silversoffiddlersgreen.pdf

Orcland Youlenda

and the silver dapples of Fiddler’s Green

Orcland Youlenda

by Laura Hornick Behning

Orcland Youlenda (Ulendon X Paleface), 1955 silver dapple mare, with Claire Murphy up.

What is it that draws us to a specific horse? Is it

their power, the beauty of their graceful lines, the feeling we

get when we are near them? For Claire Murphy of Fiddler’s

Green Morgans in Cazenovia, NY, one horse in particular

attracted her for a reason many of us will understand. Be-

cause anyone who saw Orcland Youlenda could not help

but notice her striking color!

Claire and her family have bred some outstanding

Morgans at Fiddler’s Green over the past half century.

Fiddler’s Contender (sire of Tedwin Topic), Fiddler’s

Blackriver, Fiddler’s Trustee, Fiddler’s Majesta (dam of Tug

Hill Commando) and many other well known show and

breeding horses have proudly carried the Fiddler’s prefix

over the years. In a recent videotaped interview for the New

York State Morgan Horse Association (available on their

website at http://www.nysmhs.org/history/fiddlersgreen/

index.html) , Claire, now 81, reminisces at length about one

of her first Morgans, the mare named Orcland Youlenda

(Ulendon X Paleface), foaled in 1955 and the ancestress of

a number of today’s most successful show and breeding

horses. We now know that Youlenda was a silver dapple,

although with the limited color genetics knowledge avail-

able at that time she was mistakenly registered as a chest-

nut, as were her silver dapple offspring. I contacted the

Murphys for permission to share some of the pictures on

the NYSMHS site with you all, and Janie Murphy, Claire’s

daughter, was very generous with information and even

more photos, which I hope you all will enjoy seeing.

Claire first saw Youlenda at a show in 1958. “She

was silver gray...she was dappled. Her name was Orcland

Youlenda. She looked to me like the horse you went for on

the merry go round,” Claire recalls. “Everybody said, ‘You’re

crazy! That’s not a popular color!’ Nobody liked silver... if

you had any Parade blood or western blood, it usually came

through with the silver mane and tail”.

And she is right, because that “western blood” is

exactly where Youlenda got her silver dapple coloring. Her

dam, Paleface, was a silver dapple bay who traced back in

an unbroken line of silvers to the source of the silver dapple

color in our breed, the chestnut stallion Dan (by the famous

stallion Headlight Morgan). And Parade was bred to mares

of similar breeding to Paleface’s silver dapple dam, Zona

Skinner, when his owner J. Cecil Ferguson purchased a car-

load of mares from the Theis Ranch in Kansas. Some of

these mares may have been actually silver dapple, but most

were flaxen chestnuts, a color that can mimic silver dapple.

Since silver only expresses (“shows”) on black-based col-

ors, it “hides” on chestnuts, if it present on that “red” base

color. This makes it difficult to determine if a chestnut horse

(with a silver dapple parent) is actually carrying the gene

itself- until it produces an obvious silver when bred to a

black-based mate.

Orcland Youlenda was one of three offspring that

Paleface produced- all three by Ulendon and all 3 silver

dapples! Her sister, Orcland Queen Bess (f. 1953), would

produce 5 offspring, none of which bred on with the excep-

tion of the chestnut (carrying silver) Shar Lyn’s A OK. He in

Janie Murphy (here at age 5) learned to ride on Orcland

Youlenda .

turn sired three, one of which, the late Shar Lynn’s Moon-

beam, was a confirmed silver. She had one registered-as-

chestnut foal who as unfortunately gelded. Youlenda’s

other full sibling was the silver dapple gelding, Orcland

Silver Don.

Fiddler’s Carrousel

“Linda”, as Claire called her, “was a wonderful

horse. She was ‘my’ horse. She took good care of me...

she never let me get hurt,” says Claire. The even tem-

pered mare was used to teach her daughter, Janie, to ride.

“Linda’s” beautiful disposition as well as her striking color

were passed on to her first foal, Fiddler’s Carrousel, by

Orcland Dondarling. Janie remembered how “Lyman” (his

barn name after Lyman Orcutt of Orcland Farms) came to

be. “Lyman Orcutt assured my mother that Orcland

Youlenda bred to Orcland Farms’ black stallion Orcland

Dondarling should produce a black foal. Mom took

Lyman’s advice and the following year (1963) Orcland

Youlenda foaled a dapple gray colt with a silver mane and

tail on my birthday!! We named him Lyman and regis-

tered him Fiddler’s Carrousel because he looked like the

horse on the merry go round.”

Carrousel was a very kind horse, even as a stal-

lion, and Janie showed him quite successfully as a junior.

She remembers their show ring triumphs together very

well. “Lyman started his show career winning NYS Futu-

rities and In Hand classes. At age 8, I showed him in

Amateur Park Saddle because he had much too much

motion for pleasure at that time. At the 1969 Granite State

Morgan Show we had Lyman stabled with Bob Brooks of

Left: Fiddler’s Curtin Call (Fiddler’s Carrousel X Donna Mae Pepper), 1966 silver dapple stallion (later gelded),

Janie Murphy (then age 13) riding at Northhampton. Right: Fiddler’s Carrousel (Orcland Dondarling X Orcland

Youlenda), 1963 silver dapple stallion (later gelded) and Janie (who began riding the stallion when she was 9),

with another tricolor ribbon. Both photos courtesy of Janie Murphy.

Storybook Stables. Bob suggested I show Lyman that

night in the Amateur Pleasure Driving Stake. Although

Lyman drove beautifully, I had never shown in a harness

class at a major show before. As I was getting some last

minute instructions from Bob right before the class Nancy

Caisse of Townshend Morgan Farm yelled to me ‘Just

follow me’ as she entered the class herself. I stayed right

behind Nancy the entire class right into the line-up only

to be called out first place! From then on Fiddler’s Carrou-

sel began a winning streak in Pleasure Harness and Saddle

that stretched from New England to Mid-Atlantic for many

years to come as a stallion. To me, he was the best stallion

in the whole wide world with his unique color, tremendous

personality and ALL that show horse talent that started

on my birthday and became a dream come true.”

“Lyman” sired two foals before he was gelded at

age ten in 1973, shortly after being sold. “Carrousel was

sold under the condition that he was NOT to be gelded or

we would buy him back!” Janie states emphatically. “In

the words of my brother Patrick Murphy, ‘You never

should have sold Lyman, Mom, he was a Murphy.’”

At least one of Carrousel’s two offspring was a

silver dapple, the 1966 gelding Fiddler’s Curtin Call (out

of Donna Mae Pepper), who like his sire was gelded as

an aged horse, but not before siring 8 offspring himself.

Curtin Call was, like his sire and granddam, a gentle horse,

even as a stallion. Unfortunately, of his 8 offspring only

one, the registered as chestnut mare Curtin Call’s Star,

bred on. From her pictures, Star appeared to be a silver

dapple. She produced two foals, a said-to-be silver dapple

gelding named Jo Farm’s Tinkertoy, and the brown mare

Justawee Shannon.

Carrousel’s other offspring, the registered as

chestnut mare Fiddler’s Mame (out of Fiddler’s First) may

have been carrying silver herself; she had four offspring,

two black and two chestnut. One of the chestnuts was a

gelding and the other, a mare named Port Hill Dawn, has

no offspring, so there is no way to determine if the silver

dapple gene came on down through this particular branch

of Youlenda’s family.

Fiddler’s Rainbo

Youlenda’s 1970 foal was the registered as chest-

nut mare, Fiddler’s Rainbo (by Waseeka’s Vivo). Years

ago when I saw her black and white photos in old issues

of THE MORGAN HORSE magazine, I was pretty sure

she was a silver. Janie graciously shared color photos of

her recently that confirm that Rainbo was indeed a bay

silver. Like the other silvers of Fiddler’s Green, Rainbo

had a “colorful” name- with an interesting story behind

it. Janie explains “Folks would stop by the barn to see

the foals and they would ask Mom, ‘What color is she,

Claire?’ Mom always answered, ‘she’s every color of the

rainbow!’”

“Rainbo was a big (15.2h) mare that could really

Fiddler’s Carrousel as a young horse, being shown in

hand. Photo courtesy of Janie Murphy.

cover ground at the road trot in pleasure saddle and har-

ness,” Janie continues. “When the judges didn’t object

to her color they loved her, and we had major wins in

Pleasure Harness at New England and Mid-Atlantic. At

the N.Y. Regional Show we went Res. Champ. Jr. Exhibitor

Pl.Saddle. Rainbo became a broodmare shortly after

Waseeka’s In Command arrived at our farm. That cross

produced a beautiful bay filly that we sadly lost in our

barn fire. Rainbo’s daughter sired by Casland Anquish,

Fiddler’s Diamonair is the dam of Fiddler’s Cash Com-

mand, Grand National Western Pl. Champ. Fiddler’s Cash

Command is the sire of this years Grand National Champ.

BlkOrchid Ace Commander and Melendy Cash Bonus. Its

such a thrill to see these bloodlines winnin at the shows.”

Sadly, this color line is a dead end, as Rainbo only had 3

offspring- 2 bays and a chestnut. The chestnut, Fiddler’s

Diamonair, only had two gelded offspring.

Fiddler’s Rainbo (Waseeka’s Vivo X Orcland Youlenda),

1970 bay silver dapple mare, Janie Murphy (then age 17)

up. Photo by Bob Moseder. Below photo: Fiddler’s Rainbo

(center) in the pasture at Fiddler’s Green. Both photos

courtesy of Janie Murphy.

Other possible silver dapple offspring of Youlenda

Youlenda had 7 offspring all together, two of

which are confirmed silvers which were registered-as-

chestnuts, 3 are bays which cannot carry the gene (if a

bay has the silver gene, it will “show”, making the horse a

silver bay), and 2 are chestnuts. Since silver, like all domi-

nant genes, statistically is passed on 50% of the time, it

stands to reason that at least one of Youlenda’s other

“chestnut” offspring might have actually been silver - or

if truly chestnut, carrying the silver gene. The possibili-

ties? The first is the 1974 chestnut mare Fiddler’s Pandora

(by Kadenvale Don), whose only offspring is the chest-

nut 1987 stallion, Winterset Bijou. The second is the 1965

chestnut stallion Fiddler’s Blue Chip (by Windcrest Flair),

whose only offspring, the chestnut mare Vanderland Co-

quette, has in turn produced the chestnut mares Berkhill

Tiara and Tari Wey, full sisters by Roman Conquerer. Ti-

ara is the dam of WR Corianna, also chestnut. Corianna’s

2001 son, the flashy chestnut sabino Menomin Flash

Dancer owned by Ultra Morgans, is just beginning his

career at stud. Tari Wey is the dam of two chestnut sons,

Flair A Way (f. 1993) and Tari Wey Conqueror (f. 1994), both

by Bustin Loose. Is it possible that the silver dapple gene

has made it down through all these intervening generations

of chestnuts? Only time will tell. The descendants of

Youlenda are numerous in the non-colorful ranks, however.

Many of those trace their heritage to her bay daughter

Fiddler’s Dolly, the dam of the late great stallion Fiddler’s

Blackriver, owned by Anne Wyland; still others descend

from her bay daughter Fiddler’s Moonglow, dam of Deer

Run Command and several prolific Deer Run prefixed

broodmares.

I wondered if Claire and Janie had any idea of what

color their silver dapples actually were. Janie replied “we

really didn’t know, however the registration application at

the time was limited so my mother guessed chestnut!”

We hope that a silver dapple may yet appear from

the heritage of Orcland Youlenda. With the gene as rare as it

appears to be in the Morgan breed at present, it would be a

shame to lose this very valuable source of silver dapple-

“the horse of the merry go round”!

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