Betty Joaquin and "Tuffy Morgan" = Hagen-Renaker "Nancy" and "Tony"

Hagen-Renaker "Tony" newborn foal and "Nancy" mare

Equine history and the history of model horse figurines often overlap. This is, I believe, the case for the mid-20th century Morgan mare Betty Joaquin and her 1953 foal, known as "Tuffy Morgan," and the ceramic mare and foal figurines called "Nancy" and "Tony" by the California pottery Hagen-Renaker, Inc. 

In the 1950s, Hagen-Renaker was located in Monrovia (Los Angeles County), California. So were Betty Joaquin and Tuffy Morgan. They belonged to horse rancher Merle Little (1906-1975). 

Betty Joaquin and her 1953 colt

The artist who designed "Nancy" and "Tony," Maureen Love (1922-2004), spent many hours visiting Merle's El Rancho Poco on Mountain Avenue in Monrovia, sketching horses on the property, and observed at a distance by Merle, his family, and his employees. 

Artist Maureen Love

I believe that Betty Joaquin and her 1953 foal, which Merle's daughter Marlene called "Tuffy Morgan," inspired the H-R "Nancy" and "Tony."

Hagen-Renaker "Nancy" and "Tony."
These examples were originally owned by Merle Little.

The figurines were some of Maureen's earliest horse designs for H-R, issued in Fall 1955 to Spring 1957, Spring 1958, 1964, and 1965. "Nancy" and "Tony" came in matte grey with darker shading.  (It was common for Hagen-Renaker to mass-produce horse figurines in colors other than the color of the real horse Maureen Love sketched and then turned into a 3D design.)

Some collectors have identified "Nancy" and "Tony" as Thoroughbreds or horses of unknown breed, but the Hagen-Renaker factory's handwritten Mold Book identifies them as Morgans. 

Source: Hagen-Renaker Mold Book, courtesy of Nancy Kelly

I also believe they are Morgans, because Merle Little's older daughter, Marlene, told me that her father's Hagen-Renaker "Nancy" model was based on Betty Joaquin. 

Merle kept many photographs of his prize-winning mare Betty Joaquin. Foaled in 1940, she was bred by the "dean of Morgan horse breeders," Roland Hill. Her sire was Joaquin Morgan and her dam was Dan's Betty. Betty Joaquin was well known in regional horse show arenas. 

Betty Joaquin and Merle Little

Four of Merle Little's Morgan mares at a horse show in San Diego.
Betty Joaquin is second from left.

This first-person testimony, and the notation in the Mold Book that "Nancy" and "Tony" were Morgans, is borne out by photographs of Betty Joaquin and her 1953 foal. Marlene said that she called him "Tuffy Morgan," but her father called him by another name (she didn't say what).

Merle Little owned two Hagen-Renaker "Nancy" models and one "Tony." The two mares show some of the variations in Hagen-Renaker's decorating styles.

They also demonstrate how good Maureen was at capturing the body language of a mare with a very young foal at her side. The mare's attitude seems to change, depending on which side of her you're on.

Betty Joaquin had several registered Morgan offspring, and there are photographs of at least two more of them as foals from Merle Little's estate. (More on them in separate blog posts.) But I believe the foal known as Tuffy Morgan probably inspired the H-R "Tony." 

Look at little Tuffy Morgan's head...

..and compare it to that of the Hagen-Renaker "Tony."

There's other evidence. Back in 2013, many of Maureen Love's original sketches of horses were sold by her heirs on eBay. Ed Alcorn archived the eBay photos on his Hagen-Renaker Online Museum website. At least one of them appears to show Betty Joaquin and a foal.

Source: Hagen-Renaker Online Museum

This photograph, from Merle Little's estate, shows Betty Joaquin's long forelock, mane, and tail.

I believe that it's at least plausible that Betty Joaquin and her foal known as "Tuffy Morgan" inspired the Hagen-Renaker "Nancy" and "Tony" Morgans. 

The sad part of this story is that there's no record of Tuffy Morgan, or any 1953 foal out of Betty Joaquin ever being registered. It's possible that he didn't survive; it's possible he was half-bred and sold without being registered. 

At least we have Maureen Love's record of him, in the form of the Hagen-Renaker "Tony" newborn foal.

Photographs of real horses and people are from the estate of Merle Little. Model horse photographs are by the author. Certain images in this post are provided under the Fair Use provision in Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act. "Fair Use" specifically allows for the use of copyrighted materials for educational purposes only.

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You can find the Hagen-Renaker Mold Book on Hagen-Renaker historian Nancy Kelly's website: 

https://ketain.com/hagen-renaker-mold-book/

The Hagen-Renaker Online Museum is here:

https://hagenrenakermuseum.com/

This is Brenda L. Tippin's article on Roland Hill, in The Morgan Horse magazine:

https://www.morganhorse.com/upload/photos/904TMH_AprilMay2018_HISTORICAL_RolandHill.pdf

You can see Betty Joaquin's pedigree here:

https://www.allbreedpedigree.com/index.php?query_type=horse&h=BETTY+JOAQUIN&g=5&cellpadding=0&small_font=1&l=

All Breed Pedigree, above, says she was a silver dapple, but her registration papers say she was dun. 

And this ad in Western Livestock Journal, from 1943, shows that her previous owner described her as "chocolate brown, with a white mane and tail."

It's helpful to remember that, back then, horse owners and breed registries didn't have the same understanding of equine genetics and color that we do now. A good resource for horse color information is author Lesli Kathman's website:

https://www.horse-color.com/about