Our love affair with the Morgan Horse ironically began at a dude ranch in Colorado. My husband, John, two sons Will and Jim, and I (Patti) all enjoyed riding so much that we began taking lessons at home in Indianapolis in order to perfect our riding skills for the next year’s vacation.

We were introduced to the Morgan horse through our first instructors Al and Leah Kaufman. That introduction then led to the purchase of our first Morgan, Granada’s Candida. She is a wonderful mare that brought many firsts to SpringMill Morgans. She was our first horse, the first to take us into the show ring, and the first to produce a World Champion SpringMill owned foal.  In four short years, we had assembled a show string, a group of broodmares, and we all enjoyed competing.  Then one evening at the Jubilee Regional in 1992, we saw the next step for farm.

Nostradamus was a young stallion under the direction of Tom Caisse and during an evening walk we saw him standing in front of the Kohler Stables stalls. One look, and we knew that this young stallion was what we had dreamed of owning. He was purchased there and went on to win the World Champion Three Year Old Park Harness with Tom Caisse at the lines. In two months time, we were the proud owners of our first World Champion.

Since 1992, we have been blessed with so many great horses and trainers. The entire family has received instruction from Jim & Fay Lowry, Mike Carpenter, Kurt Hufferd and Jim & Jenny Taylor. These people have been instrumental in pairing us with and creating horses such as KEW Challenger, WHF Somewhere in Time, ER Best of Life, Paparazzi, Treble’s Unchained Melody, SpringMill Sequel, SpringMill Sheridan, and SpringMill Market Square.

Our success in the showring has fortunately been mirrored by the success of Nostradamus as a breeding sire. He is the focal point of our breeding program and has created so many wonderful offspring for SpringMill Morgans. Each new year, we are so excited about the our young horses that will make their debuts. We can hardly stand the wait from October to May. Much of our breeding program’s success is attributed to Susie Snyder at Beginnings. Susie manages and cares for Nostradamus, all of our mares and their foals.

Our ten year love affair with the Morgan horse has been just that, and we have defined our goal as this: We want to be breeders able to produce quality Morgan horses that everyone can enjoy. The Morgan is a wonderful breed, and it is time to give them the promotion they deserve.