Instead of a Friday Flashback this week, we are going to have a Thursday Throwback, just in case this admin doesn’t have power in the morning! (There’s heavy snow happening here in Maine tonight into tomorrow.)
This is a piece on one of the foundation Lippitt stallions that Bruce Orser wrote several years back. It was published in the Lippitt Lore II, p. 103:
“WELCOME”
AMHA 5702
by Bruce Orser
Welcome was foaled on the 12th of June, 1907. This was about the time of the recovery of the old-fashioned Morgan. He was bred by Joseph Murray of West Burke, Vermont.
He was a horse of great constitution and endurance. A.F. Phillips said he would have had great speed if trained. He gained fame in the mid-1910s by winning the Stallion Championship at the White River Fair three years running.
Welcome attained his type honestly through blood and by having typical parents. His dam, Dolly Burke, was pronounced by all Morgan horse breeders to be as fine a specimen of the old Morgan type as it was possible to find. His sire, Morgan Dan, was described by Phillips as being the “handsomest” individual he had ever seen.
Welcome was endowed with all the action of his sire and grandsire. A few of his photos show his great action. One in particular gives information on the back that he was wearing only a 4 ounce shoe at the time. Phillips speaks of his “wonderful exuberance of spirits” which, along with his form, must compare him favorably with some of the best of the early Morgans.
(Photo of Welcome from Dave Ladd’s “Old Box o’ Morgans.”)
