Kara L. Harrison-Tucker

Kara with Tejanos Eliminator in Keeneland Paddock October 2008

“Step Softly dreams lie here”. This is a statement my uncle, Bill Isaacs, had engraved on the headstone he shares with his wife my Aunt Betty. It provides some insight into the sort of people I was raised among and reminds me of how they made me feel as a child. My family tells me I was talking endlessly about horses from the time I started speaking. My grandparents, Howard and Betty Sheffer, were New Yorkers and huge Saratoga fans. When they transferred to Kentucky with IBM in 1956 that enthusiasm transferred to Keeneland. I remember chilly days, wrapped in blankets, high in the grandstands placing $2 dollar win bets between hot chocolates. My Uncle Bill had a pool company, Surf Pools.  I believe his company built the first Equine Pool in Kentucky and possibly anywhere in the USA. It is now called Kesmarc. When I was a kid Bill would wait patiently outside my home at 5am,  while I got ready to go with him to the Keeneland backside or the pool to watch the horses swim.  I started riding at Masterson Park at age twelve and by fourteen was working for Trey and Elaine Schott in any facet of their farm, teaching/riding programs, polo string, or veterinary practice they would allow. I am still thankful to them for the countless hours of mentoring they provided me. Or, I should more accurately say tolerate since I was a city girl and had a lot to learn! My Uncle Jeff was good enough to purchase my first horse (I’ve been blessed with the best of Uncles) a Thoroughbred gelding off the track. I can look back over the years and see different facets in personalities of my family members and how they influenced me and in turn made my life with the horses and farm possible. My grandfathers good business practices, my grandmothers work ethic, my mother’s attention to detail and beautiful sense of style and class, and my father’s precious attitude which taught me to pursue my dreams and believe in myself. Last but in no way least I have my God to thank, for without his spirit I would be overcome by my own imperfections. It has been by his blessing that our horse operation exist today.

Over the years I taught and rode hunt seat riding beginning with local hunters and later eventing which finally culminated in a strong taste for dressage. I spent countless hours re-training and showing race horses off the track, and later with customer’s homebred warmbloods or my own, as hunter, event, and dressage prospects. Over the years I started more horses than I can number toward their future racing or show careers. During 4 years at the University of Kentucky, I majored in Psychology. In April of 1989, I had my first real opportunity to start the farm I had longed dreamt about. Since starting the farm I have been blessed to be positioned to breed both race horses and sport prospects.

In the first two years of the farm I filled in the gaps hot walking at the track, showing at sales, and assisting in the Rood and Riddle neo-natal unit for sick foals. Between 1995 and 2007 I free lanced as an agent for International Shipping Companies, organizing the exporting of hundreds of Thoroughbreds after every major sale. I’ve been blessed with a family full of successful businessmen who have opened doors and exposed me to other facets of business life, including a very successful family run Internet sales business.

I feel blessed and very fortunate to have seen my dreams in the Horse business become a reality. Watching the farm develop into a 122 acre working farm which my parents now live on and enjoy with Ben, our children, and I has been a life making experience. I truly enjoy pursuing it every day. I consider it a treasure when given the opportunity to utilize years of hard work and education in the industry, to assist our owners in seeing their dreams and business plans materialize as well.

Best Regards,
Kara L. Harrison-Tucker

BIO
Kara L. Harrison-Tucker is co-owner of Colby Fields, a 122.5 acre thoroughbred farm and horse stables located on Colby Road in Winchester, KY. Kara has spent her life around equestrians and is a respected thoroughbred breeder, horse trainer and auction representative agent living in Central Kentucky.