Mike Farina of North Lawrence, Ohio is a very private man who likes to
remain behind the scenes in the horse industry. Many individuals in the
industry have no idea what he looks like or that he owns two of the top
breeding stallions in the industry, Invitation Only and Lazy Loper.
While Mike and his wife Rochelle may not be interested in having a high profile in the industry, the one thing they are passionate about is their farm and the horses. They love to spend time on their farm and they enjoy raising high quality foals. It is refreshing to see a couple involved in the industry for the sole purpose of increasing the quality of horses in our industry.
Even though Farina shies away from the limelight, GoHorseShow.com was able to find out a few interesting tidbits about Farina, and talked to him while he was at his vacation home in Maui, Hawaii.
A native of Canton, Ohio, Farina’s father was an entrepreneur, and this risk-taking and out-of-the-box intellect luckily rubbed off on his son. A high school graduate, Mike is the epitome of a man who used his street smarts more than higher education to earn his fortune. Farina had an idea for a liquidation company that would buy assets and products from companies in trouble and then resell them to discount stores. For example, when Circuit City closed, Farina’s company, International Enterprises, came in and bought all of their products and sold them to companies like Big Lots.
“I became involved in the business when there weren’t that many discount stores around,” Farina said. “I got involved with it from the very beginning and it has proved to be a very profitable venture and has exploded due to the increase of discount stores across the country.”
Mike met his wife of 29 years, Rochelle, in his Akron, Ohio neighborhood. They lived on the same block and met one afternoon and have been together ever since. They have three children; two boys, Michael, 24, and Joseph, 15, and a daughter, Nicole, who is 19 years-old.
Farina’s children have never been into horses, and Mike has never shown. However, while growing up, he always wanted to have horses and a farm. Rochelle got involved with showing reiners and was introduced to Quarter Horses through being involved with the Ohio Quarter Horse Association. The Farinas also developed their love of horses by trail riding through the gorgeous scenery at the Mendes Ranch of Maui, Hawaii.
Farina decided to become involved with the breeding aspect of the industry and bought two of the top stallions in the industry, Lazy Loper and Invitation Only. He bought a farm located in northeast Ohio, Pine View Farms which was established in 2000 with the goal to raise some of the best pleasure horse prospects in the country.
Believing that a successful breeding program includes great mares, Mike and Rochelle have hand picked a band of World Class broodmares. The young stallion Lazy Loper (pictured left) was purchased in 2003 and has since gone on to be a two-time Reserve Congress Champion. His highest achievement was in November 2005 when he was named AQHA World Champion in Junior Western Pleasure. That same month, the opportunity to purchase the incomparable breeding stallion, Invitation Only, presented itself. Believing that only the best will do, Mike and Rochelle were successful in the purchase of Invitation Only for a whopping $2.35 million dollars and are excited to be raising some high quality prospects from this amazing stallion. Invy has been the number one AQHA leading performance sire for four years in a row.
“I love watching babies grow up. It is amazing how much they grow in a year,” Farina said. “I really enjoy being involved in the reproduction side. I like to be able to try and produce our own champions rather than trying to find them. We fell on the western pleasure side of things because it is fascinating how simple this class looks, but how hard the class actually is for the horse and rider. We bought Invy because we were looking for the best stud out there to work within our program, and he was the perfect fit.”
Debbi Trubee, who is the manager of Pine View Farms along with Roger Landis, speaks highly of the Farina’s, “They are very committed to raising the best. Both Mike and Chelle enjoy the horses and put no restrictions on us when it comes to care taking,” she said. “It’s never about the budget and it’s always about whatever the horses need. We hope it shows in our final product of what we raise at Pine View.”
One story that Trubee mentioned about Farina illustrates a lot about this man’s true character. “Last year we called him from the Reichert while they were auctioning the Harris saddle for (the ailing) Randy Wilson. He stepped right up and bid twenty thousand dollars for it.,” Debbi said. “He didn’t even know Randy or his family, Roger and I just told him what a great guy Randy was and that the family was in need and Mike stepped right up.”
Trubee recalls another fond memory she has of Mike. “We had a baby born here that was never right from the beginning. We nursed him and nursed him and I spent thousands and thousands on him in vet bills,” she said. “Everyone knew he would never be ok, the vet, Mike, Roger, Chelle, but, I just didn’t want to give up on the little guy. Mike never said a word nor did he make me stop spending the money to try to save him. He eventually died, and I never heard a word about wasting the money on a lost cause.”
Pine View Farms is a 200 acre horse farm that operates under two main facilities. The Broodmare Farm features 60 stalls in three separate barns with 40 stalls being heated. There are three 12×18 foaling stalls equipped with 24 hour monitoring. There are numerous spacious paddocks and expansive pastures on the Broodmare Farm. The new state of the art Stallion Barn is fully equipped with the latest equipment in breeding technology. The Show Farm is home to the Training Barn which houses 25 12×12 heated stalls, round pen and an 80×100 heated indoor arena. They are conveniently located in northeast Ohio off of State Route 21.
Pine View Farms is managed by Roger Landis and Debbi Trubee. For more information or to schedule a visit contact Roger at 330.352.1178 or Debbi at 740.815.3545. You can also visit their website for more information: www.pineviewfarmsoh.com.
