“It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen, and I hope I never have to see anything like it again,” said Jane Lyon on Jan. 14, just hours after an early-morning fire destroyed a barn and killed five horses on the Central Kentucky farm that she operates with her husband, Frank.

“The barn is a structure, and I really don’t care very much about things,” continued Mrs. Lyon, who reported that most of the building was gone by the time she arrived at the scene before dawn. “But I do care that horses were lost. It’s very tragic, and it bothers me to think about them.”

The barn was located on property that the Lyons’ Summer Wind Farm near Georgetown leases to veterinarian David Lambert. Horses stabled in the mostly wooden structure were under the management of Twin Spires Inc., a buying, breeding, and sales operation. Incorporation documents filed with the Kentucky Secretary of State’s office identify Lambert as the president and sole officer of Twin Spires.

No horses owned by the Lyons were involved in the blaze. Their 15-member broodmare band includes the dams of 1997 champions and Horse of the Year contenders Favorite Trick and Skip Away. “Yes, I’m thrilled that our mares are healthy and happy and fine,” Mrs. Lyon said. “But it’s difficult because I don’t like to see something like this happen to anyone else’s horses. We can be thankful that no human was hurt or killed and that not all the horses in the barn died