Those who turn off State Road 50 near Dillsboro, Indiana and head down Racing Lane are met with a beautiful sight. Nestled well back off the highway is a beautiful cabin-style home, surrounded by trees, paddocks, and earthy-toned barns. Within those barns and paddocks reside some of the finest Thoroughbreds in Indiana; well-bred broodmares, beautifully made foals, and accomplished stallions.
To outsiders, this may just seem like a pretty horse farm, but to those within the horse racing community Breakway Farm is synonymous with success.
A History of Horses:
Breakway Farm was started in 1995 by Janice Jordan and her husband Scott Jordan, though the farm’s founder Janice Jordan has been working with horses much longer than that. Janice did not grow up in the industry, but her love for horses led her to get a job cleaning stalls at 12 years old. At 16 years old she got a job breaking and training show horses and it is through that boss that she was introduced to the Thoroughbred industry.
Janice gained experience breaking and galloping racehorses and eventually began to work as a trainer. It is at the track that she met her husband Scott and together they built Breakway Farm. What began as just a 12 horse operation has transformed into a flourishing full-service Thoroughbred Farm.
Family is Everything:
Success rarely comes without hard work in the horse industry and Breakway has been no exception. It takes an incredible amount of time, patience, and energy to take such good care of these horses, and sometimes great help can be hard to come by. This is why Breakway is such a family commitment.
Scott and Janice’s children Tara and Derrik grew up on the farm, learning about horses and the Thoroughbred industry from the moment they were born. Their help with the daily and managerial activities has been imperative in getting Breakway to thrive. Tara’s husband Anthony also plays an important role on the farm and their daughter is growing up to love horses and farm life too.
Family is truly the heart and soul behind Breakway Farm. Though this lifestyle can be quite exhausting for the family, especially during the sleepless foaling season, it does benefit their clients. The people who own and run this farm are working with their horses every single day, ensuring that their standards are lived up to. The horses the Breakway team watches over are very important to their clients and the farm is dedicated to keeping these horses happy and healthy.
High Standards of Care:
There are four main categories of services that Breakway can offer to their clients.
Those who choose to board their horses at Breakway Farm can rest assured that their horses are taken good care of. The facilities at Breakway are very safe and the team is sure to keep a watchful eye over every horse they have. The farm also makes use of nutrition consultants so that each individual horse is receiving a balanced, healthy, and personalized diet to fit their needs.
Breakway Farm is more than capable of taking in horses in need of a layup. The farm has multiple options for turnout - indoor space and both small and large pastures - and they can help return a racehorse to fitness with a multitude of different exercising techniques. They understand the importance of excellent care and observation after a horse goes through surgery and will follow all post-operation procedures, no matter if the procedure was big or small.
Some of Breakway's most important services are breeding and foaling. The farm currently has six stallions standing stud on their property. Their roster includes top Indiana sires Skylord and Turbo Compressor, as well as the beautiful multiple-stakes producer Mondavi. They also have some fresh faces on their roster, like Forever D’oro, a beautifully bred son of Kentucky Oaks winner and broodmare of the year Lemons Forever (making him a half-brother to Forever Unbridled and Unbridled Forever); Charming Kitten, who earned more than $1 million on the track; and Calculator, a wonderful racehorse known for being one of the only horses to ever finish ahead of Triple Crown winner American Phaorah.
Breakway Farm clearly has a versatile roster of stallions, all standing at affordable price points.
The breeding process at this farm is taken very seriously. The entire team will be involved, using strong yet gentle hands to keep both the mare and stallion safe and comfortable. The standards for the breeding process here are just as high as they are at the big farms just a few hours south in Kentucky.
There are many clients who choose to breed their mares to a Breakway stallion and then have her foal at the farm too. Others breed to outside stallions and bring their mares back to Breakway to take advantage of the high-quality care and excellent breeder’s program in Indiana.
Foaling season is the hardest season of all for any horse farm. It requires late nights and early mornings, sometimes only allowing the farm’s employees to get just a few hours of rest before they must be back at the barn to help bring a Thoroughbred foal safely into this world. They make the process a bit easier on themselves by hiring a professional night watch service and have a 14-camera surveillance system watching over the broodmares.
Janice has been foaling Thoroughbreds for about 30 years now and has learned how to make this process as easy as possible on the mares in her care. Hands-on, personalized attention is given to every foal from the moment they are born. Each foal will receive probiotics during their first two weeks of life to ensure that they develop a healthy digestive system. The foaling stalls at Breakway are large and comfortable, giving the mares and foals plenty of room to move around and rest. There is also plenty of space for the mares and foals to get out and exercise, allowing the young Thoroughbreds to run and play as freely as they’d like.
The farm’s veterinarian Dr. Tony Wolfe of Wolfe Equine Services plays a huge role in keeping every mare, foal, and stallion at Breakway in tip-top shape. He is there to help the mares get bred at optimal times and to ensure that every foal is growing up healthy and strong. Dr. Wolfe is so close to the farm that he is even the co-owner of one of their newest stallions, Charming Kitten. He also has multiple mares and foals at Breakway.
Breakway Farm appreciates and respects their clients endlessly. They maintain excellent communication with them and take care of their client’s horses as if they were their own. The team at Breakway bond with the horses in their care and are always rooting for the foals they raised when they get to the racetrack. Their clients trust them so much that they have horses who were bred and raised on the farm that come back for their breaks from the track and some of them will come here to become broodmares themselves.
A Staple in Indiana’s Thoroughbred Community:
There are quite a few incredible farms dedicated to breeding, foaling, or raising Thoroughbred racehorses in the state of Indiana. Indiana has been making huge strides towards becoming a premier horse racing destination; the track is continuously improving its facilities, purses are going up all the time, and those who choose to breed, buy, and race Indiana-breds benefit from the state’s lucrative programs for breeders and owners.
The improvements to Indiana’s Thoroughbred industry have increased the number of clients at Breakway Farm. Today they have more horses than they’ve ever had - a whopping 72 foals were born at Breakway Farm this year.
To help support the industry, Janice and Tara have joined the Indiana Thoroughbred Alliance, which is a collaboration of breeders, owners, trainers, and horse-racing enthusiasts dedicated to the continued success of Thoroughbred breeding and racing in Indiana.
Breakway Farm serves as a brilliant example of the kind of care and support available to racehorses and their owners here in Indiana. As Indiana's Thoroughbred program grows, so will this wonderful farm and with the dedication this family has put in, they are more than deserving of all of the success that is to come their way.
This article is part of our project #TreasureoftheMidwest. Champions of the Track has partnered with the Indiana Thoroughbred Alliance, Indiana Horsemen's Protection & Benevolent Association, and Indiana Grand Racing & Casino to shine a spotlight on Indiana's vibrant Thoroughbred industry. We will be highlighting the state's farms and successful horses and horsemen through written stories, a YouTube video series, and social media content.
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