Employee Profiles:

Laura Young  / Manager,

Laura has been working with Southwind farms now for over 19 years. She takes great pride in the strides she has taken to run the facility at Maximum efficiency with Minimal overhead. She has been living on the farm for over 12 years. Being a manager of a facility this size takes much dedication, patience and love of the farm. She and her husband Chris were married in the main barn June 29, 2008. They have a beautiful  4 year old son, who already participates in farm activities. She has attended many courses over the years from premier colleges and continues to stay on top of any state of the art procedures, nutritional information, or over management changes this world has to offer. She is trained in ultrasound mares, collecting stallions, semen evaluation, frozen semen handling techniques, acupuncture and mare synchronization for Embryo transfer. She has also attended courses in California.  She works very closely with the industry’s leading veterinarians’ to assure the horses are getting the best of care. When she is not managing the facility she loves spending time with her family, deer hunting, and recreational activities like Snowmobiling and ATVing.
Christopher Pazdan / Grounds Manager / Farmer,
Chris joined our Southwind Team in 2006. After dating Laura for some time we found a place for him here at Southwind. Now he works very closely with his wife Laura to help run the facility. He revamped the way we look at hay, straw and the overall maintenance of the facility. Up until his joining, Southwind was buying in 100% of its hay and straw from other supplies. Chris being a farmer all his life suggested we start making our own hay and straw for the facility. He started out slowly proving that we could handle it and it was cost efficient. In 2009 Southwind brought in over 20,000 bales and for the first time in the farms history we will be total self sufficient with Hay and straw. Chris is very talented and Mechanically inclined, having the old school backing of “fix it yourself” has helped Southwind tremendously, we do 99% of our own repairs on Equipment. When he is not making hay or installing a new clutch in one of our tractors he enjoys spending time with his family. Snowmobiling, atving, auctions and collecting die cast 1/16 tractors “his collection consists of over 1000 tractors and implements!”
      
Emma Young / Office Manager,
Emma has been the office manager for Southwind now for  10 years. She handles most of the incoming calls during our very busy breeding season. She also creates all the booking documents for Muscle Hill, keeps records and billing under wraps. During the breeding season she also provides clients with semen delivery. She has loved horses all her life and owns a small farm in Columbus were she has three riding horses. When she is not helping Southwind in the office she is a Taxidermist, specializing in big game animals. She has been a Taxidermist for 35 years and is well known throughout NJ and PA for her artistic mounts. When she is not working she enjoys, spending time with her daughter Laura and her grandson CJ, deer hunting, and riding her horses.
        

Chelsea Bullock, Assistant Manager

Chelsea started with us as an foaling attendant and has now become the Assistant Manager of the farm. She has been living and working at the farm for the past 7 years. After graduating from Rutgers University with a bachelors of Science in animal/equine science, she became part of the team here at Southwind. She has been to several courses at Penn state and Colorado State for breeding, foaling and Farm management.  In 2008 she went to Scotland to view their equine studies. Last fall she went to California  for some premier freezing of semen courses and will be going back this summer with Laura for further continuing education.  Chelsea is responsible for all the general horse care. As an Assistant manger she works side by side with Laura to ensure all the horses are healthy.  She assists in the breeding shed and foaling as well.   When Chelsea isn’t working she spends time with her two horses. Chelsea also enjoys traveling both overseas and in the United States accompanied by her two German shepherds. She is involved in many extra circular activities, as fostering pets, starting young pups for the Seeing eye Foundation and volunteering at a local Clinic.
Mike Klau,

Mike has been consulting with Southwind now for 21 years. He officially joined our team 3 years ago and works out of Mr. Skolnick’s New York office for CAMBR co. He has been associated with the Standardbred horse industry most of his life. He has been affiliated with Lana Lobell Farm, Old Glory Horse Sales, Pine Hollow Stud Farm, Finder-Guida Enterprises, North American Standardbred Sales Co., Dreamaire Stud and Northwood Bloodstock. Currently he is the Syndicate Manager for Muscle Hill and consults with the farms on a daily basis regarding farm activities. He is a Graduate of City College of New York. He has two sons and enjoys living in the city.
                              

Hermilo Lopez,

HERMILO is our FIRST on farm Retiree.  As of April 1st  2011he has officially retired and went home to his family in Mexico.  We had a large retirement party for him at Southwind.  He was with the Southwind Team for 15 years!!  He will be greatly missed and we wish him and his family ALL THE BEST!!  Good Luck!

Victor Lopez,

Victor will be replacing our recently retired Hermilo.  He has worked with horses in Mexico and will be helping in the barns and handling all of the horses.   Victor is an avid soccer players, he plays for a team in Trenton, works out and jogs all the time.  He likes the work here because he says it really helps him stay in shape for his tournaments. 

Norberto Lopez,

Norberto has been working at Southwind for 14 years. He is a native of Mexico who works with his father, brothers and uncles at Southwind. When Hermilo is not here he takes care of our two stallions. He also provides a clean environment for out mares and foals to live in. He trains our weanlings to lead and walk properly. He does daily farm tasks, such a cleaning and feeding, along with maintaing our lawns, trees, and fences. He does leaf and snow removal when needed. He is also responsible for trimming our mare’s feet with his uncle Hermilo. He has a wife and two sons, John and Allen, who like to come visit the farm.

        

Felix Lopez,

Felix has been working with Southwind for 13 years. Working with the rest of his family here he helps provides great care for the horses. Felix has recently moved onto the farm with his wife Maisie and his son Andrew, He will be doing all the foaling in the upcoming season and his wife will help him.  During the yearling season he is given the toughest yearlings to groom, he has great patience for the task and enjoys it. Other tasks include, day to day care, such as cleaning stalls and turning out horses. Depending of the time of year, he mows the lawn, paint, trims trees, ect.

Alejandro Lopez,

Alejandro has been working at Southwind for 11 years, working along side his family.
He feeds and provides clean water on daily basis to our mares. He fixes fences, gates and does small maintance jobs through out the year. He maintains our lawns, and does leaf and snow removal when needed. His son is Alejandro Jr. who also likes to come visit the farm, and spend time with his dad.

Javier Lopez,

Javier has been working at Southwind for 11 years. Arriving from Mexico in 1999 to work along side his 3 sons Norberto Felix, and Alejandro. He cleans stalls, feeds and checks waters. During the warmer months he spends a lot of time weed whacking and helping out in the garden. In the fall he grooms yearlings, along with outside jobs such as leaf removal, ect. His wife lives and Mexico along with more of his children.

Alfredo Lopez,

Alfredo also known as Tapia, has been working for Southwind for 12 years. He performs many farm tasks, daily cleaning, turnout, and feeding. In the summer he weed whacks, along side of his brother Javier. He baths and grooms yearlings in the fall. He has a wife named Calixta, who lives with him, and two daughters in Mexico.

Charlie Williams,

Charlie has been working at Southwind for 22 Years! He has taken care of outstanding stallions that have stood stud at Southwind. These stallions include, Valley Victory, Artsplace, Malabar Man, and Dancer’s Victory. Currently he is responsible for taking care of Chocolatier and our newest addition Muscle Hill. He daily baths and brushes each stallion making them shine. He has a lot of pride and dedication in caring for these stallions. In between caring for the stallions Charlie also maintains the gardens and does yearling prep. Prior to Southwind Charlie learned his way around horses, working in the thoroughbred industry. He exercised and cared for many great thoroughbreds, before sustaining an injury that ended he riding career. After that he joined the team at Southwind and has been here ever since. Outside of the farm Charlie spends time at the racetracks, keeping up to date with the racehorses, he is a big movie buff also.

                    

Southwind Farms New York Farm

Kevin Burnside, manager, Southwind Farms, NY
Kevin has been an employee of Southwind Farms NY for 26 years. The Southwind Farms NY operation has always done most of their own equipment maintenance, haying, fencing and building. Much of this is due to Kevin’s talents in carpentry, construction and welding. Kevin became manager of Southwind Farms NY when the former managers moved down to NJ to take over operation of the brand new Southwind Farms NJ in 1987. Kevin oversees all aspects of the daily farm work. This includes employees, maintenance and haying, as well as maintaining the Skolnick’s 125 year old residence. When not working Kevin enjoys attending his sons’ track, basketball, and baseball games. He enjoys all sports, hunting and off roading in his jeep.


                


Laura Burnside, yearling, breeding and livestock manager Southwind Farms, NY

Laura has been a Southwind Farm’s employee for 25 years. She began working here while still attending the standardbred program at Morrisville College. Laura graduated from Morrisville with an associate of applied science in Equine Studies. She has continued to keep up to date on the latest aspects of livestock and equine management by attending courses at Morrisville, Cobelskill, Centenary College, Cornell University and Colorado State University. Laura oversees all aspects of livestock management and breeding on the NY farm. She also runs the office on the NY farm. Laura is trained in artificial insemination in horses, cattle and goats. Horses are by far the easiest. In addition to about 30-40 yearlings, mares and foals, Southwind Farms, NY maintains breeding groups of Jacob sheep (50), Golden Guernsey goats (30), Boer Goats (10), pygmy goats (10), highland cattle (10), llamas (3) as well as swans and peafowl.
Kevin and Laura met on the farm and were married September 14, 1985. They are looking forward to their 25th anniversary in the fall of 2010. They have two sons, Clayton who is almost 16 and Austin who will soon be 14. Clayton is a big help on the farm and participates in track. Austin is an avid sports fan and keeps active playing baseball and basketball. Laura has no off the farm time as Southwind is her life. However, she does enjoy time on the farm with her family, dogs, and paint horses.


      

Kendra Campbell, reproductive technician, Southwind Farms, NY

Kendra has been an employee of Southwind Farms NY since 2006. She has a Bachelor of Science degree from Clarkson University in psychology. Kendra has also taken the reproductive short course from Colorado State University. Kendra helps with the feeding, yearling prep, breeding and ultra-sounding of the livestock. She also assists with lambing and kidding, medical treatments, painting, haying and holding for the vet and blacksmith. Kendra also handles our yearlings for our consignments at Morrisville College. Kendra says she bleeds Southwind blue and gold.
In her spare time Kendra enjoys, riding, hunting and four wheeling. Her favorite pastimes consist of attending races to watch Southwind bred horses and attending yearling sales.


Heather Gross,

Heather has been employed at Southwind Farms NY since 2009. She is attending Cobelskill College and will graduate in June with an associate of applied science in Equine Studies. Heather has been summer and weekend help. She assists in barn cleaning, feeding and helped with yearling prep and exercise. In her spare time Heather likes to ride and participate in local horse shows.



Equine Personnel

Mark Bice,

Mark helps with barn cleaning, daily chores and leading horses. He also helps rake hay in the summer.

James Hoffman,

A former dairy farmer, James is involved in lawn care, paddock mowing, snow removal, maintenance and crop and field work. He also helps with barn cleaning.




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