Happy Friday! Here is your Friday Flashback:
“Roosevelt Schuyler”
By Dana Wingate Kelley
Morgan Horse Magazine
October 1979
Republished in “Lippitt Lore II,” pp 34-35.
I am sure that nearly every breeder of Morgans has at one time or another raised a stud colt in the back stall that just grew, not doing much work with him until he was coming into his second year. That was the case of ROOSEVELT SCHUYLER, bred and owned by Mr. A. Fullerton Phillips of Windsor, Vermont.
Foaled in 1919, he was a deep chestnut with a considerable amount of white extending from under his eyes to the tip of his nose. He had white on three legs and stood 14.3 hands tall. His sire was Rob Roy and his dam was Nancy by Ethan Allen 3rd. Roosevelt Schuyler was one of the Phillips-bred Morgan who Robert Lippitt Knight later came to respect so highly.
Through his grandsire, Ethan Allen 3rd, whose dam was the Wiggins mare, he was many times closer to Justin Morgan than any other Morgan living in his area. The Wiggins mare was sired by Cushing’s Green Mountain, who was by Green Mountain Morgan, son of Gifford, who was by Justin Morgan’s son, Woodbury.
Cushing’s Green Mountain Morgan was out of a bay mare known as the Nathaniel Goss mare, a daughter of Billy Root, whose sire was another son of Justin Morgan, Sherman. Billy Root was out of a daughter of Justin Morgan. The Nathaniel Goss mare was out of a daughter of Sherman, making her a double great-granddaughter of Justin.
Ethan Allen 3rd’s granddam on his mother’s side traced three times to Billy Root. One of Billy Root’s daughters was known as the Milking Stool; her dam was the John Darling mare (not to be confused with the stallion John A. Darling). She carried a percentage of 43-3/4 of Justin Morgan blood.
Through Roosevelt Schuyler’s dam, Nancy 03553, he carried a close-up of the blood of Justin. Nancy herself made a mark in Morgan history. When bred to Mr. Phillips’ old stallion, Croydon Prince, she produced Ashbrook, who became the cornerstone of almost all Lippitt Morgans. Nancy was one of many horses, both mares and stallions, that, through only one of their offspring, stamped the Morgan breed.
As Roosevelt Schuyler grew older, Mr. Phillips enjoyed many a drive behind him around the Windsor area, before selling him to Helen S. Paine, of western Vermont, who used him as a pleasure horse. According to what I’ve heard from women who’ve ridden him, even though Roosevelt Schuyler was very spirited, he had plenty of common sense and a great personality.
Mr. Phillips’ barns are still standing. The large barn was filled with stalls and carriages and the shed-type barns were where the mares and foals were kept. As you drive on the old road from White River Junction through Hartland and approach Windsor, you will come upon the golf course on your left. Across the street is the home of the late movie actress, Marie Dressler, and just beyond are the Phillips’ barns.
I pass those barns quite often, and my thoughts turn to the lovely Morgans which this serious gentleman, who came from Pennsylvania to Vermont in the 1900s, gathered together into one band of excellent blood. If Mr. Phillips couldn’t purchase a certain mare he would lease her for a year for $25 and breed her to one of his stallions.
Upon Mr. Phillips’ death, Mr. Robert Lippitt Knight, who lived in Rhode Island, was told of the band of Morgans in Windsor. Mr. Knight came to Windsor, liked what he saw, and purchased the two stallions Ashbrook and Moro, along with four mares from Mr. Phillips’ niece, Mrs. Ida M. Hall. These six horses, along with two other mares Mr. Knight bought elsewhere, established the Lippitt Morgans in Randolph, Vermont.
Although the stallion Roosevelt Schuyler died in obscurity, and his native farm’s herd was dispersed, Phillips’ Morgan Ashbrook and other friends of Roosevelt’s youth went on to start a breeding line that continues today.
