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By California Thoroughbred
Katie Fisher gave the question some thought, then summed herself up with:
“Two farms and two kids. That’s me.”
Fisher can hardly be defined so succinctly. She hails from a show horse and agricultural background, worked alongside mentor Tom Hudson at Magali Farms for 12 years, and now has her own pair of farms just miles apart.
To top it all off, she is the mother of twin toddlers, helping her children to grow while simultaneously helping some 40 horses through the rehabilitation process.
Fisher grew up showing Arabian horses and working at an Arabian farm. She was known at the Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center when Magali manager Tom Hudson put out the word that he needed an assistant. Hudson asked Dr. Ed Hamer if he knew anyone, and the veterinarian confirmed that he did, urging Hudson to hire Fisher straight away. The instant Fisher showed interest in Hudson’s proposal, he answered, “Great! See you tomorrow morning at 7.”
Thus began a 12-year partnership.
“Tom and his (late) wife, Gayle, were family to me,” Fisher said. “They were the epitome of perfection as far as running a horse farm. I learned so much about health and cleanliness.”
“We taught her how to do things the right way,” Hudson said. “I’m so proud of her.”
But then Fisher dropped a bomb: She wanted to start a family.
“Tom said, ‘You want to do what?’ ” Fisher laughingly recalled. “I left Magali six years ago now. I actually bought the Arabian farm where I was working before I went to work for Tom, and now I have twin toddlers.”
Fisher praised her “saint of a husband,” Travis Burnett, for handling the children without question so that she could spend extra time with the horses if needed.
“He never tells me no,” Fisher said, only half-joking.
The rejuvenated farm has been christened Kingfisher Farms, after Fisher’s family’s farming business.
“I come from a fourth-generation farming family in Blythe,” she said. “The farmers have water rights to the river, so my family farms there, producing alfalfa, lettuce, broccoli, and melons. If you go to Costco, you can see the melons with the Kingfisher bird stickers that say Fisher Ranch. That’s my family. Their farm has been around for 100 years, so I named my farm in homage to my family. It’s really special to me.”
Fisher had returned to showing Arabians, but still had one California-bred Good Journey filly on the property. She called Hudson, asking if he would take the filly.
“He kept saying ‘wow’ when he saw the property,” Fisher recalled. “I reminded him I had a good teacher.”
Hudson showed mild interest in a second barn on the property, which stood empty. He said nothing for a month, then contacted Fisher about using it for layups for his independent clients.
“He said, ‘You know my program better than anybody.’ And I really did miss it,” Fisher said. “There’s something soothing to the soul about helping a horse to heal and making it better.”
Around the same time, one of Fisher’s former Magali co-workers knocked on the door, asking for a job. Her operation suddenly exploded, with Hudson delivering more and more horses in need of care and a total of six former co-workers joining her team.
“It all just fell together unexpectedly,” Fisher said.
Hudson has been thrilled with Fisher’s sudden rise back into the Thoroughbred industry.
“It is the best layup farm in the state of California,” he said. “By next year it will be state of the art, with a lot of things coming in the near future. She has six of my very best guys, the guys I taught and ‘raised.’ Katie is a very fair employer, offers all of them tremendous benefits that not many people do anymore, and treats them all like family.
“The horses are as good or better than when we had Magali Farms. Katie cares about every individual horse. She looks at every horse herself, every day. But most importantly, she’s a very loyal, longtime friend.”
Fisher explained that the joke around the farm became, “Where should we put that horse? On the roof!”
“Pretty soon we filled up the back barn and the front barn, and we had to build pens to fill those, too,” Fisher said. “Around the same time, a farm came for sale just three properties down. The numbers just kind of worked, so I bought it. Now we have two farms running together as one.”
She couldn’t be happier. “I keep pinching myself,” she said. “It’s been fun, building up the new property. We put in a vibration plate stall at both properties. We put in comfort stall flooring in all my barns and are putting in rubber floors for the aisleways. We are trying to do it all the right way.”
Fisher has a total of 30 acres between the two farms and a lease of some neighboring paddocks.
She has more than 40 horses under her care, including outpatients from Alamo Pintado and some non-racehorses.
“My barns are quiet; my horses are happy,” she said. “It’s just nice to be around.”
Her working relationship with Hudson is as strong as ever.
“I learned so much from him by standing nearby with my ears open and my lips closed,” she said. “Tom has an apartment on the farm. He is full of information and knowledge and still pops up with stuff I didn’t know.”
Running two properties while chasing around two toddlers? Doable. The only problem for Fisher is that something had to give.
“I am taking the year off from showing Arabians,” she lamented. “I’ve just been too busy.”
But she wouldn’t have it any other way.