Lynne Sphak’s Statesman Legacy, continued... Atlantic
Morgan
Horse Show Sport Horse Award. Marthe Reyn-
olds (New York) was in search of an upper level dres- sage prospect when she stumbled upon the Morgan breed. While doing a Google search in the early 2000s, a photo of Statesmans Signa- ture (Chief of State x Coal Creek Spi- cyGlow) popped up. She too fell in love and purchased “Sigi” from then owner Rita Hanson. “I didn’t meet Lynne till after I got Sigi and she instantly became a great friend and mentor,” Marthe told Te Equiery. Marthe competed Sigi up through Tird Lev-
el dressage and earned her US Dressage Fed- eration Bronze Medal with him. He went on to compete at Fourth Level with trainer Louisa- Marcelle Eadie, often beating out the Warm- bloods in open classes. “He could compete against the best imports and win!” Marthe remarked. She at- tributes this success to Te Statesman lines. Sigi also found success as a stallion but was recently retired due to an injury and age. Probably Te Statesman’s most successful offspring on the international stage is PVF Peace of Mind. Sired by Statesmans Signature and out of the mare JPR Have Mercy,
“Hunny” is
with sound confirmation,” Suzy told Te Equiery, adding, “She possesses that extra presence that cannot be learned or developed. It is inherent! Tis is a testament to the breeding program Lynne carefully developed over years of research and passionate efforts.” PVF Peace Of Mind became
a Breyer Horse Model in 2017. Hunny retired from interna- tional competition in 2019, and is currently in foal to the Morgan stallion Minion Millennium.
Lynne’s Last Statesman is one of the last colts born at Statesman Farm. He is currently standing at East West Morgans in Georgia.
Continuing the Legacy With Lynne’s death in 2014,
several breeders and friends within the Morgan community stepped up to take over the reins of the Statesman legacy and
continue to breed Morgan sport horses the way Lynne would have wanted. In addition to those already mentioned, Kate
Ferris of Ensigns Grace Farm, which recently moved from Maryland to Pennsylvania, is ac- tively promoting Te Statesman’s lines. Kate worked with Lynne at Statesman Farm for 12 years before head- ing out on her own. “I learned directly from her. What to look for in a Mor- gan, how to train them, how to cross lines
better and better horses,”
to produce she told
Megan Vogel’s Statesman Revelation is one of the last colts born at Statesman Farm.
owned by Suzy Stafford and competed at the Advanced FEI level of Combined Driving. Tey were Reserve FEI Single Horse National Champions and were short-listed for the 2014 World Driving Championships in Hungary. Te following year, the pair were unbeatable, winning each of their three FEI events. Tey also won the 2015 USEF Single Horse Driv- ing National Championship. Teir accomplish- ments that year earned PVF Peace of Mind the 2015 USEF International Horse of the Year title, the highest honor USEF awards annually. In 2016, Hunny was inducted into the EQUUS Foundation’s Horse Stars Hall of Fame after they represented the U.S. at the 2016 World Driving Championships held in Austria and earned the USEF Combined Driving Horse of Te Year award. “Hunny is the epitome of everything a Morgan Horse should be. Personable, athletic, willing
22 | THE EQUIERY | JANUARY 2020
Te Equiery. “Lynne was doing the sport horse thing before it was a common thing,” she added. Kate said that
Lynne bred for in-
ternational caliber horses. “She had such a con- sistency in her breeding program and bred for proper movement,” Kate explained. “She taught me to establish goals and then breed for them.” Kate’s goal for Ensigns Grace Farm is to pro- duce FEI level Morgan horses. She achieved this with Statesmans Eclipse (Caduceus Mon- tour x Statesmans Mansanita, by Te States- man) who became the first Statesman horse to break into the FEI levels of dressage. “Te leg- acy of Lynne’s line is what these horses bring to the Morgan breed,” she said. Stephanie Schaufeld Place recently added a
Statesman pony to the FEI levels with “Dev” - Statesmans Endeavor. Te pair competed at Dressage at Devon this past year at Intermedi- are I and is currently schooling Gran Prix. “He is a rock star FEI pony,” she told Te Equiery. “I first met Lynne around 1988. I wanted a Mor-
Statesmans Endeavor is one of the Morgans with The Statesman’s line to be competing at the FEI levels in dressage.
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gan when I first moved to Virginia and she had me ride Chevy as a five-year-old. I fell in love immediately.” Stephanie said that Lynne did not have anything that suited her needs at the time but later sold her a weanling filly named Statesmans Sonata. “Two years later I see her at a jewelry show. She shows me a picture of Dev, at the time he was also a weanling. Yes, I bought him too,” she recalled. One of Lynne’s last breeding stallions, States-
mans Skyhawk, is currently in Warrenton, Virginia, though not standing at stud. Katie Bostick (Tex- as) and B.J. Morris (Georgia) have the only two Statesman stallions currently used for breeding. Katie stands Statesman Renaissance, though his name was changed to Spring Hollow Statesman before she purchased him. He is the last intact colt by Chief of State. He lives on a Texas ranch doing ranch work and his first crop of offspring are currently on the ground aimed at the same sort of sport. B.J., also mentored by Lynne, stands the now
four year old, Lynne’s Last Statesman. He is a liver chestnut by Atavista Statesman and has all the qualities of Lynne’s foundation stallion. Megan Vogel of Frederick also has one of the last Statesman colts. Te 2013 Statesman Revelation is by Atavista Statesman out of the mare Willo Pony Bellorena. Megan is sending him out for training this spring and will look into standing him at stud in the near future. Although Megan never formally worked
for Lynne, she drove her horse over for les- sons twice a week and Lynne also taught her daughter to ride. “Lynne was like my second mom and our daughter’s grandmother. I miss her dearly,” she told Te Equiery. Megan has three of Lynne’s homebreds as well as one of her mares. “Tere are days I go to the barn and get upset wanting to know why she isn’t here anymore,” she said. Megan, as many others who knew Lynne,
knows deep down that Lynne will never truly be gone as her Statesman lines live on.
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