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AMHA Golden Reins Award: Nancy Flower




Growing up in Erie, Pennsylvania, Nancy Flower was a horse crazy little girl. She started taking hunt seat and jumping lessons at a nearby stable. Through her work as a professional photographer, Nancy’s mother met the owners of local Elk Creek Farm. When they found out about Nancy’s love for horses, they gave her a part-Morgan for her 16th birthday.

At that time, Cecil Brown was at the farm training horses, many of which were Morgans. When Nancy was at the barn doing chores to work off her board and riding her horse, she watched Cecil and his three sons work Morgans. She was hooked on becoming a horse trainer.

While working at Black River Morgan Farm, Nancy won her first world title when she rode Black River Circe to the 1977 World Ladies Park Saddle Championship. Nancy continued to train Morgans in the northwestern area of Pennsylvania until 1990, when she moved her training barn to Hubbard, Ohio. 

At Nancy Flower Stables, Nancy developed a niche of taking young horses in for their initial training, and showed many to their first world championship titles as two-year-olds. These included CHMH Spice Town Girl GCH, LPS Out Of Bounds, Man In Black GCH, Portfolio, LPS Forever Hopeful, Ledyard Mysterious Prince, and Ledyards One More Time.

The horse crazy little girl grew up to become a world-class Morgan horse trainer, who has developed genuine pride in bringing along young horses to become world champions.

For decades Nancy has welcomed Spring and the start of a new show season because she loves training and showing Morgans in addition to all the friends she meets at the shows. She also enjoys watching the competitions.

We are pleased to present Nancy Flower with an AMHA Golden Reins Award.

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