About Us

A breeding farm is an expression of the values and lifestyles of the owners, and how this is all integrated into their family, friends and home. We are no exception.

Jack, John, Elizabeth and Nadette Stang

The idea of breeding Morgans with sport as a focus, started with Jack many years ago. Visiting farms such as Funquest, Teton, Greentree, Mortana, and Rogue Hill, he looked for a stallion prospect to promote in dressage. As fate would have it, he never did buy a stallion—but he did acquire a wife (Nadette) who was just as enthusiastic about horses as he was. We made a good pair, as in addition to both being horse-crazy, our backgrounds agriculture and Animal Science were the perfect mix.

Eventually, we bought our foundation broodmare from Jean Sauer (Rogue Hill Morgans)–Rogue’s Midnight Melody (Flight Commander X Rogue’s Theme Song). A year or so later came our first foal with our farm prefix, Gladheart Linhawk (Funquest Diviner X Rogue’s Midnight Melody). Our daughter, Elizabeth, also was born the same year as Linhawk (her brother, John, had preceded her by a couple of years). So, with our first foal and a good start on some farm help, Gladheart Farm had begun.

While our son’s interests aren’t specifically horse-related (he is an olympic-style weightlifter–but that does tend to be useful when we need to move hay), our daughter was bitten by the horse-bug early on and rides her mare, Gladheart Lyric, in dressage and out on the trail when she isn’t at school. Both John and Elizabeth enjoy living on a farm and are an important part of what we do, and are particularly good with the foals which they look forward to each year.

Kimberlee Barker/KB Dressage

It takes special skill and showmanship to successfully promote a “non-traditional” dressage breed such as Morgans in the world of open dressage competition, and we have been very fortunate in finding someone who believes in our program and our horses. Our trainer, USDF Silver Medalist Kimberlee Barker, has done an outstanding job with our horses, especially making sure they get noticed both in open dressage competition and in other venues such as Expositions, demonstrations and clinics. With her skill, we have been able to promote both our own horses and our breed. We value her as a trainer, partner and, most importantly, a good friend.

It Takes a Village…

It is inevitable that, as time goes on, the number of horses on a breeding farm increases (sometimes it seem exponentially!).  To help us keep up with this population growth, we have been blessed to have a number of “helpers” who have also become close and valued friends.  We want to thank Meghan Hendrix and Kateri Grismer for all their help in taking care and training our horses!