Click Here for photos of Fanny's Baby, Fancy Dan.
Fanny (registered name: Hillock Fanfare) is a 23-year-old Morgan mare.
SPONSOR FANNY
The Morgan horse is the state horse of Massachusetts, since the foundation sire of the breed, Justin Morgan ("Figure") was foaled in ...West Springfield in 1789. The Morgan was the quintessential "all-purpose" horse: a horse of great strength and stamina, capable of plowing the fields or pulling logs, yet also a good riding horse and elegant enough to put to the finest carriages. The Morgan was bred extensively by the United States government as remounts for the cavalry, and established breeding programs at many land-grant universities (this will become important later in Fanny's story).
Anyway, Fanny was born in Sutton, Massachusetts, at Hillock Farm, on May 16, 1988. She has royal Morgan breeding, with many ancestors from the cream of the old-style Morgan show horses. (Here's her pedigree:http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/hillock+fanfare). She's registered #0114261 with the AMHA. Fanny went on to show some, and under her new owners, the Rae family of Belchertown, she was bred to this handsome gentleman, Tug Hill Celebrity in 1993 (http://www.circlejfuturity.com/horses/2001horses/tugceleb2.htm). The resulting filly, Raehurst Bonnielass, foaled in 1994, would go on to win world championships at the 2001 World Morgan Show in Oklahoma City. "Bonnie" is now a broodmare in Kentucky at Dragonsmeade Farm (a wonderful place Christina visited in January, where they keep their old broodmares forever... Bonnie is in good hands).
After her first foal, Fanny got sold to another breeding farm. They tried for 8 years to get Fanny pregnant again, but to no avail. Thankfully, the Raes took her back, and then sent her to the University of Massachusetts - Amherst breeding program. UMass and the University of Vermont are two of the old centers of Morgan breeding that are trying to continue the old government bloodlines. UMass did successfully breed Fanny to Homeward Middlebury (a UVM-bred boyhttp://www.umass.edu/vasci/eqreprodctr/middlebury.htm) and she had a foal, Bay State Envy, in 2009 (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=103588289689021&set=pu.103138883067295&theater). Fanny was bred back to Homeward Middlebury in 2010, and she is due on April 15th.
Fanny arrived at Blue Star on December 21, 2010
Fanny has always been a perfectly mannered lady.
Fanny gave birth to Fancy Dan on May Day, May 1st at about 4am.
Blue Star Equiculture is proud to be a small part of carrying on the legacy of Massachusetts' native breed... and we are especially glad that Fanny came to us, because not only is she a wonderful horse, her arrival began an important dialogue with the Equine Program at UMass about its future and Blue Star Equiculture's role in it. You'll all be hearing a lot more about Blue Star's new Sustainable Horsemanship and Draft Horse Programs at UMass in the days, weeks and months to come!
SPONSOR FANNY