My name is Tom Simmons. I have owned and bred Morgan horses since 1963. I have known and seen many Flyhawk horses, and other Brunk bred horses. I would like to talk about a few here.
Warhawk; I saw him. He was 21 or 22 when I first saw him, he was owned by Susan Tilton at that time (for some reason no one who talks about Warhawk ever say that he was at one time owned by Susan). When I saw him he was past his prime, he was thin and he looked thoroughbredy. I don’t think he looked that way as a young horse. I knew a number of his get. Some had type and some did not. I will tell you about three, There was Big John who was 16 hands and had lots of body. He had a plain head, his get were big smooth bodied horses with plain heads and lots of trot. Sundayhawk. Sunday was about 15 hands with one of the prettiest trots I have ever seen. He had a huge eye, but was kind of straight headed. Some of his get were very nice horses. Sally de Jarnette. Sally was a big horse. She was only about 15.2H, but must have weighed 1200 pounds .She had an outstanding trot and won many Western pleasure and English pleasure classes. She could not be out trotted. These three horses by Warhawk look nothing alike. Only Sundayhawk would have been called typey. In my opinion most Flyhawk stallions are not consistent in what they produce. If you had a good mare you could use them, as many people did, and get that good trot while your good mare took care of the type…..Sorry that’s just the way it was.
Mr. Breezy Cobra: Breezy was a very pretty horse. He had this great big eye that you could see even if you were standing behind him. I would say that he could not be mistaken for anything but Morgan. I never saw any of his get that were gaited. Lewis Pape, Breezy’s owner, and I were good friends. Breezy sired 120 foals so somebody liked him. His sire, The Airacobra, was one of the prettiest horses I ever saw.
Dare Devil (Flyhawk x Coalita): Daredevil was owned by Jack Marks of Indiana. This was a very nice horse and sired many foals that were winners. At the Indiana State Fair and the Gold Cup his foals were almost unbeatable in halter classes. They looked like little horses-well filled out and seldom beat in under two year old classes. Many went on to be very good show horses. I will try to find a picture of him and post it.
Dennis K (Flyhawk x KathleenC): Dennis K was owned by Ethel Gardner and only sired 14 foals. This was a good horse and his foals were nice. His last foal was in 1973.
Flyella (Flyhawk x Silver heels) 1947 : Flyella was owned by Milford Fox and was bred to Devan Cap 4 times. She produced Cap’s Nugget and a mare called Blacap’s Lassie- the dam of DeeCee Laddie in 1963-the first Morgan I ever owned. I asked Milford how did he happen to have a Flyhawk mare. He told me that many of the Mansfield horses , who he dearly loved, had a short croupe. This Flyhawk mare gave his foals a very nice rump. And until this day I have not had a horse that had as nice a rump as DeeCee Laddie. Laddie was powerful and never lost a race to any Quarter horse that I raced. I was young then. I am trying to say that all Flyhawk horses are not bad. If you are a sharp breeder the blood can be used to great advantage. None of these horses paced that I know of. Most of these horses were also up headed. I will write more about horses that I have known. I will tell the truth about them good or bad. These opinions will be posted on my blog as well as this list. My next post will be about why breeders crossed different families.
Tom Simmons
www.tomsimmonsstables.com
csimmons81@wildblue.net
