WHAT IS A LAMBERT MORGAN

THE QUIETUDE STUD
The Morgan Horse/ 1995 / Written by Roberta Grimes

...And Lamberts are lovely, well-proportioned animals, solid of bone, neither coarse nor too fine, and an inch either side of fifteen hands tall. They are upheaded, long-hipped with high-set tails, and so smooth of body that even in his thirties, Criterion looks to be in his prime. They display an astonishing trot, long-strided and with such a pronounced period of suspension that the horse in motion seems nearly weightless. All are barefoot and a lot of them trot above level. They are often an intense dark-red chestnut, often with a blaze of uniform width and with white on the hind legs that generally cuts off neatly partway up the cannon. Sherman was marked that way too, with one high sock, and some of his close descendants were flaxen like Thayer's Morgan and Young Morgan General as well as the silver maned and tailed Woodward's Silvertail, Iowa Morgan and the Sherman son appropriately named Cock of the Rock.

Two centuries after Sherman Morgan, flaxen manes and tails are common again among the Lamberts, which makes them look flashy to Morgan people used to horses in various shades of brown. Their heads lack the pop-eyed, dish-faced cuteness that is so often seen on modern Morgans, but they have instead the clean-boned, noble heads immortalized in old Morgan woodcuts. Their temperaments are so uniformly fine that Lambert breeders talk about the "golden Lambert temperament," that combination of kindliness and good sense that makes these animals a breeze to train. And many Quietude Lamberts, especially the stallions, have a high-headed, prick-eared dignity, a certain eager brilliance that makes you itch to see what they might be able to do."...

WHAT IS A LAMBERT MORGAN?
Dawn Wagstaff ~Breeder of Lambert Morgans~

Susan and Shannon developed the definition of a clean blooded Lambert in an effort to define their own direction in breeding and to give guidance and historical information to future breeders. The Lamberts are a family of horses, because they trace through common ancestors to one horse, Daniel Lambert,regardless of who the individual human breeders were involved, and his blood appears numerous times in their pedigrees. The Lippitts are the only other clean family in the Morgan breed, for the exact same reason, only their family traces back to Woodbury. The Lippitt name , unfortunately, was taken to honor the breeder, Robert Lippitt Knight, who was most involved in producing and moving forward the family, and I agree with Susan' s long time assertion that the family should have had a name that desginates their actual family origins and commonality, and not their breeder. But too late, Lippitt it is.

The term clean blooded refers to the fact that neither family has ANY 20th century outcrosses to saddlebred, thoroughbred, etc. Both the Lippitts and the Lamberts have common ancestors that predate Daniel Lambert and all the foundation horses of the Lippitts. The two families have been woven back and forth over the years. Without a "club" however, the Lambert family, which was being carefully continued by the Brunks, then by Frances Bryant, fell into obscurity, until the Hanely's bought Criterion and Susan began doing research. That research uncovered what a treasure they actually had and they have single handedly resurrected the family. There have been others along the way who began programs, such as Eve Oakley, but unfortunately, they didn't understand or possibly appreciate the need to promote the Lamberts as a family instead of just their own individual breeding program.

As an aside, the Foundation Morgan group and the Cornerstone Morgan group use a different definition for their foundation horses. They allow outcrossing up to 1930 (so that Bennington may be included) and they allow the offspring of Ladelle, who had outcrossed foals after 1930. Obviously, since the Lambert and Lippitt families have no 20th century outcrossing, they qualify as foundation horses.

Many, many morgans have Daniel Lambert in the pedigrees. ANY Morgan with Jubilee King in their pedigree will have some Daniel Lambert, as Jubilee King's great great great grandsire was Daniel Lambert. I've included the allbreed pedigree frame that shows his immediate pedigree.

In order for a Lambert horse to be considered clean blooded for breeding guidance, the sire must be a clean blooded Lambert, and the dam must be either a Lippitt as defined by the Lippitt club (no 20th century outcrossing), or a Woodbury, which is a horse whose dam was a clean blooded Lambert mated to a Lippitt stallion.(the sire line is then Lippitt instead of Lambert, which makes the foal a 1/2 lippitt for purposes of the Lippitt club because of the Lambert dam, not a clean blooded Lambert because the sire line is not Lambert) Susan came up with the Woodbury term because these horses, of which there are few living today, were not being kept track of, despite the fact that they had no 20th century saddlebred, and were being lost to the breed.

Small Town Ellie Ash was an example of a Woodbury mare. She had a Lambert dam-Small Town Sallie Ash, and a Lippitt sire-Marvelous Ideal. When I bred her to a clean blooded Lambert stallion, Quietude Kingdom of the Sun, she produced a clean blooded Lambert filly. Had I bred her to a Lippitt stallion, she would have produce another Woodbury, as the Lippitt club would not recognize the foal as a Lippitt due to the Lambert family in the dam.

So,the short of it is that for the foal to be a clean blooded Lambert, the dam must be either a full Lippitt, or a clean blooded Lambert, and the sire must be a clean blooded Lambert.

BRENDA TIPPIN RESPONDS TO CRITICISM OF
THE QUIETUDE CLEAN-BLOODED LAMBERT MORGANS

I have a lot of ongoing research for the very excellent cb Lambert program. Breeders have their own preferred methods and theories on what they believe will work best for the lines they are using. Having background in marketing, I can only be deeply impressed by theaccomplishments of the Quietude program in producing 303 horses in 35 years, and maintaining many, many satisfied customers during that time all across the US, Canada, Europe and even New Zealand. That is no small accomplishment, and quite frankly, if the quality is not there, I know enough about marketing to understand that would never happen. Line breeding and close breeding does sometimes work very well; I can think of many other instances of historical breeders who have used it very successfully, and its my opinion that the Quietude program falls in thatcategory.

Some questioned Quietude's use of the term "clean-blooded", feeling that it implied Morgans of other bloodlines were somehow inferior. That was never the intent, the term was adopted for their own use to maintain their focus their breeding goals on the Lambert family as presented through the type and likeness of Criterion. He was their ideal Morgan and they wished to reproduce and preserve his type and individual traits as far as it was possible to do. In that they have succeeded to a remarkable degree, and in the process have preserved a family of rare old bloodlines that otherwise would have been lost.

In my opinion, they deserve a lot of credit for that. I have heard some attempt to criticize their stock by describing all manner of undesireable traits that simply are not there - and its interesting to note that those critics have never made an effort to personally visit the Lamberts of Quietude or review their videos in recent years, if, in fact, they ever looked at them at all. The Quietude program has thrived, in spite of their critics, and the stories I've heard from many who love those horses and their very real accomplishments in many areas would fill a book. I've been enjoying reviewing both recent and old video of Quietude horses as part of my research. Rarely does one have the opportunity to so closely study several generations of the same family and individual expression passed down through many different sons
and daughters. Brenda Tippin OR

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