Tails from the Farm
Meet the Kentucky Kangals
BY JOSH CAUDILL
A 90-acre farm located off Old Richmond Road serves as the setting for the pride and joy of Evans Mill Cattle Company–the Kangal dogs.
Driving up to the Fayette County postcard fantasy, it’s impossible to miss the guardians who are alert to a foreign presence and are professionally assessing the situation. You quickly realize you’re being judged by the heart and soul of the operation: the dogs.To Marc Guilfoil and Elisabeth Jensen, the husband and wife owners of Evans Mill Cattle Company, they’re not only considered great workers, they’re family.
Jensen, an education advocate who also serves as the executive vice president for the Kentucky Equine Education Project and the president and executive director of the Race for Education, developed a love for the Kangal while living in Eastern Turkey for five years.When she and Guilfoil, both staples in Kentucky’s equine community, got married a few years back, they wanted to buy a farm, have cows, and the whole nine yards.
“Marc [Guilfoil] grew up with cattle and figured cattle is a lot easier than horses. So we bought the farm out here, and one of the challenges that a lot of people in Central Kentucky have with cattle are the black vultures,” Jensen said. “When the calves are born, the black vultures attack the calves. I thought to myself, ‘This is a job for the Kangal. I now finally have an excuse to actually get this dog.’”
Guilfoil says, “When growing up, we raised mostly Blue Heelers. I’ve seen about every guardian critter they have out there, there’s nothing like this breed.” A lifelong cattleman from Glasgow, Kentucky and a UK Ag alum, Guilfoil is the executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.
His family grew up on Cleveland Road near the farm where he now resides with Jensen. When Jensen said they should move from the city and get a farm, Guilfoil knew where to go. “I about tore the doorknob off to get out there,” Guilfoil laughed.
Jensen was a Disney exec when she came up to the Bluegrass State for a horse sale and never went back.
“We just really love being out here. We wanted to stay in Fayette County because we wanted to have a farm for our kids and our grand-kids and wanted to raise cattle,” Jensen says, adding, “Outside Fayette County, there’s so much development but Fayette County has made a commitment to protect our green space and to protect our agricultural land.”
___
This article also appears on page 19 of the 2021 print edition of Lexington Families Guide.
