Happy Friday! Here is your Friday Flashback, this time a piece on one of the foundation Lippitt stallions, Moro:
Moro 7467
Readying to meet the challenge of the Flying Black Hawk, the fiery spirit of Moro 7467 stands before the upper barn of A. Fullerton Phillips, in Windsor, Vermont. Foaled on June 27, 1917, this star-marked bay horse was sired by Mr. Phillip’s Welcome 5702 (Morgan Dan 4255 x Dolly Burke 0566), and out of the twenty-one year old chestnut Polly Rogers 02109 (Peter’s Ethan Allen II 406 x Annie Florette, by Peter’s Morgan 405).
Originally called Eureka by his breeder, Henry S. Wardner (also of Windsor), Moro, as was the custom, had been turned out with the other young colts on pasture. (To supplement their old diet of grass and water, a weekly visit and inspection brought with it a ration of salt.) Roughing it in such a manner, the young horse proved to be a very slow developer and was regarded with much disappointment by Mr. Wardner.
One evening, while partaking in a casual game of cards, at the Windsor House (where Mr. Phillips resided), Mr. Wardner mentioned that he was planning on having the colt put down the next day. A. Fullerton Phillips, having known Eureka since his birth, and realizing the wonderful breeding he possessed, saved him from his fate by purchasing him that very night for the mere pittance sum of twenty-five dollars. Registered by his new owner, under the name we know him by today (a Moro is a member of the Moslem tribes of the southern Philippines), this same young colt matured into a bold young stallion not unaccustomed to displaying his worth between the shafts.
The rest is now history. At the age of ten, Moro, along with Ashbrook 7079 (thirteen and one half months his senior), and a small band of mares, were purchased from the Phillips Estate, on May 17, 1927. Robert Lippitt Knight had just obtained his original foundation stock. Had Moro sired none other than John A. Darling 7470 and Lippitt Moro 7622, a noted place of honor would have been assured him by breeders of today. However, daughters, such as Lippitt Mary Moro 04697, Lippitt Kate Moro 04785, and Lippitt Bridget 04843 (and several others), have served to reinforce our rich inheritance from this nearly, all too sad fated, Morgan of yesterday.
(Our sincere thanks to Dana Wingate Kelley for providing much of the background information on this fine old horse. This interesting story was related to him by the late Ida M. Herron, a niece of A. Fullerton Phillips.)
Drawing by Gary J. Meli
From Lippitt Lore II, p. 97.
