Visit Quillins
When those Keeneland sale days roll around—September and November mostly—the whole horse world descends on Central Kentucky like pilgrims to some sacred ground. Quillin's halters find their way onto multi-million dollar Keeneland sales toppers. Craftsmen with a combined 100+ years of experience are hand-stitching ... the very halters that will present this 2025 Yearling crop to buyers from around the globe.
Since 1982, right there on Main Street in Paris, the Quillin family has been doing what Kentucky does best. They take something essential and make it beautiful. Over 17,000 halters a year come out of their new larger Main Street location. Each one carries the maker's mark and true craftsmanship, a culture that understands horses not as commodities but as partners in something larger.
You walk in during sale season, and you can feel the anticipation. The same leather that graces the yearlings heading to September sales has been cut and stitched by hands that know this work. Their client list reads like the who's who of the thoroughbred industry, whether you're buying for a champion stallion or your daughter's pony - the same Kentucky and Quillin hospitality makes strangers feel like family.
This is why Quillin's is essential when you're in Central Kentucky. It's not just about the leather goods; it's about a small part of Kentucky's history. It's about witnessing craft in a world that's forgotten what craft means. It's about touching something real in a place where Kentucky, the one that knew horses and tobacco and bourbon, still thrives. The sound of century-old machines and leather being worked by patient hands - still lives and breathes and creates beauty one stitch at a time.
When you're done at Keeneland, watching those yearlings parade in their Quillin halters, drive the fifteen minutes to Paris. Walk into that shop. Smell the leather. Watch the craftsmen work. Remember what it means to be handmade, something that honors both the maker and the customer. That's Kentucky at its finest, right there on Main Street, still doing it the way it ought to be done.
