Larry Morrison and his wife Joanne operate a small breeding business on their 47 acres near Beeton, ON, about 20 minutes from Georgian Downs.
The couple began breeding commercially and naming their foals with the “JA EL” prefix in 1996.
It’s a family enterprise, with son Andy (21) and daughter Emma (19) both actively involved. Andy attends the University of Guelph and Emma is headed for the same campus this fall.
Larry has worked for Shur-Gain ever since graduating from the University of Guelph in 1975 and is now the livestock feed company’s Equine Business Manager. He’s also the current Vice-President of SBOA.
What do you enjoy most about being in the Standardbred breeding business?
We enjoy the whole cycle — choosing the mare, studying the pedigrees, picking the stallion, foaling and watching the babies grow, and prepping the yearlings.
But I think the thing we’ve enjoyed the most is all the great people we’ve met along the way. This business is full of hard working, down-to-earth people, who go out of their way to help each other.
What’s your procedure for monitoring mares about to foal?
We watch the mares very closely for all the natural signs. Once they get closer to their due date, we bring them into foaling stalls.
We have cameras in the barn so that we can watch the mares in their natural environment. It works very well. We can watch their progress from a monitor in the house and head out once a mare starts pushing.
What do you look for in a breeding farm employee?
We’ve only had a couple of people help us out over the years, cleaning stalls etc. so we’re no experts. However, we’d have to say that the most important quality is conscientiousness and reliability.
The employee has to be at work on time and has to care about the horses and facilities. As breeders, we have a lot of money and time invested in these animals and there’s no place in the barn for carelessness or lack of attention to details.
What do you consider the toughest part about being a breeder?
The toughest part is the long hours of hard work, the stress and worry. You spend months working towards that one day at the sale when you see whether all of that effort paid off.
Sometimes it’s very rewarding; sometimes it’s very disappointing.
What has been your most harrowing experience in the business?
It had to be the year that we lost CoastAlongwithMe to a severe colic, leaving behind an orphaned foal. Then a month later we lost Elegant Killean, who was also in foal, to cancer.
It was a very bad time for us.
Who do you think you have learned the most from about the breeding business?
We’ve listened to a lot of knowledgeable people and watched a lot of successful breeders over the years and we are still learning even after all this time.
We’ve also been very lucky to have a great reproductive vet, Dr. Martyn Potter. He takes the time to answer our questions, make suggestions or simply discuss the options or the latest studies.
How many yearlings are you selling this year and where?
We’ll sell four yearlings this year; three at the Canadian Sale at Flamboro and one in Harrisburg.
What has been your biggest disappointment in the business over the past year?
The economy — and the fact that the sales have been down the past few years. Our costs keeping going up and it’s tougher each year to recoup those costs, based on the prices the yearlings are bringing.
What is your favourite horse that you’ve raised?
We truly don’t have a favourite. They are all unique individuals with their own personalities and quirks. There’s something great about each horse that we’ve foaled/raised/cared for and that’s what keeps us at this year after year.
What has been your most memorable experience in harness racing– and can you tell us a bit about it?
Without question, when we owned a piece of Appleoosa Hanover and she won the She’s A Great Lady at Mohawk in 2006.
There couldn’t have been a worse night for racing –windy and rainy. Appleoosa had made it into the final with a third place finish in her elimination so we were optimistic about her chances. We didn’t think she deserved to be 22-1 but that just adds to the story now.
She had the seven hole and when they left the gate, she got away eighth and parked. Andy and I were at Mohawk; Emma and Joanne were at a horse show just outside Buffalo, so they went to Buffalo Raceway to watch the simulcast.
Andy and I figured we might never have another one in a race of this magnitude ($754,500), so we were standing by the finish line in the pouring rain. It was raining so hard that we couldn’t really see where she was on the back stretch but knew she was still parked out.
They came off the top turn and headed down the stretch and again, with it raining so hard you couldn’t tell which horse was which until they got closer. Then I realized Jody had her on the far outside and she was flying past horses. She crossed the line first and she’d been parked every step of the way.
What also made the win so special was being partners with our long-time friend Tom Kyron, and of course, trainer Carl Jamieson. Having Jody driving was the icing on the cake.
We were all standing in the winner’s circle soaked to the skin. A night none of us will ever forget.
