Oldstyle Morgans

10/19/2023

SCAM UPDATE: "Right, I don't typically click on any unsolicited links. I typically go to my online accts and log in separately. So I logged into this FB page on a fresh web browser tab (as I refuse to use any FB apps on either my computer or smart phone). I ended up clicking on the link and it seemed to take me to other than a Facebook platform, wanted my email and password, which seemed real suspicious (when one is already logged in). Didn't go any further. Bogus, as I was still able to post on Oldstyle Morgans (thus not actually suspended). And eventually flagged it as spam.

I agree, it's spammers trying to hijack my Oldstyle Morgans profile/page. Had a friend get both her personal FB profile and her art biz profile page hacked; she got shut out and lost all involved. The scammers were then contacting her numerous FB friends. So evil, these hackers."

Dear fans of old type Morgan horses: I am getting inundated with Facebook Suggested content here on my Oldstyle Morgans page that has nothing to do with horses. And now I have received a bizarre suspension/violation notice from Meta (Facebook's parent company). I may have to close out this long-standing and well liked page due to Facebook's unwanted ugly activities. -- J.W.

07/27/2023

The trainer of racehorse champion Maximum Security was sentenced to four years in prison on Wednesday for his role in a widespread international scheme to drug horses to make them race faster. Jason Servis was sentenced by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in Manhattan federal court after pleading guilty to o...

05/19/2023

https://www.horseillustrated.com/better-than-fiction-the-founder-of-cowboy-dressage/amp

This article is about the founder of Cowboy Dressage. Eitan Beth-Halachmy, the visionary founder of cowboy dressage, dreamed of being a cowboy, but his life has led to so much more.

05/08/2023

Had another dream about my beloved Chelsea, I was riding her, then grooming her lovely Morgan apple butt. I so value my visits with her in dreamland. Oldstyle Morgans' matriarch mare died from violent colic around Mother's Day several years ago. This photo of her was taken following an annual Christmas charity event we'd participate in at NM's largest homeless shelter located across the Rio Grande River from us. I will never stop missing this exceptional Morgan, but I was so blessed to have Chelsea in my life for so long.

05/08/2023

Without even reading the particulars noted in this article, I can tell you the three causes of stakes racehorses breaking down and having to be put down: (1) for last few decades, bred for speed over soundness = too light b***d; (2) performance-enhancing drugs (illegal); and (3) track surfaces prepared for speed over safety of the horses and jockeys. It is bone-shattering and heartbreaking. Literally for the horses.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The morning after the 2022 Kentucky Derby, horse racing took an exuberant and hopeful victory lap. Rich Strike had reintroduced the sport to the dreamer in all of us, winning at odds of 80-1. His trainer, Eric Reed, was an everyday Kentucky hardboot from the casino racetracks. Hi...

05/06/2023

My pal Hals (Hallie McEvoy Hubert) had this input on the TBs still aiming for the in-gate of the Kentucky Derby today: "I've liked Two Phil's since he won last time out. Also using Rocket Can and Mage." Here's a photo of the TB stallion Hangover Kid she acquired in December, for eye candy.

04/27/2023

A fine Morgan c**t indeed

04/19/2023

04/05/2023

How much I love Morgans ....

The Morgan horse is a refined, yet strong and muscular horse with an arched, elegant neck. Its movement makes it easy for saddle seat and driving classes.

03/23/2023

I am lucky.

I have fallen. I have been kicked. I have been stepped on. I have been bitten.

I’ve had falls that could’ve and should’ve caused permanent injury.

I’ve had falls that have broken my fingers, wrists and hands and continued to ride through such injuries.

I’ve had falls that could’ve gravely injured me and robbed me of the very job and activities that bring me so much joy.

I had one fall in particular, a few years ago, where I landed so hard I thought I may have broken my back. Every fall before this, I had been able to just get up and go catch my horse. This time, when I tried to get up, the pain was so sharp I had to take a knee. I felt like I was going to be sick.

Since this fall, I’ve had back soreness and body soreness issues. My low back, hips and knees are not great.

Recently, I had an MRI. I was expecting bad news, but instead I got good news.

I am lucky.

I have beaten up my body and needlessly put myself and horses in dangerous situations that are entirely avoidable and could be made so much safer just by training with more patience and thought.

I could’ve robbed myself of a lot of longevity and caused permanent injury.

But, I am lucky.

That luck has made me consider what it would’ve been like if I hadnt been so fortunate.

If these injuries had caught up with me.

Oh, the anger and frustration I would feel.

Others are not so lucky.

Others are still actively endangering themselves doing the same things I once did. Being applauded for it and told they’re gritty and brave.

It isn’t necessary. It isn’t worth it in the long run.

We don’t need to endanger ourselves as riders to the extent that is normalized.

Horses can be dangerous on a good day, but far too often in training and care, us humans throw gasoline on that figurative fire and create situations that are much more risky than needed.

Safety is cool.

Patience is cool.

Not injuring yourself is cool.

We can be safer. We can stress horses out less. We can preserve our bodies more and we can yield the same results or better just by taking a step back and relaxing.

We don’t need to create dangerous situations in the name of training.

You can train to avoid such dangerous situations.

And your body will thank you.

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Learning resources: http://MilestoneEquestrian.ca/resources

Webinars: https://milestoneequestrian.ca/shop-milestone

Patreon: http://Patreon.com/sdequus

03/19/2023

Wowser! Attended the Sunday events of the Live Oak International equestrian competition in Ocala, FL ... "The largest combined driving & show jumping competition in the United States." It was awesome to be THERE at a world-class equestrian event I have seen broadcast many times on TV. The horses and their riders and drivers from nearly 20 different countries showcased their athleticism and bravery. These competitions are not for the faint of heart. Those jumps are so, so high, "one meter 60".

Some of the highlights I especially enjoyed today: There were two entries for the four-in-hand obstacle course. The black Friesians were so handsome. A girl and her plucky 20-year-young pony did the salute to the American flag around the arena -- complete with roman riding. Puerto Rico did America proud, with a woman rider coming in second in the jump off for the Grand Prix jumping. Her gray warmblood was so perfectly built, a true baroque horse yet with speed. The Budweiser Clydesdale eight-horse hitch is always a crowd pleaser.

This was the first big horse event I have attended since I got out of owning horses five years ago. And I found my competitive spirit stirred up. Yes its an immense amount of training and conditioning and chores, plus for regular (non wealthy) people, going without other niceties. But when your horse does you proud you are walking on air for days.

https://www.facebook.com/LiveOakInternational/

The only event in the U.S. that offers both combined driving and show jumping competitions

03/18/2023

PETA are extremists and quite clueless at that. I don't personally favor tail-docking, but it is done so driving horses don't get the reins caught under their tails (which with some horses could end up in disaster).

I have seen the Budweiser Clydesdale hitch perform in the Endimión Mardi Gras parade in NOLA and they are very impressive. I have a ticket for the Sunday events of this international competition in Ocala FL. Looking forward to it, and if any PETA protestors around, calling them out on their idiocy.

PETA supporters said they’ll be protesting the event. They said the company that owns the Clydesdales is mistreating the horses by docking their tails.

03/17/2023

Yegads, nothing to fool around with ... per the expression "enough to kill a horse"

Xylazine is emerging as a dangerous new street drug.

03/17/2023

Saint Patrick's Day greetings to ye from Oldstyle Morgans, those still on god's green earth and those treading greener pastures.

03/16/2023

Interesting ...

Tonka is using the EQ Press from Vetletics

02/05/2023

We have exciting news!!! Okan Storm Chaser was confirmed in foal today!! We’ll be expecting another lovely foal by Okan Count on Me!! 😊💕💙

12/16/2022

Did y’all know that legally, only two species: dogs and small horses, are deemed Service Animals. Look it up with ADA.

12/06/2022

11/11/2022

11/07/2022

I had a most incredible dream within a dream last night: where I came across my beloved Chelsea. I looked around a corner and saw someone had her in hand, blanketing her. I exclaimed, she is here. I was so pleased and relieved to see her alive. There were some other snippets, where I'd check on her and she was lying down resting in differing positions. Maybe she came to me to let me know she was at peace. I have been so full of guilt for the horrendous suffering she went through, her guts bursting inside from violent colic because the GD vet couldn't get his ass to our appt. If he'd only been half an hour late instead of over an hour late, he could have saved her the worst agony. I miss Chelsea so very much even after years since she passed. I look forward to being together with her again when I reach the end of my trail. She was my sun, and my moon, and my stars. Meanwhile, I have been working on taking up other interests and pursuits ... until then.

10/31/2022

Happy Halloween y'all!

09/28/2022

FYI: I am not in Florida. I am still at my VT lake cottage, finishing up projects and working on shutting down the place for the season. My new primary home is near Interlachen FL in the middle of the north central area of the peninsula of Florida so should weather the storm fairly well. I chose it carefully. I have a friend/handyman nearby who will check on my place after the storm passes through.

I am very WORRIED about family and friends (and Oldstyle Sport, the Morgan I bred/trained/stood at stud/competed, he's been stabled in either Frostproof FL or the Naple FL area) in the path of Hurricane Ian, what is now a Category 4 to 5 hurricane, poised to hit the western FL coast within a couple hours. Way too much like Hurricane Katrina; which the people and critters of Oldstyle Morgans weathered in 2005, despite the damage to our Louisiana property.

07/08/2020

What a gorgeous mare ... now that's a MORGAN!

Congratulations to the 2019 Lippitt of the Year Award Winner, Okan Winters Bounty, a 7 year old mare (Good News Joshua x Okan Li'l Darling) owned by Don & Mary Curtis of Okan Morgans. Look for a full write up about "Winnie" and her accomplishments in your soon to arrive LC Newsletter!

06/26/2020

Proud of my good friends Phil and Carol Blackshear for taking in seven horses off the west mesa and arranging various rescue placements for each of them. Two mares with new foals, two yearlings, and a pinto gelding. This is the pinto mare Missy with her new filly they call Dazzle. The other mare, Blanca, has a new filly at her side and she is a rack of bones.

Other than hay and small rations of grain, they are having limited periods of grazing to get their starved systems acclimated to lush pasture. This involved going up with their horse trailer several times to get them in batches. Also at their own expense, the Blackshears have paid their vet to evaluate and supervise their recovery and they have scheduled their farriers to come trim and check their feet. They also have a horse-whisperer trainer coming over to help with halter breaking the youngsters and teaching them ground manners.

We know their owner who could no longer support them, a good man, who tearfully surrendered them all so they could get the care they need and homes they deserve. It was a two hour round-trip for him to haul water and feed up to them on their land up on on the west mesa, which had become untenable both for him and the horses. A crisis actually, between the increasing over-population of equines being dumped and especially since some low-lives are using the horses in remote areas as target practice.

These particular horses haven't ever been treated harshly and are happy to get kind human attention. New Mexico is a 'free-range' state and when people can't afford to feed their horses, they typically turn them out to fend for themselves. The high-desert has gotten over-grazed plus there is always the problem of water sources for livestock drying up due to droughts.

The financial recession caused by the pandemic will result in a horse holocaust even worse than the 2008 crash. If you can help some horses in your locale, fine, but there will be far too many horses than can be saved.

06/02/2020

Harry & Snowman - Official Trailer 2016 (HD)

I finally got to watch "Harry and Snowman" last evening, the bio-documentary released a few years back. This is the movie about Harry DeLayer, the former Dutch Resistance Fighter who emigrated to the USA after WWII and earned fame for the $80 plow horse, Snowman, that he rescued off a truck bound for the slaughter house. The grey gelding Snowman was initially purchased on a hunch he'd be a bomb-proof lesson horse yet who demonstrated himself to be an extremely athletic jumper. Harry schooled this natural jumper on the finer points of show-ring competition over fences and with their strong bond they went to the top, beating the blue-bloods at their own game.

Check it out: https://youtu.be/De2srJy24FU

I too once had such a gelding back in the 1980s. Sunny was a handsome Morgan-Quarterhorse cross, chestnut with flaxen mane and tail that I acquired from a farmer's field in Vermont when the horse was 15 years old (considered aged when it comes to horses). Sunny was an excellent riding horse that was game for anything I wanted to try. He had no vices other than he could jump anything and would do so just for the hell of it.

We got kicked out of our initial farmer's pasture and barn arrangement, then the two boarding stables because of this penchant of his. If there wasn't some newborn calves to watch over, Sunny could find a breach in the fencing no sweat. At the polo barn, Sunny could clear the dutch-door of his stall from a stand-still, land in the not-so-wide barn aisle and neatly pivot to take off after the polo ponies that were being taken up the road for conditioning. Then there was the 4-H program stable where we were asked to leave because my gelding would jump in and out of the arena while the lady was trying to give lessons.

So I had to bite the bullet and fence in my new place plus get a run-in shed built. I was looking at extremely expensive 6-7 ft tall perimeter fencing that as a new homeowner I could not truly afford, when the shopkeeper suggested instead of trying to keep the horse contained, perhaps I should find something that would make him want to stay put -- such as a companion animal.

I knew a cow would be nearly as expensive to feed as a horse, sheep eat the grass down to the roots, pigs root around and are escape artists in their own right. Then I recalled the horses I had worked with at a summer camp job enjoyed the petting-zoo goats as did I. So I found a sweet little Nubian doe kid, Jezabel, who became as fine a companion animal to me as any dog and the handsome gelding absolutely doted on her. We would take Jez along with us to various horse events, which delighted the older ladies on the grounds who would then have to come over and tell me about the goat carting they did as a child.

I was an experienced rider and had done some jumping while taking lessons in college but was no competitive show jumper. I wish I could have found someone to school and compete Sunny over fences. My boss was a former show jumper himself and he was amazed at both the senior gelding's ability and soundness. He felt his legs and said it was unheard of not to find any sign of previous splint injuries. No doubt Sunny would have beat the blue-bloods at their own game also.

HARRY AND SNOWMAN - in select Australian cinemas from May 19, 2016 http://www.beckerfilmgroup.com/harryandsnowman Censor: G - very mild themes Harry & Snowma...

05/16/2020

Oldstyle Sport "moving out" in his pasture back when Oldstyle Morgans was located in Louisiana and he was our breeding stallion. Just one of many exquisite photos provided to us by our good friend and fan of our Morgans, Mary R. Wismer. Sporty eventually was gelded due to the economic crash of 2008 that so negatively impacted the horse market. Sport was re-homed a year and a half ago and lives at a farm in Florida being doted upon by Miss Mimi. They do lots of trail riding and have wowed em at parades. We are grateful the Sport-meister found such a wonderful last home.

04/05/2020

Long Island Dressage Association

Our VP Dale Gifford and her boy Fig making sure they're following protocol. "This is the only mask I can get my old geezer to wear!" What have you been doing? Send us your photos and we'll post on our LIDA page.

03/22/2020

The Legend, Big Red

Be like Secretariat. Keep your distance. 🐎 from

03/22/2020

"Figured" we all could use something on the cute and fun side about now. So here's a reboot of Oldstyle Sport, late May 2000, at just one day or two old, with his mama, the indomitable Susans Chelsea. We bred Chelsea to the popular Morgan sporthorse, a full Lippitt, Madrona Ethan Ash (aka Buddy) during a break in their respective competition schedules. Sport grew up to be Oldstyle Morgans' breeding stallion. He had his sire's good stallion ethics and had a long stretch of being a using breeding stallion himself. Sport was very kind to the mares brought to him and could ride out in large groups, along with mares in heat and not carry on with hollering or dropping down. Sport figured out if he was very very good, maybe -- just maybe, someone would let him cover one of the mares.Sport was a conformation champion like his dam and sire and while still a juvenile would beat the mature, more muscled up stallions in hand. Chelsea was beautiful and vibrant up until a couple months short of turning 29, when we lost her to a violent case of colic. We miss her still. Sport eventually found a new home with Mimi and they are enjoying activities together at her farm in Florida. These Morgans will forever remain in my heart. Bless the old type Morgans.

03/07/2020

And on a lighter note ...

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