On occasion A.F. Phillips would purchase a horse that possessed a particular look but whose background was unknown at the time of the purchase. One of these was a dappled dark bay mare standing 14.2 hands and weighing a thousand pounds. The mare was found in East Burke and Phillips believed that she had the look of the Billy Root family – perhaps sired by the Streeter Horse 674.
This was a most fortuitous acquisition for Phillips as the mare he had found was Bridget 02582. She was to become one of his most notable mares. Her most noted foals were the mare Ne Komia by Ashbrook 7079 and the stallion John A. Darling 7470 (x Moro). She was of “strong blocky Morgan type,” and along with the mare Nancy, Phillips felt, represented the best old-fashioned type in his herd.
Soon after, or about, the time she was acquired, it became known that she was by Bob Morgan 4549. And, indeed, she had the “fine Bob Morgan head.” However, locating the details on her dam and breeder would take diligent sleuthing. Bridget was raised in Burke and her dam was a “very high keyed little chestnut mare” with a docked tail owned in nearby East Haven.
Philips eventually met a man from Sheffield that was able to tell him the little chestnut was from Sheffield, but he could not recall any details. He suggested that Phillips speak with Dr. George Ward, a federal livestock inspector. After listening to a description, Ward advised Phillips that he had sold the chestnut mare and her colt then at foot to a party in Derby Line. He had traded a gray stallion for her but was unable to ascertain her background at the time of purchase.
During the time it took to ferret out the pedigree of the dam of Bridget, Bridget was being used as a road horse by Phillips, paired with Eudora or Rose of Sutton. With Eudora, she had covered ninety miles in a day, and at the end of the day both were still full of play and “always right up in one’s fingers.” Phillips drove Bridget for many years in Vermont and Bridget proved to be a great “roady.”
Phillips finally recalled that George Bickford, of Sheffield Heights, and as a “great Morgan Horse man,” might be able to assist him in learning of the little chestnut mare’s background. George did know about the little mare as he had raised her. She was by Chase’s Mountaineer 676, a son of the Streeter Horse 674. Her dam was by Royal Morgan 11 and her dam, in turn, was said to be by Sherman Morgan 5.
Bridget produced six foals on record for Phillips. The first was a chestnut filly by Croydon Prince named Hyacinth 03229 born in 1916. The second was a bay colt named Gifford Prince, born in 1917, whose sire was not noted. This colt and a second one named St. Patrick (x Croydon Prince), foaled in 1920, were recorded as deceased. A second filly, born in 1918, and named Narcissus 03563 was also by Croydon Prince. Narcissus was lost in the lightning strike and Hyacinth was sold after Phillips’ death and did not produce any foals.
Bridget’s last two foals would go on to play a significant role as breeding horses. Ne Komia 04489 (x Ashbrook), foaled in 1922, became one of the foundation mares of the Green Mountain Stock Farm. John A. Darling 7470 (x Moro), foaled in 1923, was owned by George Church, leased by Townshend Morgan Farm for breeding mares, and after Church’s death, passed to Dana Wingate Kelley’s Justine Morgan Horse Farm (later Royalton Morgans). Need more be said? These two individuals are widely respected for having produced some of the most noted Lippitt Morgans.
(Photo of Bridget from Dave Ladd’s Old Box o’ Morgans collection.)
