Happy Friday! Here is your Friday Flashback, the second half of an article about River Riders Ranch from 1994 (the first part was shared last Friday, if you want to go back to find it):
“All in the Family” A Tradition at River Riders Ranch
by Tricia Jumonville
The performance history of the horses of River Riders Ranch is a picture of Morgan versatility. Mohave began his show career as a yearling stallion, In Hand, and won all classes entered. As a two year old he won Stallions In Hand and began his driving career under Cliff Stice, winning on the Southwest Circuit. As a three year old, he continued on to win ribbons in Stallions In Hand, Junior Horse Pleasure Driving Classes, as well as placing Top Ten in the World at the Morgan Grand Nationals in the 3 – year – old Stallions In Hand class. He was sold as a three year old to Phyllis Clark of Abilene, Texas and gelded in November of 1992. With him, Phyllis won her first two driving classes ever at the Heritage Classic in Athens, T, and went on to come in 3rd in the Championship. He continues to show successfully for Phyllis in Classic Pleasure Driving and Western Pleasure on the Southwest Circuit and at the Grand Nationals.
Moro Hill’s Magnolia, sold as a 3 year old to Gail Robertson, is currently performing in driving and dressage, with eventual plans for competitive trail riding. She is currently leased by River Riders and is in foal to Winloc Major Gifford.
River Riders Raincloud began her show career at the 1993 Grand Nationals. She had been in reining training with Robert Chown since September of 1992. (For those of you unfamiliar with reining, it has been described as “the dressage of western riding”. The AHSA rules, Rule XXXIII, Reining Horse Division, Article 3301, General, states, “To rein a horse “To rein a horse is not only to guide him, but also to control his every movement. The best reined horse should be willingly guided or controlled with little or no apparent resistance and dictated to completely. Any movement on his own must be considered a lack of control. All deviations from the exact written pattern must be considered a lack of/or temporary loss of control, and therefore a fault that must be marked down according to the severity of deviation. After deducting all his faults, set here within, against execution of the pattern and the horse’s overall performance, credit should be given for smoothness, fitness, attitude, quickness, and authority of performing various maneuvers, while using controlled speed which raises the difficulty level and makes him more exciting and pleasing to watch an audience…” As you can see, a very demanding discipline and a very exciting one.)
In October 1993, Raincloud went to the Grand Nationals as a three-year old her first time away from home, first horse show, first time to do a complete pattern, and she placed 3rd out of 21 horses in Novice Reining! In her second class, the Freestyle, she placed 5th. Her third class was the World Championship and little Raincloud, so very well named, came in 10th in the World! After a well-deserved winter’s rest she went back in training the second week of June to prepare for her second ever horse show, the July 4th, 1994 Heritage Classic in Athens, TX where she came in 2nd to big brother Moro Hill Mozart in open Morgan Reining. Her current plans include the 1994 Grand Nationals in October.
River Riders Rembrandt was sold as a one-year old to Will & Ellie Brownlee of Collinsville, TX. He is currently in training with Gene Brown of PA and will be doing Classic Pleasure Driving and eventually, obstacle and marathon driving.
Moro Hill Mozart is the shining star of River Riders Morgan versatility. He began under saddle training and driving training with Cliff Stice in May, 1990. He was a consistent winner in Stallions In Hand as a 3, 4 and 5 year old, until he was gelded in November of 1992 due to health problems. He also consistently won the Justin Morgan Standard Class, taking over that responsibility from his sire, Moro Hill Manito. He was shown successfully in Classic English Pleasure and Classic Pleasure Driving on the Southwest Circuit, in Vermont and Nebraska and at the Morgan Grand Nationals. Then, finally, as a 7 year old, having racked up the wins, he discovered something he really likes to do – reining! In January of 1994 he began his reining training with Robert Chown who had shown little sister Raincloud to her success. She is currently leased by River Riders and is in foal to little sister Raincloud to her successes. In July ’94 he placed first t the Open Morgan Reining Class, beating out Raincloud by 1/2 point. This was the same show at which he was Classic English Please Driving Champion and took a 2nd in his (and Sherry’s) first ever Trail Class, along with winning the Justin Morgan Standard Class. He plans to accompany Raincloud to the Grand Nationals Reining Division in October, 1994.
In addition to and more important than the many wins in many disciplines racked up by these horses, are the many people they have won to the Lippitt Morgan. Anyone meeting Manito could not help but love him, and many sought out his get or as in my own case, sought out that perfect Lippitt mare to breed to him. And, when you buy or breed to a River Riders horse, you seem to become a member of a very special family and are suddenly related to all those folks who have done the same. This does, of course, have a downside of enormous phone bills, but it shows another side of the Lippitt Morgan – the beloved family horse, redefining family to include all those who love it.
The focus of River Riders Ranch has been to conserve the Lippitt Morgan and more specifically, the Moro Hills line, through Manito and his get. Jon and Sherry had leased Shamrock Seville last year to breed to this mares in hopes of getting Seville daughters to breed to Manito and perhaps, a Seville son to breed to their Manito daughters. The recent tragic loss of Manito, detailed elsewhere in this issue, was not only a heartbreaking personal loss but also required a reevaluation of their plans for the future. Fortunately for the Lippitt Morgan, they regrouped and plan to go forward with their breeding to quote Jon Rivers on their future plans:
“Our future was clouded by the loss of Moro Hill Manito. We are slowly piecing it back together. We were very fortunate to be able to acquire Manito’s full uncle, Moro Hill Memento. Shamrock Amazing Grace (leased from Thomas Family Morgans), Moro Hills Melinda & River Riders Rejoice are in foal to him and we have great expectations. We were able to acquire the Allen’s Major/Moro Hill bred Winloc Major Gifford, a stunning four-year-old stallion who shows much promise in the show ring, in hand, under saddle and in harness. He’ll be tested as a potential sire next year when his first born foal out of Gail Robertson’s Moro Hill Magnolia is born.
In short, we LOVE the Moro Hill/Allen’s Major cross. In fact, that very cross through Shamrock Seville, who we had leased in 1993 from Thomas Family Morgans, produced two of our best foals to date out of Melinda and River Riders Rejoice, just this year. There is a hole in our heart since Manito left us and it will never be the same, but through his get, Melinda and Motif, we have great hope for the future.
(From LCN Volume XXI, Vol. 2 Versatility/Western Region/Canada July-Sept 1994, pp 25-27. Photos of Moro Hill Mozart and Moro Hill Momento.)
