This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, but it will be about my little Morgan horse named Escanias Deliah witch we call Luna.
Luna
Luna is born in 2018 and she is by the gorgeus stallion Escanias Vangelios who lives in Sweden.
Escanias Vangelios aka William
Her mother is the beautiful Tellmans Dixie Chic by Amberfield Dun Heartbreaking.
Tellmans Dixie Chic
This blog will be about my horse, her family and also a little bit about Morgan horses.
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Horses with good conformation and structural sound hooves may do just fine all their life without shoes. Just being trimmed as needed. On the other hand, horses with less than ideal conformation, weak hoof structure or an involvement in equine sports will perhaps need to be shod.
Wild horses have though and resilient feet with strong hoofs because those who did not have that died a long time ago. Only the strong survive in the wild. Because they have to walk around in all kind of terrain and long ways to find food and water they have to have good hooves.
Domestic horses are bred for performance with little or non regards to their hoof health. The result of that is that many competition horses have week feet and horrible hoof quality. Many horses I have seen have so poor quality that the farrier have problem to make the shoe stay on the hoof, and every time the poor horse looses a shoe, more and more of the hoof wall fall of with it. And they cannot walk a meter without shoes, they get completely lame.
Many researcher confirm that horseshoes can do more harm than good, because it restricts the flexion of the hoof, which in time can lead to joint problems, cracked hoofs and other issues.
Horses with poor hooves have to have shoes or they cannot walk. But the shoe makes them needing the shoe, because the hoof like our foot get stronger when it can walk barefoot. But when the horse have started to use shoe it will take a long time for him to get strong enough to walk without pain if ever. So it is a bad circle and you cannot get out of it if you want to use the horse for something more than a lawn mower.
My own horses have always stayed barefoot except Luna who was shod last winter. That was because we had so much ice and I was scared she would slip and break a leg without shoes and studs on. But she have very good hoof quality and both her parents are barefoot competition horses. And after only three months with shoes we could really see that her movements got a lot better when the shoes came off.
Many people use boots for their horses, and they are very happy with it. They are connected with Velcro around the hoof and give the whole hoof a protection when they are out hacking. It is not made to be used for too long and they may fall of.
The Morgan horse come in a vide variety of colors, although they are most commonly known to be black, bay or red/chestnuts. But they do come in gray, dun, silver dapples, cream dilutes (buckskin, palomino, cremello, perlino and smokey black) and the chrome colors splash, sabino and frame (those colors almost vent extinct after 34 years of the max white law)
In 1962 the American Morgan horse Association stated that horses with white over the knee and/or too much white on the face (and god forbidd white on the body) would not be registered pure bred Morgan horse.
This law was removed in 1996.
The base colors in all horses are Black, bay and red
Escanias Vangelios is a black morgan horse with one hidden creamgene he lives at Escanias in Sweden and he is also Lunas father
Escanias DCX Gaslighter is a bay morgan stallion at Escania in SwedenEscanias Helios is a red or also called chestnut morgan stallion at Escania
The dun gene bleach all colors
Amberfields Blaze N Dun is a baydun morgan stallion at Rafter Bar D ranch,RBD Sues Lonesome Dove is a blackdun or also called Grulla morgan mare
The creame colors bleach only the red hair on a horse. But in dobbel dose the horse is born white whit blue eyes, cremello, perlino or smoky black.
Golget Sissy is a buckskin colored morgan mareEscanias Marygold is a palomino morgan mareAmberfields Luminescence is a cremello morgan stallion whom lives with Anna Velkey Sølvberg
The silverdapple bleach the black hair on a horse.
Unconventional is a bay silverdapple morgan stallion living in EnglandSilver Eagle is a black silverdapple morgan stallion at Sunrise Ranch
The gray gene makes the horse in every colors turn white over time
Jax silver Lining is a gray morgan stallion at Three Fates farm
The frame genes gives you a pinto colored horse in every colors
Sky Walker AB is a palomino frame colored morgan mare
The splash gene mostly gives a big blaze, blue eyes and high socks
Oregon County Flash is a palomino splash morgan stallion at Andy Marlett
The sooty makes all other colors darker or more shadowy, and the flaxen give a light mane and tail in some red horses.
This is Island Centavo an buckskin colored morgan horse whom is so darken by the sooty in his color that he almost look black. He lived at the Escania morgans Thorells Spring Breeze is a red flaxen morgan gelding with owner Lotta Bjørnstrøm in Sweden
And than you have combination of the colors
Princess is a Dunalino morgan mare wich mean that she is a palomino and dun combination, the gray in her mane comes from the sooty coloringSchaenzer silver Lining is a gaited black silverdapple grullo morgan stallion standing at stud in Netherland
Saddle seat is a competition, where the horse move around with upright neck and animated gaits and the riders where long coat and derby hat.
American saddle breed
History
The saddle seat equitation evolved from the times when the plantation owners would show of their flashy, high stepping horses in the park on Sundays. Hence the name park horse.
Competition
The horse have to have a natural animated gait like the American Saddlebred, the Morgan, the Arabian and the Tennessee walking horse. Sometimes also Hackney, Dutch harness horse, Paso fino and Missouri fox trotter. The trot or the gait for the gaited breeds is considered the most priced gaits. Saddle seat horses should be energetic and pleasant, while responsive to the exhibitor. The rider sit behind the center of balance to make the horse lift the front legs the most.
Classes under saddle
Three gaited – open to the American saddelbred in walk, trot and canter.
Five gaited – open to the American saddlebred in walk, trot, canter, rack and amble.
Plantation walker – open to Tennessee walker in flat walk, running walk and canter.
Park – open to Morgan, Arabian and Saddlebred show walk, trot and canter. judged by their brilliant high stepping action.
Pleasure – For all breeds. Judged on good manners, smooth performance in walk, trot and canter and sometimes extended gaits.
Classic or country pleasure – The same as for Pleasure but in this class the horses also back up.
Equitation – The class is judged by how the rider sit on the horse. How he or she use the aid. Class terminology varies between breeds. For example Saddlebred may be shown in English show pleasure or English Country Pleasure. Morgan horses have park, English pleasure and Country English pleasure. The Tennessee Walker exhibits in three categories, flat shod, Plantation pleasure and Performance.
Any breeds used in the saddle seat may also be shown in harness. Called fine harness or pleasure driving. Where they show walk and two speeds of trot.
In any competition classes may be broken down in
age divisions both for the horse and the rider.
experience both for the horse and the rider.
Morgan horse
Tack
The saddle is flat and put the rider behind the motion to encourage the horse to lift both the head and the front legs up in the air. The saddle seat horses usually wears a double bridle, the gaited horses like the Tennessee walkers and the Missouri fox trotters use a single curb with long shanks.
Clothes
The rider uses long coat and jodhpurs. Jodhpurs boots, derby hat, a vest, tie and dark gloves.
Grooming
Long mane is the norm and the bridle path is trimmed farther down the necks. The American saddlebred and the Tennessee walker usually have braided forelock and the first part of the mane with a satin ribbon color coordinated with the browband and the riders outfit. Arabian and Morgan are never braided and no ribbons in the mane or the tail. Usually the horse gets a full body clip two weeks before competition. And that really means everything like head, muzzle, ears, chestnuts and legs etc.
Controversial
The saddle horses usually grow long hoofs and are shod with pads and heavy shoes. Ordinary horse shoes are held on with horseshoe nails clinched under and on the outside wall of the hoof. The shoes for the saddlehorses need a metal band over the hoof as well as clinches because of the weight. And the horses needs to stay inside so they don’t loose their shoes. On the Morgan and Arabian horses the pads are not allowed, for the Am saddlebred its allowed with a 1 inch wedge pad and the Tennessee walker wobble around on 4 inch stacks.
Many saddle seat horses also wears special devices to increase their action while in training. Those devises used is stretchies (elastic rubber tubing attached to the front legs by leather half-hobbles, are used to provide resistance training), weighted rattles (large beads) or chains placed around the fetlock, and shackles or running W, devices composed of pulleys and ropes that help increase the horses range of motion.
Tennessee Walking horse
And then we have the soring used on the Tennessee Walking horse. By placing caustic ointment on the coronary band and pastern of the horse, he will pick up his feet faster because he gets pain when he touch the ground.
The tails in the American Saddlebred and the Tennessee Walking horse are nicked (an surgical operation that cut the retractor muscle under the tail) and put in a tail set. A tail set is a harness with straps that loop from the chest to the back of the tail to support a spoon crupper that prevent the tail from sinking down. In the showring this harness gets off and the tail is put in a brace to hold it in place. The Morgan and the Arabians are not allowed to have a set tail.
ref
The Saddleseat discipline
American Saddlebred gaits
Crabtree, Helen. Saddle seat Equitation. Double Day revised edition, 1982 ISBN 0_385_17217_6
Lampe, Gayle. Riding for Success: Both in and out of the showring. saddle and bridle, inc revised edition, 2013 ISBN 096555015X
There have always been people who could make an animal almost do whatever he or she told them to do.
Escanias Luna and me
It takes a lot of courage to change your way of thinking. What you learned when you where a child usually stick. And if you ask to much you get told to stop asking so much «it has always been like that». But I like to ask question, and not because I don’t know anything, just because I want to hear what different people think about different aspect. There is always something new to learn. Even a first time horse person can teach you something in a different way or just see the world trough different eyes.
For example I don’t always walk the horse on my right side, I also don’t mount the horse on his left side every time. All of this is from the military and I don’t have a military horse.
I believe that to be around horses should be fun for both you and the animal. Why would you do something that is both demanding for your economy, your physic and your psychic if you don’t enjoy it? And on that saying you should give your horse that possibility also. To be a horse as long as it is possibly, be outside with or near friends, be able to run and play and most of all have a human who understand horses or want to understand him.
I also believe that everything should be in harmony. Just like a dance, you are dancing together. Not one is bossing one around like a servant. And it should also look nice. It will of course not be spectacular in the beginning but still there is a feeling of harmony.
But most important. The way is the goal. We are never finished learning, there is always something more. Some tips or tricks you never thought about. Did you know that if you start to drive a young horse he develop more muscles and therefor will already have got muscles when you want to start riding him. As an added bonus he have already seen part of the world, so he don’t get so nervous.
The morganhorse is a horse of proud bearing. They are though, sound, athletic horses, heralded for their versatility as well as their cooperative and people pleasing nature.
Escanias Vangelios in working equitation
In the beginning
The morganhorse is the most versatile breed you can get
Many things have been said about the first Morgan horse.
That he was of an unknown breeding.
But in an advertise made in The sportsman in 1778 Mr Justin Morgan wrote
Sportsman, the dapple grey horse, will cover this season at Justin Morgan stable in West Springfield, Mass. At eight dollar all season and four for one single leap… His excellence for beauty, strength, saddle, harness and fine colts are so well known that there needs no further description.
Than his next advertisement in The Massachusetts Gazette was in 1783 for Diamond.
Will cover this season at the stable of Mr. Justin Morgan, in West Springfield, the horse called Diamond, who sprung from a good mare and from the horse formerly owned by Mr. Church of Springfield.
At this time he had a five year old chestnut filly by Sportsman and she got a filly in 1784, by Diamond.
Than in 1788 after loosing two of his children, Mr. Justin Morgan decided to move with his family to Randolph county. He left his horses with an relative, John Morgan, whom kept a stallion named True Briton. In 1789 Figure was born. And as we all know he is the forefather of all Morgan horses.
It is always said that Mr Justin Morgan got Figure as payment of dept, but I believe that the colt was the dept. He came back for him and two other horses that his relative had kept for him wile he settled in Randolf.
It is also said that Mr Justin Morgan was a music teacher.
There is no record of him ever being an teacher, he did make a couple of hymn in honor of his dead wife and probably children and otherwise he was a farmer, horsebreeder and a bit of an all purpose kind of guy. He was even the towns clerk a couple of years.
Godolphin Arabian
So who are those three breeding stallions named in Figures background?
True Briton (Figures father) was by Lloyds Traveller and out of the mare Betty Leeds who was by Babraham (a son of Godolphin Arabian one of the foundation stallions of the Thoroughbred horse).
Diamond (Figures grandfather) was bred in Connecticut in 1779 by Church Wildair an stallion imported by capt James De Lancey by Wildair. Wildair was by Cade (and he was by Godolphin Arabian) and the mare Steady (by one of that times best racehorses Flying Childers). The stallion Church Wildairs mother was also by Wildair. Diamond was a bright red bay, while his daughter, known as the Wildair mare (Figures mother), was a light shade with mane and tail tending to a more brownish tone.
Sportsman’s story starts with the arrival of the Arabian stallion Ranger in Connecticut in 1766. He survived even though he had three broken legs. He was originally on the way from Morocco to England as a gift to the king sailing on a frigate. They docked in the West Indian island and the captain wanted to let the poor horse run and stretching his legs after standing still for so long. They let the stallion run in an large lumber yard where he run around like only Arabians can. But than he stepped or slipped in to one of the piles of lumber and fell down with the pile. On the same dock there be another Captain whom happened to be a friend of the first one, he had a more of that times cargo ship with a crane and a big cargo room and he secured the horse in slings and bound up the broken legs and lay out on his way to America. Sportsman was foaled in 1774 by the Arabian Ranger. General George Washington bought Ranger in 1778 and renamed him Lindsay Arabian.
The first mare Justin Morgan had whom he bred to Sportsman was said to be a Dutch horse. A dutch horse in that time was a fast, small and muscullar horse with heavy mane and tail.
Figure
Figure was born in 1789 and Mr. Justin Morgan picked him up in 1793 after he had stayed one season as a breeding stallion at his relative John Morgan. At Mr. Justin Morgan’s farm he was used as an working horse and a breeding stallion. The fancy little, 14,1 hh, horse did an exceptional work and got a lot of mares. Than Mr. Justin Morgan sold the horse and he had about ten different owners whom all used him for different kind of work besides breeding on him.
He won Sweepstakes races in Brookfield, he was used for logging timbers, inspecting troops, farmhorse, wagonhorse and parade mount for president James Monroe, he even went four years to Canada. At 22 years old he was used in a six horse hitch up to haul freight from Windsor to Chelsea (a 45 miles trip each way). At 32 years old, in 1820, he died in the field because of a kick to the hip.
His ability to outwalk, out trot, outrun and outpull all other horses, fast became legendary. However his most valuable asset was the ability to pass on his distinguishing characteristics, not only to his offspring but through generations.
History
In the 1840s several breeders in Vermont and western New Hampshire began the efforts to concentrate the lines from Figure. By locating 2nd, 3rd and 4th generations from Figure and breed them together they established the foundation of the Morgan breed. By the mid 1850s the Morgan horse where selling for high prices and distributed all across the USA.
The three most notable sons of Figure
ShermanWoodbury
Sherman Morgan. He was 13,4 hh, foaled in 1808 and all black. He was a gaited horse and is not only the forefather to the Morgan horse but also the American Trotters and Pacers.
Woodbury. He was 14,3 hh, foaled in 1816 and had a blackred kind of color (which is rather often found in the Morgan breed. It is red but so dark that it can at times be taken for a black horse) and a showhorse to the tip of his hooves. He would never miss an opportunity to strut his stuff.
Bulrush. He was 14,2 hh and a bit rougher than the other two he had a mane who reached to his knees. He lived to become 36 years old sound as a colt. Is unfortunate extinct as a stallion line but will still live on through his many daughters.
Bulrush Morgan
An little fun fact is that in when the Canadian horse was in danger of extinction the organizations involved took DNA test of Canadian horses and Morgan horses and found many links. So they used a couple of Morgan stallions to save the Canadian horse, that is why you now can find red color in the Canadian breed.
Lunas father is the smoky black morganhorse Escanias Vangelios. He was born in 2011 by Gradels Vigilante and Goldget Kitty.
William lives in Sweden and is a breeding stallion at Escania Morganhttp://www. escania.se
Escanias Vangelios
He is a very versatile Morgan witch spam from driving, showjumping, dressage, working equitation, western dressage, trail, team penning and riding horse for the familys children.
He is 151cm high and I guess that is what Luna will become also.
His temperament is absolutt the best and his foal inherits that every time.
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
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Lunas journey 