I toured one of Kentucky's most legendary horse farms, where horses live in immaculate barns, security teams sweep the grounds at night, and Secretariat is buried. Here's what it looks like.

Katie Warren/Business Insider

• Lexington, Kentucky, is known as the "horse capital of the world."
• The region is home to about 450 horse farms as well as Keeneland, the world's largest thoroughbred auction house.
• One of the most prestigious farms in this area is Claiborne Farm, a 3,000-acre, 109-year-old farm that's been visited by Queen Elizabeth II — twice.
• Legendary racehorses Secretariat and Seabiscuit both lived at the farm, and 2013 Derby winner Orb currently resides there.
• Claiborne is home to one of the world's most expensive breeding stallions, War Front, whose stud fee — or cost to breed with him — is $250,000.
• On a tour of Claiborne, I saw just how exceptionally well-cared-for the farms' prized stallions are.
• They live in immaculate barns where each stallion has its own spacious windowed stall with a personal fan, and an automated fly spray system keeps away the biting insects.
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In Lexington, Kentucky, horses are a way of life.

With more than 450 horse farms in the region, Lexington is known as "the horse capital of the world." It's also home to Keeneland, the world's largest thoroughbred auction house.

Riley Kirn of Bluegrass Sotheby's International Realty described Lexington's horse farms as "kind of like English country estates" with huge, stately homes and "barns that don't look like barns."

"We call them farms, but I tell people to think of them more as estates or ranches because they're just massive," Mary Quinn Ramer, president of VisitLex, or the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau, said.

And Claiborne Farm is considered to be a step above the rest.

"[Claiborne Farm] is absolutely stunning [and has a] very winning track record in terms of what they do for the thoroughbred industry," Ramer said.

I got a tour of Claiborne Farm one morning — here's what it looks like.

Lexington, Kentucky and its surroundings are known as the "horse capital of the world."

The region is home to about 450 horse farms as well as Keeneland, the world's largest thoroughbred auction house.

Horse farm tours have become a popular tourist attraction in Kentucky, particularly after the 2014 establishment of Horse Country, a nonprofit for promotion and ticket sales to many of the state's horse farms.

Niki Heichelbech-Goldey, the director of communications for VisitLex, the Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau, told me that visiting a horse farm has been the No. 1 request for information from their office for the past decade.

One of the Lexington area's most prestigious horse farms is Claiborne Farm, a 109-year-old thoroughbred farm in the town of Paris, about 20 miles from Lexington.

The farm was established in 1910 by the Hancock family, who still control the farm today.

Walker Hancock has been running the farm since 2014 after taking over from his father, Seth Hancock. 

On a recent September morning, I drove out to Claiborne from Lexington. The road took me through bucolic farmland.

The morning sunlight shining through the mist hovering over the grass gave the countryside a tranquil glow. I saw horses grazing and occasionally, tucked away in the hills, a stately home with white columns.

I rolled down the car window and was struck by the smell freshly cut grass ... and manure.

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SEE ALSO: I spent 4 days in the 'horse capital of the world,' where the barns look more like estates and billionaires convene for the world's largest horse sale. Here's what life looks like in Kentucky's second-biggest city.

DON'T MISS: One of Kentucky's premier 4-star hotels is a castle on the side of a highway. I spent a night there, and its bourbon bar and Versailles-inspired decor didn't make up for what it lacked in sense of place.