Oldstyle Morgans

OLDSTYLE MORGANS weighing in on conformation ... the Morgan horse breed standard describes a compact, classically built horse with power and beauty. The last several decades saw a huge move away from the Morgan breed standard with Saddlebred-looking horses being pinned at Morgan shows.

Saddlebred crosses were allowed until the Morgan registration books were closed in the 1940s and some Morgan lines have a lot of Saddlebred horses further back in their bloodlines. Saddlebred-y meaning they have longer, thinner necks and long backs, taller with longer legs, often less attractive heads. My Saddlebred riding gal pals would say, well why don't they just get Saddlebreds? The answer to that was ambitious trainers willing to cheat in the showring opted for the Saddlebred-y so-called Morgans, and being judges they pinned their fellow trainers clients' Saddlebred-y horses. They wanted to be big fish in a smaller pond. And yes some of them turned out to even be Saddlebred crosses illegally registered as full Morgans (e.g., Bruce Ekstrom et al.). Hence the move to blood-typing and DNA matching prior to being issued an AMHA registration. I was quickly deemed a threat at the AMHA while the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of official breed journal, The Morgan Horse magazine, because I would bring up, What about the breed standard?

There are also the more Thoroughbred-y type Morgans: clean bodied, rangier such as some favor. They tend to excel over fences of course. And understandably you don't want an overly muscular horse to compete in competitive trail or endurance rides. Why the Arabians dominate those disciplines. My sister's mare, Windvale Activision, was a Courage of Equinox grand-daughter with quite a bit of Government Morgan bloodlines. She was very forward, sleekly compact, and athletic yet still had some Morgan breed type. A teenager's barrel racer we calmed down and converted into a fun trail horse and competitor in hunt seat classes and over moderate height fences. Vision surprised us though, the time I talked my sister Jess into showing her Western Pleasure, and Vision got high stepping (afterwards we referred to it as Park Western Pleasure). Looking back, it must have been the longer shanked, port Western bit reminded the bay mare of her earlier Saddleseat days -- because she was typically not that kind of mover.

I have always been focused on Morgans with a lot of breed type. And I studied Morgan bloodlines extensively to zero in on those attributes, which are still concentrated in the Lippitt Morgans. To me the ideal Morgan is a compact, classically built horse (think DaVinci and other master artists' equine studies) -- what I refer to as America's own, albeit more compact, sporthorse.

Seems the taller and rangier the Morgan, the more loss in breed type. Don't get me wrong, a good horse is a good horse no matter the breed or its bloodlines. But for me, the ideal horse is a powerfully well-built Morgan with a lot of breed type. Not so chunky or clunky it can't be flexible and maneuverable -- ideally its conformation allowing natural self carriage. A typy cresty neck yet that's clean enough in the throat latch to allow a vertical face when in a working gait. A balanced body where the powerful front end matches up with a deep-hipped powerful back end; complimentary shoulder and hip angles and short backed, substance (aka good bone). A Morgan to me should be instantly recognizable from across the show grounds or far out in the field by it's silhouette.

Our Oldstyle Morgans were very competitive and featured a lot of breed type (check them out herein on our Facebook farm page). Our matriarch mare, Susans Chelsea, was a three-way blend of traditional Morgan bloodlines: Government, Western Working, and Lippitt. Her son, our breeding stallion, Oldstyle Sport, was carefully planned: a half Lippitt with the Morgan sporthorse, Madrona Ethan Ash, as his sire. Sporty's child bride, the lovely black Ragtime Angelique, had more Western Working bloodlines. They all were versatile and athletic. I used dressage techniques to school and condition them. A Morgan dressage person watched my Morgans using up the ground in their pastures and remarked, she wished her Morgan dressage horses had my Morgans' naturally correct way of going. Chelsea was an alpha mare that always had a lot of ambition: she'd drop down into fast road trots in harness and/or drop down to out walk tall TBs and Warmbloods alongside her. Both Chelsea and Sport were conformation champions many times over: Morgan Mare, Morgan Stallion, and Justin Morgan Standard (won by our juvenile stallion Oldstyle Sport and also his dam, Susans Chelsea -- rare for any mare).

Another stellar example of the Morgan breed was the iridescent chestnut Morgan gelding I found as a green horse up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont (where I always had the best luck finding Morgans). We named him Flash (not around where I have his registration paper to refer to for his registered name). I trained him for my husband and Flash was truly a super horse: gorgeous, correct classic conformation, wicked smart but without wise tricks, he could do anything. Typically very forward, yet trustworthy enough to ride double packing along the kids; on top of the other standard three gaits, Flash had a natural running walk that other horses had to canter to keep up with him; powerful enough to skid logs for our firewood and wade through chest high deep snow; and fast -- he set the track record at Tunbridge Fairgrounds over Morgan Heritage Days for speed under saddle. One of the well-known Morgan breeders there commented how clean his action, that it was truly a shame he had been gelded. Leaving Flash behind when we divorced was very hard to do.

We did grassroots breed promotion by participating in parades, giving demonstrations and exhibitions, on top of a lot of trail riding and some riding lessons. Whenever we were out and about (whether in VT, ME, LA, NM, or FL), either at large trail ride gatherings or at a showgrounds, it was not uncommon that horse enthusiasts would hike any distance across the grounds to tell us they thought there were no more real Morgans left.

Because I was a solo amateur-owner competitor, my Morgans were only held back by my limited financial resources. I have long said, if I won the lottery, I would send exhibition teams around the world to show people what real Morgan horses can do.

Classically built horses as Morgans with breed type are horses for the ages, beautiful and versatile, thus outlasting any fads. Yet it is our duty and mission to keep these Morgan gems breeding.

Now retired, I miss my Morgans terribly. Yet have to remind myself that I was incredibly blessed to have had them as companions and the focus of my life for so many years. Looking at their photos and recalling all our adventures, their beauty and accomplishments take my breath away still.

Feast your eyes on these two ... "River Riders Rich lives on through his offspring. Here are two of his sons, Brook Hill Captivation (x Peppercorn's Melody Marea), left, and Sonarose Sampson (x CC EbonyX), right. The photo was taken at this year's Lippitt Country Show [August 2025]. Photo by Aaron Miller, courtesy of Heather Emmons Smith."

Heck yeah, back when Morgans were TYPEY: compact powerhouses, with plenty of bone so to stay sound for decades of use. That's what we aimed for at Oldstyle Morgans and our horses were athletic, versatile, competitive in the ring both as conformation champions and performance classes -- and a ton of fun as all-terrain vehicles.

As Morgan kids growing up in the New England heartland, or so we believed, of Morgan breeding in the 1950s, I doubt that many of us could have found Kansas on a map.

The idea that people from “out west” were breeding hundreds of elite horses like The Brown Falcon here, bred by Stuart Hazard in Topeka, Kansas, would have seemed foreign to our collectively provincial outlook.

The Brown Falcon, a foal of 1954, was the foundation sire of the Funquest breeding program, and he sired 137 registered Morgans. Such a great type---.

https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/the+brown+falcon