Our Philosophy

We believe a breeding program, even one as modest in size such as ours, should have clear goals. Our goals are to produce registered Morgans that are versatile sport horses, have traditional Morgan type with correct conformation, and have amateur friendly temperaments and trainability.

Phenotype

We believe that traditional Morgan type is fully compatible with our goal of producing versatile sport horses. The original Justin Morgan was admired as an attractive, correct individual that could do any task asked of him and do it well. With him in mind, we want Morgans that are true to the traditional breed type in conformation; horses that are compact and well-muscled, yet show style and quality. For us, size is secondary to athleticism and color is irrelevant.

• We want them to have three correct and expressive gaits, but we place particular emphasis on the quality of the canter and walk, the gaits that are less amenable to improvement through training. Accordingly, we want to see foals whose preference is to canter rather than trot.
• Equally as important, we want a horse with a strong loin that naturally uses its back and works off powerful hindquarters in an athletic way.
• Finally, we want horses that have a confident, friendly and willing nature.

Pedigree

The foundation of our program is Brunk, Red Correll and government remount breeding; most of which goes back to lines developed by ranches of the Great Plains and Mountain West. These lines were selected for athleticism, durability and work-ethic. The Brunk breeding comes primarily through two stallions, Flyhawk and Jubilee King, as well as through the mare Sentola, the full sister to Jubilee King. Much of the Red Correll breeding comes through Blackwood Correll. Many outstanding sport Morgans have come from these lines.

Performance

Unless a meaningful performance record is a central part of breeding and selection, a program could drift into producing horses that have ideal sport conformation or impressive pedigrees or both, but have little athletic ability. Because our goal is to produce versatile sport horses, we look for a strong performance record when selecting breeding stock. Our stallion is performance-proven and we have used stallions that have also proven themselves in demanding sport competitions to include upper levels of dressage, reining and eventing. Likewise, our broodmares are either sired by such stallions or are closely related to horses that have excelled in these disciplines. Noted equine authority, Dr. Deb Bennett, lists these disciplines as among the types of equine competitions that are more valuable in assessing horse-like athletic capability, because they require diverse equine skills.

We campaign our horses, including our stallion Black Harris, in open dressage and aspire to produce horses that have the talent to move up the levels in dressage to FEI. Dressage is not the be-all and end-all of equine sports, but we focus on this discipline for two reasons. First, we focus on dressage simply because it is the equine sport we most enjoy. Second, and of greater relevance to our breeding program, we believe the ability to compete successfully at the upper levels of dressage is an excellent indicator of a horse’s overall athletic ability and trainability. It requires quality in all three gaits, not just the trot. It requires the horse to truly collect by lightening its forehand, raising its back and working off its hindquarters. Dressage requires strength, balance and agility. The demands of dressage training at the upper levels test a horse’s willingness to work and ability to learn. Furthermore, reaching the upper levels of dressage is a physically demanding, long-term process that tells you a lot about the fundamental soundness of the horse. In other words, a Morgan having the athletic ability and temperament to reach the FEI levels of dressage is a versatile athletic horse that can excel in a wide range of equine sports.

Last, but certainly not least, one of the most important criteria is that our horses must be fun! Not only fun to ride, but fun to watch and live with on a day-to-day basis.

In essence, we believe that one does not have to breed Morgans that look or move or act like any other breed to get an athletic and versatile sport horse that is a joy to ride and own.