and white, she says that a person’s personality can be a lot of gray. But the female rider named Kentucky Ranch Manager of the Year 2011 excellently oversees every charge, both man and horse.
“I’ve never asked anyone to do anything that I haven’t done or won’t do,” she said. “I think that’s important. Treat people like humans. I remember when I was the groom, the manager would pull over to his truck and honk the horn and ask us to quit what we were doing and go out. It always made me a little irritated, that they couldn’t take the time to come inside and talk to us. So I’ve always tried to keep that in mind and remember how excited I was the first time I had to lead a covetous stallion to the sales round or the first time I got to bring a stallion into the stall. .”
Sandy’s little ranch is home to a pony named Sugar and Silver Indy, a clone of his stud Silver Charm. | photo courtesy Sandy Hatfield
Hatfield has mentored countless successful young men in the industry, including several women who now work in stables across Kentucky.
“I have two-legged and four-legged babies down there,” she said, pointing to the stallion. “I have seen a lot of people grow and do great things in this business. I have a sense of accomplishment watching those people go on to run their own department or become farm managers. I mean look at Veronica. She’s a young girl, fresh out of college, and now she’s managing the stallions at Three Chimneys.”
“She was a good horsewoman,” Hatfield said of her mentor. “She is also nice to people and she speaks fluent Spanish. She knows her horses, which I think is one of the most important things.”
Reed, who served as an assistant stallion manager at WinStar Ranch for four years before joining Hatfield back to the Three Chimneys, also appreciated her mentor. She said that regardless of the continent, whenever Hatfield’s name is mentioned, “basically, the red carpet is rolled out.”
“Her reputation in the industry is amazing,” says Reed. “Not only is she a great female horsewoman and very dedicated to what she does, but she also gives a great voice to the industry – a voice for everyone, not just women. .”
Reed says Hatfield’s incredible attention to detail is something she couldn’t learn from anyone else.
“I have never seen a horse steward like the way she writes on her paper. This horse did this or this horse did it. When you come back to breeding that mare next year, you’ll have plenty of information from the years it’s been here so you can warn the men that this mare is tough or this mare. really sweet. Her horses receive some of the best management I have seen around the world.”
Yet even today, Hatfield and Reed still face opposition from those who doubt their ability in a male-dominated profession.
“Today I talk to a lot of people who tell me that women cannot work with stallions,” says Hatfield. “I have been managing stallions for 35 years so I know women can do it.”
When asked about her biggest accomplishments, Hatfield said that she prides herself on being an example to young women in the industry and that she enjoys following the achievements of those she mentors.
“Those are great achievements,” she reflects. “And being around a horse like gunman is a great achievement. To be able to watch him grow, develop and become a great stallion is breathtaking.”
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Hatfield was present in many of 2017’s Horses of the Year shining moments on the track, including his career finale at the GI Pegasus World Cup, where she flew home to Kentucky with him later. there.
“He was very smart and personable,” she says of how a young gentleman feels. “He is not a mean horse, but he will tell you that he is a man. He loves to go out and show off when we have tours. He’s a great horse, think about what he’s done on the track and see what he’s doing as a stallion. He will be one of those people whose name will be remembered.”
that is gunmanThe stallion’s auspicious start led to the careful changing of guards in the Three Chimney stables.
“With gunmanThe farm’s COO, Chris Baker, explains his presence and whom he is making himself an important stallion, we really feel a responsibility to him to make the process go. This transition goes as smoothly as possible. “In 2023, we have both Sandy and Veronica here. How that changes or when is Veronica 100%, time will tell. That’s up to Sandy. She earned the right to chart her own path through this.
“Sandy has done a great job for decades, operating to a very high standard and taking champions off the track and introducing them to the livestock barn,” he continued. “Three Chimneys have benefited from Sandy’s professionalism and experience. Both Sandy and Veronica are motivated by a passion and love for horses. That’s really what makes them so good at what they do.”
The love for horses is where it begins and ends for Hatfield. Even now, since she’s said to be in the early stages of retirement, Hatfield still gets up before sunrise every morning, putting on her coat for another spawning session. After 24 years at Three Chimneys, her love for the stallions she cares for and passion for the industry prompted her to return.
“I mean, that’s what I love,” she said. “I love getting to know the horses. I love the excitement of the barn. I love talking to people about our industry and explaining to people what we do, how much we love our horses, and how well we take care of them. It was a great opportunity, a great learning experience, and hopefully I did a good job.”
