Morgan Horse Bloodlines: The History and Pedigree of the Four Families

The Government family and early Morgan horse history

In 1905 the U.S. Department of Agriculture set up a Morgan breeding program at its experiment station in Burlington, Vermont. The aim was a horse of true Morgan type with more size, keeping the old virtues of the breed: strength, athletic ability, endurance, versatility, temperament and economy of keep. Two years later Col. Joseph Battell, the first editor of the American Morgan Horse Register, gave his family farm at Weybridge, near Middlebury, to the program. The stock moved there and the United States Morgan Horse Farm was formally established.

The foundation stallion was General Gates, foaled in 1894 and a full brother of Lord Clinton, the fastest trotting Morgan of his day. General Gates stood as the farm's main stallion until 1920. Three of his sons matter most. Red Oak 5249 and Linsley 7233 both became important in the western ranch pedigrees, and Bennington 5693 took over as senior stallion at Weybridge in 1925.

Bennington was first used to sire cavalry mounts. Bred to Artemisia, a chestnut mare of old Vermont breeding, he produced the cross that people at the time called golden: Mansfield, Canfield, Ulysses and Querido came from it, and each went on to found lines of his own. Other names from the program that recur in pedigrees are the stallions Sonfield, Mentor, Tutor, Trophy, Panfield, Fleetwing and Troubadour of Willowmoor, and the mares Quietude, Redfern, Sheba, Naiad, Norma, Symphony, Romance, Jasmine, Phillipa, Fairytop and Quaker Lady.

Few decisions in Morgan horse history mattered as much as the farm's choice to test its horses. Young stock went through 300-mile endurance rides, jumping and timed races, and only horses that did well were kept for breeding. The result was a line known for good conformation, fluid gaits, stamina and a steady disposition, which is exactly the list a sport breeder writes today. The government stopped funding the farm in 1950. The University of Vermont took part of the herd and kept breeding at Weybridge; the rest was dispersed to four universities and private buyers, which is how Government blood spread through the whole breed.

A pedigree chart of the Government line

The chart follows General Gates down three generations, using only horses named in the farm's own history. Hover over a horse, or tab to it with the keyboard, and its line back to General Gates stays lit while the others step back. Reading a Morgan horse pedigree works the same way on paper: you follow one line at a time, and the same few names come back again and again.

Mares named are the dams of each horse. Numbers are American Morgan Horse Register numbers where the family history gives them.

Lippitt: the old Vermont bloodlines

Of the four families, Lippitt has the smallest numbers and probably the most devoted following. A Lippitt Morgan traces back to Figure on the largest possible number of lines, with as few known outcrosses to other breeds as possible and none at all to the Saddlebred. Other breeds do appear when a pedigree is followed far enough back, which is unavoidable in a breed that descends from a single stallion, but the Lippitt breeders kept them to a minimum.

The name comes from the breeding prefix of Robert Lippitt Knight, a Rhode Island man who ran the Green Mountain Stock Farm in Randolph, Vermont from 1927 to 1962. He bought the stallions Ashbrook and Moro and the mares Adeline Bundy, Nekomia, Croydon Mary and Green Mountain Twilight from the estate of A. Fullerton Phillips, and with them re-established a strain already well known in northern Vermont. These horses carried the blood of Ethan Allen 2nd and the old Peters Morgan, and they were of the type of Green Mountain Morgan 42 and his sire Gifford Morgan 30.

The type is easy to picture. Lippitt horses are small, short in the body and up-headed, with a trappy gait, strong in harness and well suited to hill country. Because they trace in many lines to Billy Root, Royal Morgan and the Hubbard Horse, they are often called high-percentage Morgans. Knight bred almost entirely from the old Vermont stock, though now and then he used an outside stallion; Lippitt Mandate, by the Government horse Mansfield, came from one of those crosses.

The foundation stock recognized by Lippitt breeders includes the stallions Croydon Prince, Rob Roy, Donald, Bob B., Welcome, Sir Ethan Allen, Sealect and Bilirubin, and the mares Bonnie Jean, Polly Rogers, Lucille, Rose of Sutton, Bridget, Emily, Evelyn, Hippolyta, Trilby, Nancy, Susie, Lippitt Trixie, Croydon Mary, Jenny Woodbury, Lippitt Sallie, Lucinne and Hannah. For a driving horse or a sound, economical trail partner, a Lippitt pedigree is still a strong recommendation.

Brunk: action and correctness from Illinois

The Brunk family bred Morgans for many years in and around Springfield, Illinois, starting in 1893 with Joseph Brunk. Their horses were known for high action, sound and correct legs and feet, and all-round athletic ability. They were often line-bred and usually showy, and their influence runs strongly through the western ranch horses as well.

The first mares Joseph C. Brunk bought were bred much like the old Lippitt foundation mares. Old Daisy and Lucy were both by Billy Bodette, one of the best-bred stallions of his day, with lines back to Billy Root, Royal Morgan and the Hubbard Horse. On these mares Brunk first used Morgan Rupert, by Ethan Allen 3rd. The Lucy and Rupert cross produced the stallion Senator, and Senator in turn sired the great mare Senata out of old Daisy. Later the stronger trotting lines of Daniel Lambert were added for action and size.

Senata, with close to 100 lines back to Justin Morgan, remains the foundation stone of the Brunk line. She was a grand champion in her own right, and her name appears again and again behind the best horses of this strain. The best-known Brunk stallions are Jubilee King, by Penrod out of Daisette, and Flyhawk, by Go Hawk out of Florette.

Jubilee King was a big golden chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail, rich in Daniel Lambert blood and remembered for his style and high tail carriage. His descendants inherit the springy step and big, open trot for generation after generation. Flyhawk is counted among the greatest sires of the breed, and breeders still look for his ground-covering trot, dense bone and toughness. Some breeders call the cross between Flyhawk and Senator Graham the golden cross of the Brunk horses.

Other names from the line: the stallions Senator Knox, Senator Graham, Red Vermont, Juzan, Agazziz, Congo, Stetson, Mr. Breezy Cobra, Flying Jubilee, Beamington and Allen Franklin, and the mares Daisy Knox, Bens Daisy, Florette, Sentola, Jubilee Joy, Sentana, Neliza, Paragraph, Liza Jane, Juvina and Daisette. Breeding programs built largely on Brunk blood include those with the prefixes Irish, Funquest, Highview, Reeds and Caduceus.

Western Working: the ranch family

The Western Working family took shape between the 1880s and the 1950s on ranches in several western states. As cattle ranching spread across the open range, ranchers needed a tough, agile and sensible cow horse, and they built one from old Vermont, Government, Brunk and old Midwest blood. The Midwest lines went back mostly to Black Hawk, with some Thoroughbred influence through Diomed, Messenger and Eclipse. The horses that came out of it had good feet and legs, deep bodies, strong hindquarters, a fast walk and trot, stamina and a great deal of cow sense.

The ranches that built it

Richard Sellman's Mountain Vale Ranch, 40,000 acres, ran from the 1880s to 1925 and is the program every other western line traces to. His foundation stock included Headlight Morgan (by Ethan Allen 2nd out of Lady Stratton), The Admiral, Red Oak 5249 from the Government farm, and Major Antoine and Gold Medal, both by Meteor Jr. Roland Hill's Horseshoe Cattle Co. in California, from 1922 to 1955, registered 530 foals and was for a while the largest Morgan breeding operation in the country, using Sellman mares and stallions such as Querido, Winchester and Sonfield from the Government farm.

William Randolph Hearst's Piedmont Land and Cattle Co. registered about 100 foals, most of them by Montcrest Sellman. Elmer Brown in Kansas, from 1911 to 1939, stands beside Sellman in almost every western pedigree, with stallions such as Romanesque, Linsley and Tehachapi Allen. E.W. Roberts in California registered 240 foals between 1940 and 1956 from his sire Monterey, by Mansfield, and later owned the influential Blackman. The Jackson Ranch in Montana built on Delbert, bred at the U.S. Range Livestock Experiment Station.

In Wyoming, the L.U. Sheep and Cattle Co. of David and Bob Dickie worked with Helen Brunk Greenwalt for about 40 years and produced more than 550 registered Morgans from Brunk and Government lines, among them horses by Flyhawk, Linspar, Senator Graham and Stetson. The Cross Ranch, also in Wyoming, crossed Glider, by Jubilee King, on daughters of Imperial, who traced to the buckskin Wheeler Horse 41, a grandson of Justin Morgan and the main source of gold color in Morgan pedigrees. Pure Western Working Morgans are still bred today for ranch work, competition and pleasure riding.

More names from the western lines

The Admiral, one of Sellman's foundation stallions, was by Jubilee de Jarnette out of a brown mare by Winnebago Chief. At the Horseshoe Cattle Co., Roland Hill also stood Pongee Morgan, by Allen King. Besides Montcrest Sellman, Hearst used Uhlan and Hacienda Chief, and his program produced Redman, the sire of Blackman, along with Cloverman, Kenelin Morgan, Piedmont Cresta, Piedmont Rosemarie and Montabell Georgette, later a broodmare for Siskiyou Morgans.

The L.U. horses fill a long list of their own. Highview King, by King de Jarnette out of Sentola, left daughters that were crossed with Flyhawk, and their foals included Winda, Midnite, the dam of Domino Joe, Varga Girl, Fleurette, Rimrock, Yellowstone and Vagabond King. Plains King was by Romanesque out of Ella Linsley. Senator Graham sired Shine On out of Miss Holliday, Jenny Lake, Starfire and Ailsa, and Townshend Gaymeade, by Meade out of Gayselba by Gay Mac, came from Nebraska. Stetson's foals included Nita of Dickie, Bonita Graham, Domino Joe and Flight Commander. At the Cross Ranch, the Glider and Imperial cross produced Gee Gee and Yellow Girl, who lived to 33 and had 17 foals.

How to read a Morgan horse pedigree

A pedigree is only useful if you know which names to look for. Start with the sire's sire and the dam's sire, then check the third and fourth generations for the markers of each family. Mansfield, Ulysses, Querido, Canfield and Bennington point to the Government farm. Senata, Jubilee King, Flyhawk and Senator Graham point to Brunk. Lippitt horses usually carry the prefix in their names. Ranch prefixes such as Sellman, Piedmont or the names of the L.U. horses point to Western Working breeding.

Most sport-bred Morgans are a mix, and there is nothing wrong with that; many famous Morgan horses of the last century came from exactly such combinations. What the families tell you is where a horse's type probably came from. A pedigree heavy in Government and Brunk names usually means a bigger, more athletic horse with plenty of action. A mostly Lippitt or Western Working pedigree usually means a smaller, very tough horse with a sensible head. The stallion register lists more sires with their pedigrees, and the Little Brook Farm profile shows how one Vermont breeder combined the lines.

Famous Morgan horses are also a good test of how far any single horse's influence goes. Follow Bennington through Mansfield and Querido, or Flyhawk through the L.U. horses, and you will find them in stallions foaled seventy years later. The names on this page are the ones that keep coming back, and learning a dozen of them makes every Morgan horse pedigree easier to read.