By: Robert Manley

Robert Manley — Sat, 04 Jun 2005 20:05:45 +0000

Ms. Ish—You do wonderful work! It is a great thing that you provide your information in this format. I have just discovered this particular site.
A couple of years ago, Gail Perlee and I found some of the people connected with the Charles Ayer horses of Colorado. We also talked in detail with Mr. Ayer’s grandaughter.As you mention–above)Jack Sprat’s dam was was Gold Floss, bred by L.L. Dorsey in Anchorage, Kentucky. From our conversations, it seems that Jack Sprat and some of his line (e.g., Benayr, Ronnyayr, etc., were tough horses. Assuming that’s accurate, do you have an opinion which side of Sprat’s pedigree that trait would mostly have come from?
I apologize to you for the overblown nature of my email address. However, I frequently try to contact people connected with long ago horse people. I find that this email handle helps such people feel more confortable that I don’t have some non-horse related motive for my interest in their family, etc.
I realize that if may not be a line that you are as focused on as some, but since you are in NC, I thought that it might be of interest to you to know (which you probably do already) that Dewey (Bennington x Mrs Culvers) appears to have been in Franklin, NC for a substantial interval beginning in May, 1916.(That fact appears in the 38 page list of most of the “govt. Farm Morgans. Gail recently noticed a reference to the same fact in another source.) The 38 page item’s enty on Dewey says that he was in “Arny Horse Breeding.” (This was, of course, before the Renount “Agent” system was begun. I wish that I could find out something about any offspring that were produced in NC. (Dewey is interseting to me for a number of reasons, including the fact that he was the first registered Morgan used by Clark Ringling, Lovelock, Nevada, who has been a special interest of mine for many years.
To change the subject, Mr. Ringling’s last Morgan stud, Black Winter, was apparently a nice horse. As you know, he didn’t just have Flyhawk as a sire. He was well bred on the bottom side as well. He just sort of got lost out there. Despite considerable effort, I’ve never been able to find out what happened to Black Winter.
Speaking of long ago Morgans in your general area, I have recently gotten interested in some Morgans that were sold by the C.X. Larrabee Estate in 1917 to Dr. J.L. Cottrell of Mountain City, TN. (Mountain City is quite close to Booone, NC.) The entry for “The Queen” in Vol. III indicates that one of these horses was “The Queen.” That was a long way to go forhorses in those days. I have fond some obituary information, etc., about Dr. Cottrell and his wife, and I believe that I’m on the trail toward tracking down a decendant in New Mexico. (Of course, he he probably won’t be interested in my obscure topic.
Thanks again for the fine work that you make available to all.
Sincerely,Robert Manley, New Market, TN, formerly of VT, (before that the West).

Comments on: SHERMAN MORGAN (LORD NORTH), by Ina M. Ish

By: Robert Manley