Happy Friday! Here is your First Friday Flashback, researched and written up by Morgan historian Betsy Curler. Thank you, Betsy, for another great piece!
“Bridget 02582”
One of A.F. Phillips’ most notable mares was Bridget 02582, a daughter of Bob Morgan 4549. Bridget was a dappled dark bay mare, with just a bit of white on the off hind heel, foaled in 1904. She was bred by Bent Bishop of West Burke, Vermont. On her dam’s side, Bridget was heavily inbred to Sherman Morgan 5. Her dam was sired by Chase’s Mountaineer 676, a son of Streeter Horse 674. Her second dam was a daughter of the Streeter Horse 674 by Billy Root 9, a son of Sherman Morgan. Her third dam was a daughter of Royal Morgan 11, another son of Sherman Morgan. Her fourth dam was a daughter of Sherman Morgan.
These four generations of mares were bred within one (human) family, by father and son. George D. Bickford, Sr. was, according to Phillips, a “great Morgan horse man.” He had served as a private in the First Vermont Cavalry during the Civil War. George Sr. bred the first two generations on the dam side and George Jr. the third and fourth.
Phillips considered Bridget (along with Nancy 03553) to be the best example of old-fashioned type in his herd. She possessed the “strong, blocky Morgan type” displaying a “good body and [hind]quarters.” In addition, she had the “fine Bob Morgan head.” G.L. Church pronounced her to be a “great mare,” one of Phillips’ best. Church became the owner of Bridget’s son John A. Darling 7470 (x Moro 7467).
Bridget was also a “great roady.” She was paired with several different horses, but Phillips “never found one that could take the evener away from her, no matter how far they were driven.” She was often paired with her paternal half sister Rose of Sutton as well as Eudora 0671 (Billy Roberts 4550 x Kit [n.r.] by Brown Harry 4795). Bridget and Eudora were once driven ninety miles, in approximately twelve hours, “and they were full of play at the end of the journey.” They were “always right up in one’s fingers” and a whip was never needed to encourage them.
Phillips noted that Bridget had a “wonderful constitution” combined with “superb symmetry of form and remarkable intelligence.” She passed on her qualities to her offspring. Her three fillies were the “handsomest” Phillips had ever seen and for type, symmetry and their conformation “had no equal.” Hyacinth 03229 and Narcissus 03563 were sired by Croydon Prince and Ne Komia 04489 by Ashbrook.
Bridget was obviously one of Phillips’ most revered mares as he waxed poetic about her virtues:
“Nought the mountains yield thereof
But savage health and sinews tough.”
Bridget was “killed” in 1924 – this presumably meant that she was laid to rest. Her daughter Narcissus was killed in the tragic lightning storm of August 1924. Daughter Ne Komia became one of the most influential broodmares at the Green Mountain Stock Farm. Her son John A. Darling was a sire for Townshend Farm and, at the end of his life, for Justine Morgan Horse Farm (Dana Kelley). Daughter Hyacinth had no offspring.
(Photo of Bridget courtesy of David Ladd collection)
