Walter Parkinson grew up near Lucan. ON, only 10 minutes from Seelster Farms, and can’t recall a time when his family wasn’t involved in racing horses.

While pursing an Economics degree at the University of Guelph, he spent summers helping out at Seelster. Graduation led to his employment as an agricultural researcher at the prestigious George Morris Centre in Guelph.

But the lure of the horse business prevailed and he rejoined Seelster to become Assistant Farm Manager in the fall of 2003. Today he’s recognized as an integral member of the management team that has built Seelster Farms into one of Ontario’s most successful Standardbred breeding enterprises.

Walter is now in his fifth year on the SBOA Board of Directors.

What is your background in the horse business and what role do you play in your operation?

I am the Assistant Farm Manager at Seelster Farms. I work alongside Ann Straatman, our Reproduction Manager; Karen Favacho, our Farm Manager; and Tina Marie Howard, our Registered Veterinary Technician. Between the four of us, we oversee the entire breeding and farming operation.

My main areas of focus include handling the stallions, assisting with breeding and foaling, and overseeing our advertising, marketing and budgeting.

I grew up around racehorses, as my parents owned many claimers throughout the years. I always had an interest in the breeding aspect of the business, which I was exposed to when I started working at Seelster in the summers.

Can you describe your breeding farm for us and how the business operates?

Seelster Farms is owned by Cathy Van Bussel and Hubertina Van Boxmeer.

We are a commercial breeding operation. We currently stand eight stallions and own approximately 75 broodmares. The farm encompasses approximately 600 acres, spread over five properties. We are also part-owners in the Forest City Yearling Sale.

Between mid-January and mid- June each season we are busy foaling out close to 150 mares. Breeding season starts in mid- February and runs until the first of July.

We move our yearlings to our Main Farm in mid- August to begin prepping them for the fall sales.

After the fall sales, we begin breaking all of our current year foals. Prior to Christmas, the foals will be moved to our yearling farm. Then we get ready to start the cycle again in January.

What do you look for in a breeding farm employee?

We are very fortunate to have some excellent employees.

When hiring, we are looking for individuals who are responsible and take great pride in their work. We are also looking for people who are able to work well independently and as part of a team. Prospective employees need to show initiative and take direction well.

Most of all, we are looking for people who truly like working with horses, from foals to stallions, and individuals who we feel we can entrust with the care and welfare of our horses.

How do you monitor mares about to foal?

During foaling season, we have night staff that work each night from 8:00 pm to 7:00 am. They are responsible for monitoring the mares and attending to each birth, as well as carrying out other chores throughout the evening and early morning.

In addition, Ann, Karen, Tina Marie and I take turns being on-call, so if the night staff has any problems or concerns they can call us in.
Our Veterinarian, Dr. Stan Henderson, is also a great help to us should we have any foaling emergencies.

What advice could you give someone just starting out in the Standardbred breeding business today?

Focus on obtaining the best quality broodmares you possibly can. If the intention is to raise and sell yearlings, than broodmares need to have current and commercial black-type pedigrees and excellent conformation.

Success comes down to whether or not you have the product that yearling buyers are willing to pay a premium for. Selling yearlings can be a hard business, but when you when you start with well-conformed individuals from high quality dams and fashionable sires, your chances of success in the sale ring and on the track are that much greater.

What do you enjoy most about the business?

I enjoy all aspects of the business, but if I had to choose one, it would be sale season. I enjoy watching the yearlings develop and seeing the end result of 2½ years of work when they hit the sale block.

This time of year is also exciting watching the 2-year-olds start to qualify and stakes season begin and seeing the new up-and-comers in the sport.

How many yearlings are you selling this year and where?

This fall we will be selling all 53 of our own yearlings at the Forest City Yearling Sale, October 15 & 16 at the Western Fair Agriplex in London. Our yearling consignment consists of 39 pacers and 14 trotters.

Who is your favourite horse that you’ve raised?

It’s always phenomenal to breed and raise stakes winners like Prodigal Seelster and Deuce Seelster.

If I were to choose my personal favourite, however, I would have to go with Lady D M p, 1:51s ($634,732). She’s a mare that my family bred and raced. She had a very successful 3-year-old season and then went onto race as an aged mare. She’s now retired and a broodmare for us.

Who do you consider your top three mares and who are you breeding them to in 2011?

Over the past several years, we have worked hard at adding quality, high-end broodmares to our band and we have started to see the results of those efforts over the past couple of years. Many of our top mares are young up-and-comers. Three highlights for us are:

Platinum Seelster p, 3, Q1:56f ($44,072), whose first foal is multiple stakes winner Prodigal Seelster p, 2, 1:50s -’10 ($559,955) has proven to be an outstanding addition to our band. Her second foal, Phoenix Seelster, sold for $100,000 at last fall’s Forest City Yearling Sale. We do not have a yearling to sell this fall out of her, but she did have an impressive looking Artistic Fella filly this spring and was rebred to Camluck.

No Strikes Against is the Western Hanover full sister to Strike An Attitude p, 2, 1:51.2 -’10 ($590,414). Her dam is the full sister to Artiscape and Arterra, (dam of If I Can Dream and Western Terror). We will be selling her first foal, a Camluck colt named Nitro Seelster at this fall’s Forest City Yearling Sale. She was bred to Bettor’s Delight this season.

Art’s Michelle p, 2, 1:54s ($36,459) is an Art Major half sister to Line Officer p, 2, 1:53.4 -’10 ($305,089). Her dam is the half sister to Cams Card Shark and to the dams of Michelle’s Power and Luck Of Michelle. Her first foal, Amore Seelster, is a yearling Camluck filly that we will be selling this fall. Art’s Michelle was bred to Rock N Roll Heaven this season.

Who is your favourite broodmare and why?

Silver Seven, as she’s a calm, quiet and personable mare. She sticks to herself when out with other horses. She’s very much a loner in the herd.

She has been an excellent producer and her yearlings are always well received.

What are your culling criteria for broodmares?

To start with, we only buy mares that we are very interested in. When looking at mares to buy, either privately or at auction, we only consider maiden fillies/mares just off the track or out of training or mares who are carrying their first foal.

Our reason for doing this is that we want to have the first foals out of the mare, as we feel it gives us the best return on our investment. On average, we tend to enter each breeding season with 10 or so new additions to our broodmare band.

If a mare has not produced from her first three foals for us, either by way of sale prices or what she has left on the track, she is one we will look to sell. Each year, we generally sell between 10 to 12 broodmares form our band.

What do you think it takes to succeed in the breeding business today?

I think you have to be committed to the lifestyle and willing to accept the ups and downs of the business. There can be a lot of disappointments, but there can be even more rewards.

You need to be willing to change with the times and be willing to keep improving, especially in regard to continually upgrading your broodmare band.

It’s also important, I think, to look around at other successful breeding operations and see what they are doing right and how you can follow their lead in certain areas.

What are you most looking forward to in 2011?

As far as the business goes, I am looking forward to seeing how our 2-year-olds that we bred and sold last fall perform in stakes action this summer and fall. I am also looking forward to the fall sales, as I believe we have a very strong consignment to sell.

How do you unwind away from the business?

I like to spend a lot of my time away from the business with my wife Sarah and our daughter Quinn. We live a fairly active lifestyle and we like to travel. I also like to train and compete in triathlons.