LegacyMares CottonCandy 3.10 - American Morgan Horse ...

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COTTON CANDY, THE DAMTop left: Evenmist Phoenix (Evenmist Topfire x Cotton Candy), 1976 palomino gelding,with Sally Hajek at the Civil War Days event at Lake County Museum, Wauconda, IL;Bottom left and middle: Foxy’s Cotton Queen (Foxfire x Cotton Candy) and Lois Magisanoin 1972. Foxy’s Cotton Queen with Lois Magisano on a trail ride around the property atMirror Lake Farm; Far right (top and bottom): Evenmist MagicMoment with Judy Nason,up. Evenmist MagicMoment with Melanie Bailey at Connecticut Morgan in 1990.relationship with the great breeder Helen Brunk Greenwalt, andhorses were exchanged between the two programs. Over the next40-odd years the LU produced more than 550 registered Morganswhich were some of the finest working ranch and show stock oftheir day. Many knowledgeable breeders, to this day, value LUblood in a pedigree for its qualities of soundness, good dispositionand bone.The LU used the Brunk-bred stallion Night Tide (Tiffany xGlenalla) until his untimely death in 1944 at the age of ten. NightTide, registered as black, may have actually been a smoky black,which is a black horse that carries a cream gene. Cream is a dilutiongene that is incompletely dominant, meaning there is moreof an effect when there are two copies of the gene present(homozygous). The heterozygous cream dilutions includepalomino (one cream gene on chestnut), buckskin (one creamgene on bay or brown), and smoky black (one cream gene onblack). When one copy of the cream dilution gene is present on ablack horse, it has no outwardly visual effect (though some ofthem can be more chocolate colored than truly black). Thehomozygous cream dilutions are cremello (two cream genes on?chestnut), perlino (two cream genes on bay or brown) and smokycream (two cream genes on black).36 March 2010What makes us think Night Tide may have been a smokyblack? Several of our modern day cream dilute bloodlines originatefrom four colorful daughters of Night Tide, all foaled in 1939.They include Carmel Snow (palomino, comes down to us throughPineland breeding); Dawnglo (palomino, found in Californio, SanWillidust, and Tio Lalo descendants); Luellen (smoky black, foundin horses of Morgan Gold, Nugget Hanneman, and Rusty Walkerbreeding); and the buckskin (registered as dun) mare Luxury, whois found behind descendants of Dickie’s Pride, Desert Sands,Yellow Bird, and Cotton Candy.Cotton Candy (Townshend Gaymeade x Arvada, out ofLuxury), foaled in 1956, was bred by the LU. Registered as a chestnut,she appears palomino in the well-known photo of her as atwo-year-old. She inherited her cream gene from her dam Arvada,who was actually registered palomino. Many of the LU horseswere registered correctly as palomino despite this being an unpopulardesignation in those days. Arvada most likely received hercolor through her dam Luxury who was sired by Night Tide.Cotton Candy was a successful show mare as a youngster, includingfirst place in two-year-old mares and Reserve ChampionMare—to the great Jenny Lake—at the Illinois State Fair in 1958.Judy Nason remembers Candy as “a very kind mare, a great moth-Photos this page by Bob Moseder, Kris Breyer and courtesy of Lois Magisano
er, yet quite hot. I only knew her in her senioryears after she had lost an eye, and wasquite bothered with heaves. I could see andfeel the spirit in her though. Judy Whitneyhad told me once that she was a very hothorse to ride.”Cotton Candy’s descendants comedown to us in a unique way, as none of thepeople who owned her or her offspringwere actively breeding for color. In fact,many of these Morgans, like Cotton Candyherself, were registered as non-colorful.Since Morgans from this family often rantowards the darker end of the spectrum ofcream dilutes—palominos so dark theyappeared chestnut or flaxen chestnut, andbuckskins so dark they could be mistakenfor brown or dark bay—this is understandable.It does make tracking down colorfulsof this family more difficult, unless one hasseen the horses in the flesh or at least goodphotos of them, to discover that they wereactually cream dilutes. Of Cotton Candy’s11 foals, one in particular—a palomino—would leave her mark on future generationsof colorfuls who would also follow intheir ancestor’s show ring hoofprints.The Beginning of aColorful Dynasty:Foxy’s Cotton QueenIn 1969, Lois and Jim Magisano establishedMirror Lake Farm just outside of38 March 2010Cleveland, Ohio, and began breedingMorgans under their Aquila’s prefix. TheMagisanos spent many hours researchingbloodlines, and learned that Foxfiredaughters were highly prized as broodmares.Lois was attracted to the flaxencolor of Foxfire and his offspring, so thecouple set about adding this blood to theirgrowing herd of Morgans. Their firstattempt to purchase a Foxfire daughter ata sale was unsuccessful, so the Magisanosvisited the farm of Paul Rumbaugh,Foxfire’s owner. There they were shown apale-colored filly by Foxfire and out ofCotton Candy (who Lois recalls as “a typeymare, attractive even in her still-sheddingwinter coat”). Though they were unsureabout the filly’s color, as it was not whatthey had in mind, Mr. Rumbaugh assuredthem that she would indeed be a flaxen,just as her full sisters Foxy’s Candy Queenand Foxy’s Candy Doll had been. So thecouple purchased the filly, who theynamed Foxy’s Cotton Queen. They alsoadded Fire Belle, Foxy Fantasia and Foxy’sMusic Girl, all Foxfire daughters, to theirherd. With these four mares the foundationof the Aquila breeding program wassolidly in place.Foxy’s Cotton Queen became a successfulshow mare, a particularly notableachievement given that she was shown byher amateur owners, who did all their owntraining. Her color did not seem to hamperher either; in fact, it might have helped! Atthe Ohio Morgan Horse Association’s FallShow (now called the Buckeye MorganChallenge) Queen was Junior and OpenEnglish Pleasure Champion. Lois recallsthat there were 23 horses in Queen’s preliminaryOpen English Pleasure class atthat show. “She had a road trot that wasunbeatable and of course, the judge had notrouble picking her out in the large classesat that show. Queen was a great mare forus. She was safe for anyone to ride and hadproven to be successful in the show ring.She produced many outstanding foals forus. I just loved that mare!”But Foxy’s Cotton Queen was not theflaxen chestnut Lois had hoped for, thoughthe Magisanos weren’t certain what colorshe really was at first. When Queen beganproducing colorful foals, the couple realizedthey had a palomino. Color was notpopular at the time and the Magisanos didnot particularly want it. But they got it anyway! Lois says a lot of breeders felt thepalomino line came from Foxfire. She didn’tagree, as the only colorfuls their programever produced came from Foxy’sCotton Queen. This is correct since Foxfirewas flaxen chestnut, not palomino. CottonQueen’s cream gene came from her dam,Cotton Candy, straight down the generationsfrom the LU Sheep Ranch and thestallion Night Tide.Descendants ofFoxy’s Cotton QueenFoxy’s Cotton Queen produced many finefoals—eleven in all— seven mares, twogeldings, and two stallions. None of hercolorful foals were originally registered astheir proper cream dilute color. Queen’s1975 daughter, Aquila’s Night Lace (by theKingston son Applevale Nightwatch), wasregistered chestnut although in fact was avery dark palomino. This mare was thedam of Lacy Lady Lee (by Aquila’s RoyalLea) in 1982, who was also a palomino andone of the very few from her family whowas actually registered as such. Night Lacewas also the dam of Aquila’s Dream Maker(by Aquila’s Royal Lea), a beautiful dappledpalomino (registered as chestnut) geldingowned and loved by Nancy Paschall.
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