When I sold my sweet palomino stallion Gone Gold in the
fall of 2007, I retained a breeding to him. In 2009 we leased a
beautiful black mare and shipped her to MI for breeding to Roadie. Unfortunately
she retained fluid after breeding and could not conceive. Luckily I was able to do an on farm lease of Spring Lake Katefly, aka "Katie", owned by Roadie's then-owner Mtn Top Morgans.
"Marty" is the result
of a lot of expense, effort and hope.
Shortly
after Katie was pronounced in foal,
I lost my first Morgan, Reminiscing (known around the barn as "Marie"), in October 2009.
I decided to honor her memory by calling my 2010 foal "Marie" if it was a filly. Well out popped this pretty
BOY, so "Marty" was chosen as his barn name
as a masculine version of "Marie".
Marty is a little Roadie clone- he reminds me very much of his sire! His breeding features the best of old Whippoorwill (pre-Blackwood Correll),
Red Correll, Californio, Sweet's, Lippitt and Kennebec bloodlines. Marty's dam
Katie is also the dam of Mtn Top Morgans' black stallion, Mtn Top Whippoorwill
Tanek. His sire Roadie is also the sire of Coulee Bend Morgan's bay silver
stallion, Unconventional and our smoky black silver mare Positively Charmed.
Marty was sold at two months of age, but the buyer's personal circumstances changed, so he became
available again. I received inquiries that were not serious for many months, but I knew it was just a matter of time before "Marty's person" showed up.
For some reason known only to the universe, within the 48 hours over August 26-27, 2011 I had no less than FOUR excellent prospective new owners
for Marty contact me. I called the first lady back but only got an answering machine;
I left a message but did not hear back from her. The second party
wanted to know when he could come see Marty. I told him ASAP and to let me know, as I had other parties interested. The third party wanted
to come see him the next day, Sunday August 28, 2011! And so they did- all the way to Covington GA from Powhatan VA- with trailer in tow.
They were THAT sure they'd like him. How? Because, they told me, from all the videos, information and photos on my website, they felt they already knew him.
It's the power of the Internet, folks- to sell horses, a nice website, LOTS of good pictures, and YouTube are your friends :-)
So Marty was sold to Tiffany and Steve Meadows of Powhaten, VA and he had a
wonderful home with them for 8 years. One of their friends,
Judy Peterson- who owned the late Harwich Tyrant (some of you may have heard of him) is the person who told them about Marty. She told them
then if they did not get
Marty that she was going to get him herself! And that is exactly what happened
in the fall of 2019, when Tiffany had to part with Marty and Judy stepped up.
Fast forward a few years and a new girl working at the barn where Judy boards
fell in love with Marty. They clicked so well together that Judy decided to sell
Marty to her. So Marty's new owner is Jessica Donivan Loving. Judy still sees
Marty every day as he boards at her newly built farm!
Gone Gold
Adiel's Casino Gold
Sweet's Dexter
Eden Rose
Kennebec Topaz
Medomak Cavalier
Kennebec Opal
Spring Lake Katefly
Yankee's Anhingo
The Yankee
Lippitt Dulcie
Yankee's Pleasure
The Yankee
Cascade's Udonnafly
Marty's complete pedigree can be found
here
It includes pictures of many of his ancestors as well.
More photos of Marty (click on thumbnails to enlarge)
Newborn Marty with mama Katie, 8/8/10.
Marty and Katie the next day. Marty is about 12 hours old here.
Three days old. Following the rule of evaluating your horses at 3 days, 3 months and 3 years, I am pleased with the
balance Marty shows. He is filling out nicely.
Marty at 4 days old. He is a very pretty foal!
5 days old. I am wondering if the ears back when he is jetting around make him more aerodynamic?
;-)
6 days old. Kristal had some visitors who brought their children along. Marty lapped up all of the attention-
he just wanted everyone to keep on petting him :-)
About 10 days old. Meeting his nieces, daughters of his half brother, Mtn Top Whippoorwill Tanek.
Two weeks old.
Two and a half weeks old. Marty wants to explore everything, including the tarp Kristal uses for training.
Three weeks old. The head shot is my favorite picture of Marty so far!
One month old.
Marty got his first hoof trim. Kristal says he was very good! He wore Kristal's jacket around for awhile and never tried to get it off.
9/11/10-
Kristal found this ghost Halloween decoration and was hoping it would get the horses'
heads and ears up for pictures. Well as you can see, Marty was rather terrified ;-).
Marty gets his first taste of apple from Kristal's husband, Kurt. Marty is about 7 weeks old here.
Is there anything cuter than a lying down foal? You can see the white hair coming in on Marty's mane, and isn't he looking nice and curvy? My kinda Morgan!
Marty is a very nice mover. Notice in the trotting picture how his right hind diagonal has landed slightly ahead of his corresponding left fore diagonal. When you see this in still pictures
of a horse, it is an indication that the horse is "sitting" on the hind end (collection), rather than pulling itself along by the forelegs (aka "on the forehand"). Dressage folks call this sort of movement
"Diagonally Advanced Placement" or DAP for short. Marty is almost two months old here, 10/5/10.
Marty and Erin (MtnTop Erin Go Braugh), a March 2010 bay filly, one of his pasture friends.
October 2010- Diane Barker, Meagan and Anne Ward visited Mtn Top Morgans. Here's Diane with Marty and Meagan looking on. Thanks Anne for the picture!
10/29/10- I thought this was SOOOO cute. This is Marty with his friend Dusky Duke, Kristal's gelding.
10/29/10- Here's the glamour shot- well, as glamorous as one can be in a winter coat :-)
11/27/10- Marty arrived at Brookridge on Friday and these were taken the next day, after he was turned out. What a show he put on!
I was standing with my heart in my throat as all of the horses rocketed around for a few minutes, since Marty was new to the paddock he was
in and I hoped he saw all the fencelines. So I didn't get many
pictures. They all soon settled to grazing, thank goodness!
Our brave little dude rode in the trailer all the way from MI to GA by himself. He is
dressed for a MI winter though and I hope he'll be ok on the 60-70 degree days we often have here
this time of year.
I don't know that I have EVER seen such TINY ears on a foal. OMG they look like Shetland pony ears. Of course all the fuzz contributes to the effect!
11/28/10- I am already enjoying having Marty here. I think he has the equine version of "jet lag" because he has been doing a lot of snoozing. Of course
being not yet 4 months old means that he'll sleep a lot any way :-) My friend and long time riding student Cassidy came out to see him
today.
Marty just continued to saw some Z's. A wild man he is NOT. That's Charli (smoky black silver dapple), Marty's half sister, standing guard on the other side of the fence, with Coral,
Marty's aunt beside her. Topaz, Marty's grandma, is in the background grazing. Yes... it's a totally candid family portrait!
12/19/10- Marty is finally introduced to the herd. They all knew him from being pastured beside him for the past three weeks, so there were no theatrics at all. I knew,
from their behavior with a fence between them, that Charli and
Marty would be best friends.
"I feel GOOD!" Marty enjoying more space to play in!
1/10/11-Atlanta gets snow, which turns to ice as sleet falls on it, shutting down everything for a week!
Getting to the barn was an adventure as the freezing rain had turned the crust on the snow to ice. The gates were frozen shut. The barn doors were frozen shut. I had put the horses inside
the night before the storm and they were glad to get out for a few hours of freedom.
Well, all except for Mr. Marty, who planted his feet at the barn door and WOULD NOT, no way no how, go outside in the snow.
I cannot imagine that Marty lived in Michigan until Thanksgiving and NEVER SAW SNOW.
I tried for about 15 minutes but he was not going to budge. So back in the stall he went. I turned the rest out, shoveled a path (down to the grass) for Marty from the barn to the pasture gate, and decided to try again to get him out. Same results- even a butt rope wasn't working. I was getting frustrated so I put him back up again and went to clean stalls.
I don't know what it is, but I have my best ideas when I am cleaning stalls (I suppose there's some great cosmic joke in that). It dawned on me that I could lure him with grain. Marty LOVES his grain.
And a step at a time, I got him out that way :-). Never underestimate the training power of food!
So here is Marty after he decided that the snow was not so bad after all!
More fun in the snow, with Aunt Coral.
April 7, 2011- I have been waiting and waiting for Marty to shed out so I could see what was underneath all that fuzz and get some good pictures. Well, he is still not shed out but
he is not as long coated as he was at least!
April 13, 2011- still not slicked out, but getting there! This picture reminds me of Roadie.
More pictures taken the same day. Marty is now 8 months old.
Checking out the chair I had carted out to the ring in the hopes he'd get his head out of the grass, stop and look at it
for at least a couple seconds so I
could take a picture. It did not have the desired effect ;-)
June 2011- Marty is finally completely shed out to a pure gold
color, like his sire. He is definitely in the gangly yearling stage
but I think this indicates he will be a good size at maturity.
Marty has a beautiful trot. I think he would make a very eye catching dressage horse. Of course, he would look stunning in silver as well. Or maybe carriage driving? I think the sky is the
limit with this youngster- he is suited for many endeavors- and is built to stay sound doing them.
July 24, 2011-My friend Cassidy Evans came over to video Marty (for the videos you see
of him on YouTube/this page) and brought her Mom, Rhonda Evans, and Katie Sheriff, who is
Cassidy's brother's girlfriend (now wife) and fellow horse lover. We had a
great time and it was easy- with so much help-
getting Marty's ears up for pictures. Rhonda is a professional photographer, and these are some of the
pretty pictures she got. THANK YOU for allowing me to share them
here, Rhonda!
More of Rhonda's wonderful pictures of Marty :-)
Rhonda's photos of Marty getting a shower. He loves water and will volunteer for showers by standing at the gate when he sees me filling the water troughs. Amazing because at first he was very
frightened by the hose/water. He quickly learned how good it feels on a hot day, though!
August 3, 2011- Random pasture pics, Marty just being a horse :-) with his Aunt Coral and half sister Charli.
I liked the headshot, even with the grass hanging out of his mouth- kind of cute!
August 21, 2011- Marty watching Jim riding his bike, and frisking around with his half sister Charli. I thought the mouth open picture was funny!
I think Coral (out of frame to the left) was getting after him.
September 3, 2011- Marty has been in his new home with Tiffany Meadows and family for almost a week. Tiffany sent some pictures of them and these were my favorites.
Tiffany commented that Marty settled in like he had been there forever. She is so happy to have him and
promises to keep me updated with pictures of the milestones in his life. THANK YOU
Tiffany, for being the kind of new owner
we dream about finding for our beloved Morgans!
Marty with his pony friend, July 2012.
Some updated photos of Marty from 2016 that Tiffany sent me. The under saddle photo was taken at a clinic.
