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These pictures are of Pacheco (Dan X Betty Skinner) foaled in 1935. They are from an article in the
February 1948 issue of The Morgan Horse magazine which told of Pacheco's devotion to a young mare named Patsyayer (shown nuzzling Patcheco's rump
in the first picture), refusing to leave her side when she was bitten by a snake and became very ill. Patcheco looks very much like a silver in these
pictures; notice the light mane and tail but the dark lower legs, atypical of flaxens who generally have flaxen lower legs. Although Patcheco was a
gelding and thus had no progeny to give us more clues as to his actual color, I have included him here because he is, so far, the only direct offspring of
Dan that I have pictures of!
This is Zona Skinner (Silver Ranger X Cavey, by Dan), 1938 registered-as-chestnut mare. Zona had three offspring all by the chestnut stallion Squire Burger: Paleface, registered as chestnut but from color pictures shown to be a bay silver; Bright Star, registered as bay, who from a b/w picture of his head does look bay (Margaret Gardiner tells me he did not have the black legs of a bay however); and Merryman, registered as chestnut, but who looks from pictures to be a silver dapple. I have no idea what base color Zona Skinner was, black or bay/brown; her mane and tail look very dark, but that is possible on age-darkened silver's mane and tail. She must have been a silver dapple, not a chestnut, to have produced as she did. Very likely a bay silver, as her body seems so red. Picture courtesy of Margaret Gardiner, who is pictured with Zona.
 
Here is Merryman (Squire Burger X Zona Skinner), 1948 silver gelding.
Even in a black and white picture you can see he is similar in shade to his niece Orcland Queen Bess, pictured further down this page.
The picture on the right was a lucky ebay find for me!
 
Above left is the picture that got me started on my quest for silver dapple Morgans. If you saw this picture in an old Morgan Horse magazine, in black and white like this, what color would you think this mare was? A palomino, maybe? But there is no cream gene color line in this mare's pedigree! This is Orcland Youlenda (Ulendon X Paleface, out of Zona Skinner out of Cavey), foaled in 1955. Youlenda's bay silver dam, Paleface, had three foals, all by the brown Ulendon- and all, apparently, silvers misregistered as chestnuts. Youlenda is a silver dapple, but was misregistered as chestnut. She produced seven offspring for Fiddler's Morgan Farm, at least two of which were also silvers (Fiddler's Carrousel and Fiddler's Rainbo, pictured below) but the color does not seem to have bred on from this line. The second picture is of Youlenda in the winter, hitched to a sleigh; notice how much darker she is in her winter coat (many silvers bleach out if not kept out of the summer sun). The last picture shows Youlenda with her owner Claire Murphy and daughter Janie up.
Orcland Youlenda with 5 year old Janie Murphy up. Janie learned to
ride on "Linda" as she was called, who was a very kind mare who took excellent care of her riders.
Claire Murphy and her family have bred some outstanding Morgans at Fiddler's
Green over the past half century. Fiddler's Contender (sire of Tedwin
Topic), Fiddler's Vivo, Fiddler's Trustee, Fiddler's Majesta (dam of
Tug Hill Commando) and many other well known show and breeding horses
have proudly carried the Fiddler's prefix over the years. In a recent
videotaped interview for the New York State Morgan Horse Association
(available on their
website), Claire, now
81, reminisces at length about one of her first Morgans,
Orcland Youlenda. I
contacted the Murphys for permission to share some of the pictures
on the NYSMHS site with you all, and Janie Murphy, Claire's daughter,
was very generous with information and more photos of Youlenda, her silver dapple offspring and grand-offspring, which I hope you
all will enjoy seeing.
Claire first saw Orcland Youlenda at a show in 1958. "She was silver
gray...she was dappled. Her name was Orcland Youlenda. She looked to
me like the horse you went for on the merry go round," Claire
recalls. "Everybody said, 'You're crazy! That's not a popular color!'" She bought the mare anyways!
We now know that Youlenda was a silver dapple, although with
the limited color genetics knowledge available at that time she was
thought to be- and registered as- a chestnut, as were her silver dapple offspring. Photo courtesy of Claire Murphy.
Youlenda's full sister Orcland Queen Bess, registered as chestnut but likely a bay
or brown silver, foaled in 1953. Queen Bess had 5 offspring; the only one to breed on was the registered-as-chestnut Shar Lynn A O K; he in turn produced the bay silver mare Shar Lynn's Moonbeam. This line
has, unfortunately, died out.
Carole Cushing Bennett emailed me about "Queenie": "I started showing Orcland Queen Bess
owned by Phyllis Kean in Milford, NH. when
I was 8 years old. To my surprise, I ended up winning with
her at the Eastern States Expo 5 years later. My rival throughout my showing career
was Fiddler's Carrousel ridden by Lynn Gamlin who I believe lived in Hollis, NH, not sure. Every equitation class I ever went in she
won and I came in second until one day I did finally beat her and took first while she took second.
At the time, he was a gelding, never a stallion. I just can't believe my rival was related to "Queenie", her barn name."
Above are three photos of Shar Lynn A O K (Doctor Faustus x Orcland Queen Bess), 1964 bay silver (registered chestnut) stallion. He was 30 years old when these photos
were taken in 1994. He passed away two years later. Photos courtesy of Carole Cushing Bennett.
Shar Lynn's Moonbeam (Shar Lynn A O K X Brookbound Erica) 1981 dark bay or brown silver mare owned by Anne Paquin. Photo courtesy of Anne Paquin.
Orcland Silver Don is the third offspring of Ulendon X Paleface. He was foaled in 1954. Although he was a gelding and left no offspring, I am fairly certain he was a bay
or brown silver like his dam, and felt he should be included here as a result.
 
Fiddler's Carrousel
(Orcland Don Darling X Orcland Youlenda), 1963 gelding registered as chestnut, but with a color just like mom’s!
Note the large diffuse dapples in his sunbleached summer coat (b/w picture), and the way his lower limbs are
darker towards the bottom of the leg; a flaxen chestnut would have more or less reddish flaxen lower legs. Carrousel was
kept a stallion for awhile, and was so tractable he was shown in English Pleasure classes by then 9 year old Janie
Murphy. A friend of mine, Jill Missler, knew Carrousel when she was a child, and confirmed that he had an excellent disposition.
Fiddler's Carrousel as a young horse being shown in hand.
Janie Murphy related the story of how "Lyman" (his barn name, after Lyman Orcutt of Orcland Farms) came to be: "Lyman Orcutt assured my
mother that Orcland Youlenda bred to Orcland Farms' black stallion
Orcland Dondarling should produce a black foal. Mom took Lyman's
advice and the following year Orcland Youlenda foaled a dapple gray
colt with a silver mane and tail on my birthday!! We named him Lyman
and registered him Fiddler's Carrousel because he looked like the
horse on the merry go round." "Lyman" sired two foals before he was gelded at age ten in 1973,
shortly after being sold. "Carrousel was sold under the condition that he was NOT to be gelded or we would buy him back!" Janie states
emphatically. "In the words of my brother Patrick Murphy, 'You never
should have sold Lyman, Mom, he was a Murphy.'" Photo courtesy of Janie Murphy.
NEW! To read an article about the silvers bred at Fiddler's Green, just click here (PDF format).
 
Fiddler’s Rainbo (Waseeka’s Vivo X Orcland Youlenda),
1970 registered as chestnut mare, actually a silver bay. Janie Murphy, then age 17, up. Color photo courtesy of Janie Murphy.
Fiddler's Rainbo (center) in the pasture at Fiddler's Green. Clearly, a horse of a different color! I wondered if Claire and Janie had any idea of what color their
silver dapples actually were. Janie replied "we really didn't know,
however the registration application at the time was limited so my
mother guessed chestnut!" Sadly, this color line is
a dead end too, as Rainbo only had 3 offspring- 2 bays and a
chestnut. The chestnut, Fiddler's Diamonair, only had two gelded
offspring.
 
Fiddler's Curtain Call (Fiddler's Carrousel X Donna Mae Pepper),
1966 silver gelding, pictured here ridden by trainer Gil Carr.
Fiddler's Curtain Call with Janie Murphy up. Like his sire, Curtain Call
was used at stud before he was gelded. Of his eight offspring, most
with the Isaill-Mor prefix, one daughter, Curtain Call's Star, was definitely a silver. She is pictured next.
Curtain Calls Star Fiddler's Curtain Call X Isaill-Mors Gem), 1976 silver dapple mare.
Star also produced a silver, Jo Farm's Tinkertoy (f. 1981, gelding, by Johona Wingfoot). Tinkertoy was bred by Marion Steele,
grandmother of Jackie Moehling of Justawee Morgans in VA. I am hoping to get color pictures of Star and Tinkertoy.
More of Curtain Call's offspring may have been silvers, and they may still be alive and producing. If you have any horses
from this line I would love to hear from you!
The 1940 registered as dun mare Betsy Joaquin (Joaquin Morgan X Bessie Dix, out of Cavey by Dan). Joaquin Morgan and Bessie Dix were both registered as chestnut. Alice Joaquin, a full sister to Betsy Joaquin, was registered as brown, so it would have been impossible for them to have had a brown foal unless one parent was not chestnut as registered. Bessie Dix was most likely a bay or black silver dapple and not chestnut. Betsy Joaquin never had a registered Morgan foal.
Left: It is interesting that both Betsy Joaquin and her half sister Betty Joaquin (Joaquin Morgan X Dan's Betty, by Dan), pictured here, were registered as "dun with light mane and tail", although neither of their parents were dun. This might possibly indicate that their color appeared to their breeders to be in some way different from the liver chestnut that they resemble in these black and white photos, and that "dun" was the only thing they could think of to call them. Betty is shown here with her 1956 black filly foal by Anndy Pershing, Poco's Sebrena. Right: Another view of Betty Joaquin.
Poco's Princess Khay (Kandy King X Betty Joaquin) 1962 registered as chestnut mare. The first picture is of her as a yearling; the second is of her as a mature mare.
Note the dark, near black shading on her lower legs. She was almost certainly a silver bay.
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On to page two to see some modern day silver dapple Morgans!
Back to the Silver Dapple Morgans Project home page.
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