Morgan Wins FEI Single Horse at Live Oak
Friday, March 24, 2006
(Shelburne, VT) Fred Merriam of Newfane, Vermont, drove Nicholas Mercedes’s bay Morgan gelding, Gaitwood Lightwing (TOFR Black Wing x Gaitwood LeFlame) to win the FEI Single Horse division at the CAI-A Live Oak CDE at Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Plantation in Ocala, Florida. The vent took place March 16-19, 2006. Merriam ended the Dressage and marathon phases in fourth place. After scoring the only double clear cones round of the FEI competition, he ended the competition as the winner of the first United States Equestrian Federation Selection Trial for the 2006 World Singles Championship, which will be held in Patroni del Vivaro, Italy, in September. Live Oak also was the first of four North American Selection Trials for the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games to be held this August in Aachen, Germany.
Winning is nothing new to this duo. In 2002 at the World Singles Driving Championship in Conty, France, “Studley” and Fred became the first individual American team to win a medal in the sport of driving, capturing the Individual Bronze Medal. In 2004, they once again earned a spot on the U.S. team, which, this time, consisted of all Morgans. The team ended in ninth place out of 20.
Another Morgan competing at the event was Mary Mott-Kocsis’s Stanhope Express (Atavista Statesman x Ranatha Stanhope), a 1998 black gelding, who placed second in the Intermediate Single Pony division.
Since the early nineteenth century, Morgans have been recognized as superior driving horses. A recent survey by the American Driving Society revealed that Morgans were by far the most popular breed owned by their membership. Also, records kept by the United States Equestrian Federation indicated that the top six horses in the Driving Division of the Horse of the Year program in 2005 were Morgans.
Founded in 1909, AMHA is a non-profit organization serving more than 50,000 Morgan horse owners, breeders, exhibitors, and enthusiasts throughout the United States. AMHA serves as a parent organization to more than 90 recognized Morgan horse clubs and national service organizations. It also provides an important link to foreign Morgan horse registries and clubs.
For more information on America’s original horse breed, contact the American Morgan Horse Association Inc. at 122 Bostwick Road, Shelburne, Vermont 05482; (802) 985-4944, www.morganhorse.com.
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