In an exclusive story that GoHorseShow broke in June, our readers learned that Invitation Only and Lazy Loper were purchased by longtime breeder, Fritz Leeman of Massillon, Ohio. At the same time it was announced that the two stallions would stand at Debbi Trubee and Roger Landis’ North Farm just down the road in North Lawrence. While attending the 2015 All-American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio, GoHorseShow was offered the incredible opportunity to tour North Farm and Leeman Farm located approximately two hours north of the horse show, and we jumped at the chance.
Trubee and Landis have been hard at work upgrading and adding on to their North Farm property to make it a full functioning breeding facility. Beginning with the 2016 breeding season, North Farm will offer year round boarding for broodmares, stallion management services and fitting and marketing for yearling sales.
During the tours, we were given the opportunity to take some great photos of the farms, babies and famous stallions that were at both breeding farms. Owners of North Farm, Debbi Trubee and Roger Landis, were all smiles as they showed us the incomparable Invitation Only, #1 AQHA All Time Leading Sire of Point Earners as well as AQHA’s Leading Sire eight years in a row. Trubee did confirm that Invitation Only is now only breeding Leeman’s private mares and his book is not open to the public.
We also got to visit with the absolutely stunning AQHA World Champion, Lazy Loper (pictured right) who has sired multiple AQHA and Congress champions including One Lazy Investment, Lopin For A Chex and VS Flatline, to name just a few. Rounding out the breeding barn and not to be missed are the outstanding stallions Winnies Willy, The Best Martini and Lopin Lazy.
Just down the road from North Farm is Leeman Farm. As mentioned, the Leeman family added the two legendary stallions, Invitation Only and Lazy Loper to their already impressive lineup of How Bout This Cowboy and Willy Be Invited. With the help of Leeman Farm manager, Greg Bender, we took pictures of the farm, babies, and stallions that are located on nearly 500 acres of gorgeous green pastures. Their complex consists of five buildings all under one roof allowing easy access to the heated show barn, indoor arena, breeding barn and broodmare barn. The broodmare barn and training facility feature automatic waterers, oversized stalls with maximum ventilation and a light program for cycle management. There are five large pastures and additional turn out areas that provide daily exercise for all horses.
“Roger and I are truly blessed to be able to continue to care for Lazy and Invy,” Debbi told us while we were taking the tour. “We also know the Leeman’s will always do right by those boys. Fritz and Carole are such a pleasure to work with as are all our stallion owners. It’s a bit confusing to people how we are set up with North Farm and Leeman Farm. North Farm has been our personal farm for eight years now. When the decision was made to bring all the studs to North Farm, it just required us to build a breeding barn and more stalls. We’re so happy construction is almost complete and we’re looking forward to an awesome breeding season in 2016.”
Please take the opportunity to view the slideshow of North Farm below.
During the Congress, we also had the chance to sit down with Fritz and Carole Leeman to talk about their exciting purchase of Invitation Only and Lazy Loper as well as discuss their future plans. “We are now turning our involvement with the horses more into a business operation than just a hobby,” Fritz told us at his stalls in the Gilligan Barn. “With buying Lazy Loper and Invitation Only and the addition of Debbi Trubee to our team, we are ready to make a run at being one of the top breeding organizations in the industry.”
According to Leeman, “Keeping Roger and Debbi played a very big part (in buying the stallions). It took Roger and Debbi to be tied all together with the studs to make it all work. I don’t think it would have worked well with just us doing it.”
Fritz Leeman also wanted us to make sure not to, “Forget about the cheese!” Leeman is the longtime owner and operator of Brewster Dairy, the largest manufacturer of Swiss cheese in the United States. “We couldn’t be involved with showing or breeding horses without this business keeping us going.”
Fritz and wife, Carole, have been active in the horse industry for over 35 years and have watched their three children, and two of their grandchildren, Katsy and Kyle, grew up showing horses. We sincerely appreciate their hospitality as GoHorseShow was able to tour their gorgeous facility and take pictures of the babies and stallions, Willy Be Invited and How Bout This Cowboy.
View the slideshow here of Leeman Farm.
We would like to thank Debbi Trubee, Roger Landis and the Leeman Team for taking the time to show us their farms. We would like to encourage you to visit their websites to find out the breeding specials for all of their outstanding stallions. Breeding discounts are currently shown below. Contact Debbi Trubee at 740-815-3545 for more information or visit their website by clicking here.
North Farm and Leeman Farm 2016 Breeding Discounts
LAZY LOPER – $2100.00 by 10/31/15. Regular fee, $2500.00
HOW BOUT THIS COWBOY – $1200.00 by 10/31/15. Regular fee, $1500.00
WINNIES WILLY – $1000.00 by 10/31/15. Regular Fee, $1200.00
THE BEST MARTINI – $1300.00 by 10/31/15. Regular Fee, $1800.00
LOPIN LAZY – $1200.00 by 11/30/15. Regular Fee, $1500.00
WILLY BE INVITED – $1300.00 by 10/31/15 (includes 1st FedEx). Regular Fee, $1500.00.
