CORAL FOREST
(World's Edge Goldoak X Kennebec Topaz)
2004 palomino mare, 15.2, 100% Foundation


Pictured at age 18, June 2022

Foaled May 14, 2004 at 3:30 PM. Topaz went into labor as I was doing my daily cleaning of her pen- what a considerate mare! Coral is a very people friendly mare who inherited her dam's quiet temperament and bold, investigative nature. She is extremely intelligent and quickly picks up on learning new things. She has a wonderful head- very short and wide between her large eyes, with a nicely dished profile. She has a nice long hip and powerful hindquarters. She carries herself very upright and with her rounded frame, there is no doubt about what breed she is! I could watch her all day- she is that beautiful. Typical of a Morgan, if you are out in the field working on something, Coral will be right there "helping". She is very much a social butterfly- beauty AND brains!

Coral has no modern outcrosses in her pedigree. Her ancestry features several horses that had great influence in southern breeding programs of fifty years ago, such as the beautiful Adrian Ashmore and Pineland Red Roger, a son of Jolly Roger (Joe Young's foundation stallion) out of the Sonfield daughter Princess Field. Princess Field has some interesting Hearst Arabian breeding going back to Sabab. Coral has two crosses to the great palomino stallion Californio. She also has some wonderful Lippitt breeding through Lippitt Miss Nekomia, Lippitt Ashmore, Lippitt Ethan Ash, Lippitt Moro Ash, and Lippitt George; old government through Devan Hawk, Gay Dancer, Linsley and Querido; old midwest with Dude Hudson and Archie O; Western Working from such greats as Headlight Morgan, Red Oak, Will Rogers, and The Admiral; and numerous crosses to such old Brunk greats as Flyhawk, Allen King and Knox Morgan. In short, Coral's pedigree comprises a selection of some of the best breeding from all of the old families.

Coral's first foal was born on April 14, 2015. A buckskin filly by RG Black Dandy, she can be seen here. Her second foal, a chestnut colt by KS Bluestem The Old Guard, can be seen here.

World's Edge Goldoak

Californio Tio Lalo
Sissey
Ponderosa's Miss Quiz Pineland Red Roger
Dixie's Adrianna Ash

Kennebec Topaz

Medomak Cavalier Dyberry Lyndon
Main-Line Fallisa
Kennebec Opal Californio
Kennebec Lucille

Coral's extended pedigree can be seen here.
There are pictures of many of her ancestors there as well.


Videos of Coral (footage is from August 2006 at age 2)

(High speed connection only; longer videos may take up to several minutes to load. All are in Real Player format- download Real Player here, it's free)
Coral trotting with Connor (and Jim on his bike!) (2848 KB)
Another nice trot pass (634 KB)
Standing and walking (2174 KB)
Blasting into canter (with Connor) (1730 KB)
Galloping after after her dam, Topaz, with Connor and Pat (3030 KB)
Coral, Pat and Connor checking out Jim's "scary" bicycle (3660 KB)

More photos of Coral
(click on a thumbnail to enlarge)
 


Here is the just born Coral meeting mom face to face for the first time. About 3:45 PM May 14, 2004. Topaz can't hold her licker ;-).


Trying to get up and managing to look beautiful at the same time (actually I don't think there's such a thing as a ugly baby creature, of any species).


Coral at one day old. Lots of unfolding to do. She weighed 91 pounds at birth and is very tall. I've had foals that could walk under their dam the first few days of life; not this gal!


One day old.


Three days old. Coral is not afraid to be lying down when humans are around. I tried to get Coral and Topaz to move for pictures using a lunge whip; Coral is simply NOT scared of it- cracking it right next to her, repeatedly, had no effect; running it all over her body and legs she seemed to enjoy; even snapping her lightly on the butt with it did not faze her. She is the calmest foal I have had since Pat. Very independent too- getting her turned out and in is a challenge as she is everywhere, exploring. No fear!


Because I can't keep this foal off me long enough to take a picture, it was hard getting this head shot. It doesn't do her justice. You can see her skin is turning dark. Many chestnut based foals (palomino is chestnut based) have pink skin at birth, which then darkens in the first few days or weeks. Cremellos would be an exception, as their pink skin will not darken but remains pink all their life.


This shot had a hint of deja vu in it. If you check Topaz's page you will see a somewhat similar front-on shot of her as a foal with her dam Opal. Coral is three days old here.


Here she is checking out a young persimmon tree. Another Day Three picture; if you believe in the Day 3/Month 3/Year 3 rule, then you can get a glimpse of what a lovely mare this filly will be someday. She is very balanced, with a nice long hip, laid back shoulder and a good length of neck topped by a pretty, expressive face.


I miss a lot of action shots with the digital. Here is one that came out ok.


Just barely caught this! She is 5 days old here. She not only rips around at full speed but does a lovely, very slow collected canter as well.


Ten days old and pretty as a picture. She has really filled out.


Almost two weeks old.


She just has the prettiest head. She LOOKS like a "girl horse".


This much width between the eyes is indicative of intelligence in a horse. Coral learns very quickly and at the tender age of two weeks accepts being clipped, hosed off, fly sprayed, groomed, having her feet handled and is well started on leading. Can you tell I kind of like her?


I have been trying to get a picture of her standing alertly. She strikes a pose and is just beautiful, but then moves before I can take the picture (drat the long lag time on the digital!). Here is one that came out ok, but I wish the house wasn't in the background! Jim had been out mowing and I thought the (riding) lawn mower might attract Coral's attention long enough for me to get a good shot with the digital. Nope. So Jim got out the weed whacker and started trimming the fencelines in the backyard. She took very little notice of that either; in fact in this picture he was about 20 feet *behind* her. I'm not even sure what she was looking at. I just got lucky on this one! 16 days old here.


I did not really expect to get any good pictures on this evening as it was getting dark, but I was pleasantly surprised. I thought the backlighting on Coral in this shot was interesting. Another picture taken at 16 days old.


She just gets prettier and prettier. Coral at one month old, June 16, 2004.


Coral meeting Poet for the first time. I bet you can tell who will be the boss in THIS twosome! July 2004.


I just liked this picture. July 2004.


Hanging out with Poet, July 2004.


I hope she never does anything like this when I ride her! August 2004.


Coral, two and a half months old, August 2004.


Here is Coral's "official" three month old picture, August 2004.


Coral demonstrating her "uphill" collected canter, August 2004.


Coral at four and a half months old, late September 2004.


Coral with Janine Welsh of Homestead Morgans, Baldonnel BC Canada. November 2004.


Carrie, our new dun filly, meets Coral. There was an instant rapport, like the two had known each other forever. If you look closely, it even looks like Coral is smiling in this picture! Both fillies are 7 months old. December 2004.


Coral at one year old, May 2005.


Definitely a gangly teenager now! May 2005.


She just needs a pair of wings and she could be Pegasus :-)


Coral with Carrie (dun filly) and Pat, July 2005.


Coral and Carrie, August 2005. I was attempting to get these gals to do something more exciting than eating. Here is Coral expressing her opinion!


Coral heard her friend Carrie, who was in the barn, calling to her. August 2005.


I really liked the way her mane looked in this picture!


Coral has really filled out over the summer and now looks more horse-like than foal-like. October 2005.


Coral and Carrie. Carrie will be leaving for her new home in CA at the end of the month (October 2005). It's kind of sad to think that soon this friendship will be split up. I guess you have to learn to deal with it if you breed and sell horses. Our Pat and his half sister Mimi are lucky- they will never be parted.


Most of the pictures I've taken of Coral this year have been with my old Sony. I couldn't seem to get the new Nikon to behave- it was blinded by Coral's "whiteness", making all the pictures I took of her in full sun overexposed, and for a long while I couldn't figure out what to do. Well, I finally changed the settings to center weighted metering so the camera will adjust exposure to the value of the subject in the center of the frame. Much better- don't you know I was happy! November 2005.


Here is the conformation shot I tried all summer to get! Of course, now she is all hairy and those red clay stains are not coming off with anything short of a bath, but I still think she's beautiful!


We have been having a January warm spell- 70 degree days- and I've been taking full advantage of it to get outside and enjoy my horses! Here is Coral at sunset. It's not hard to imagine a unicorn horn growing out of her forehead! January 2006.


Coral is watching Jim on his bike. I'd asked Jim to ride it down by the horses so they would look at him instead of eating, and I could get some good pictures of Connor. I didn't expect that Coral would also be fascinated by the bike. June 2006.


Coral and Connor checking out the bike.


Jim bought one of those big exercise balls for the horses to play with. I took the ball out into the pasture and set it down. Coral was watching, trying to figure out what I had brought. Then the breeze caught it, so it moved!! February 2007.


Coral was not too sure what it was at first, but it took her less than a minute to go up to the ball and start pushing it around!


Coral has made a new friend. Charli is a little more sedate of a companion for Coral than her full brother Connor was. Guess it's an all girl's club now. July 2007.


8/14/07: Coral's been neglected in the photo department lately. So I gave her a bath, trimmed her feet, and then did my best to get her to pose for some pictures. I got a couple noodling around, jog trotting pictures that were ok, as you can see above. But Coral really just wanted to eat.


Just then, Jim got home from work, so I called to him to come help me. He only got half way down to the barn and then started flapping our mail in the air to get Coral's attention. Well, you would have thought she had seen an alien spaceship landing. Here she is taking a good look before going into action (see the next series of photos).


She snorted, flagged her tail and went into a huge trot that a park horse would envy. You can kind of see the "gray Arab" resemblance in these pictures. She kept this show going for a good five minutes and I was really wishing I had the camcorder instead of the digital camera!


Coral has spent the summer with Frosty and Charli. Charli adores her. Lately I have noticed that Coral is looking more full bodied and mature- less like a young horse and more like a grown up mare. September 2007.


May 2008. Coral reminds me of the beautiful Crabbett/old type Arabs I admired in the pages of ARABIAN HORSE WORLD magazine, a library favorite when I was growing up.


Coral is getting spotted! I admit to being a bit perplexed by this. See that spot on Coral's rump? That is NOT dirt (in fact, I had just bathed her and this is about as clean as I have ever gotten her). It is a Bend Or spot! She now has developed a few other smudges and hints of Bend Or spots elsewhere too; there is gray hair in the core of her tail and a few stray gray hairs in her mane. Her dapples are fairly obvious right now as well. So- just how minimal can sooty (Bend Or spots are thought to be related to sooty) be? We know sooty runs in this family (Californio) but Goldoak's offspring tend to be not only fairly light in shade but not as sooty as the other branches of the family tree.  Late May 2008.


I'd gone out to the pasture to get new pictures of Charli but ended up getting a bunch of good ones of Coral too! August 2008.


October 4, 2008: Our annual fall event at the farm is the Southern Model Horse Convention, now in its 21st year and always held the first Saturday in October. SouthCon was designed as a way to promote Morgans amongst model horse hobbyists. It works- several SouthCon regulars now own Morgans!

Mandy Triebel traveled the furthest to come to SouthCon- by far -all the way from Germany! In 1997 she was a foreign exchange student with a family in Alabama. She has stayed in touch and every few years, she visits them. This year she decided to see if there were any model shows in the area while she would be in the States, and that is how she found SouthCon. Mandy had never seen a Morgan before. Coral gave her a proper introduction!


March 1, 2009- Snow in Georgia! Coral had never seen this much snow before and was really not enthused. Charli, on the other hand, was like a little kid.


March 2, 2009- The snow was becoming a little more acceptable to Coral. Once she rolled in it she couldn't get enough- she did several repeat performances.


May 2009.


Coral watching something in the woods, July 2009.


August 2009.


September 2009- I have been working regularly with Coral, to get her under saddle, since June. We were blessed with an unusually cool summer with many low humidity days so I took full advantage of it. Coral has been ready for me to climb on board for about a month now but with the days getting shorter and no one here during the day when I work with her I did not want to just go ahead by myself. Though I've never had a problem with riding my youngsters I would feel pretty stupid if something happened and no one was here to scoop me up :-)

Here is Coral at the canter on the lunge. We have only recently started using the side reins so she is not yet in any sort of consistent frame, but she is making steady progress. It is wonderful to see her progress from an easily distracted, clueless state to a more serious minded, confident one.


First pic: fixing the stirrups and unfastening the reins from the saddle after lungeing. Second pic: This is as far as I got in the last few weeks- it was as much as I was comfortable doing alone. Just lying over Coral's back. At the end of every lunging session we would stand quietly at the mounting block for 10 or 15 minutes. I started out just standing over her, then progressed to lying over her back like this. Over and over again. She just stands there and that is exactly what I want. The one thing she does that is funny is check out my feet, like she is doing here.


I had never put my weight in the stirrups before. In fact I usually lunge her without them as they just get in the way. So I stepped into the stirrup and got halfway up a few times. Then... there's no turning back now!


And here we are! I got on and off of her a half dozen or so times and she never moved, even when I did a not so graceful dismount and missed the mounting block entirely ;-).


October 11, 2009- It has been difficult to work with Coral with all of the rain we have had in the Atlanta area in the past few weeks. We don't have a sand arena, and the grass is just too slippery (or quickly becomes churned into mud if I attempt to work a horse on it) when it rains nearly every day. Finally we had a few dry days in a row so I got on Coral again and this time we went for a little ride. She figured out what I wanted very quickly and was very smooth! I am excited!


December 2009- I'd always wanted to do a Christmas card with all the horses on it. So when I saw these pet antlers at the Dollar Store, I had to get them. The next step was taking a picture of each horse wearing the antlers, then creating the Christmas card you see here.


February 13, 2010- We had a rare snowfall in Georgia so I was up early to take pictures of the horses having fun in it. They were kind of duds... all they wanted to do was search for bits of green under the snow. Coral looks less "white" when compared with all the pristine snow! The photo on the right had he highest number of votes in the 2011 Rainbow Morgan Horse Association calendar contest and became the cover photo!


October 2010- Julie Huffman, mother of Emma Huffman who had so much fun here at the Southern Model Horse Convention a few weeks ago, sent me a CD of all the pictures she took that day. My favorite was this one of Emma and Coral.

 
My sister Aimee and her almost-3-year old daughters Lucy and Neve, who are from Ohio, visited us on June 10, 2011. Neve was not too sure at first, but soon was running up and down the aisles petting all the horses. Here is curious Coral trying to get a better look, and Neve trying to reach her. I don't think Coral had ever seen such a small human!


August 2011.


November 25, 2011- I am embarrassed to say that it has been two years since I last rode Coral. She is still very green. Jim is usually gone on weekends racing or riding his bike so there is no one here "just in case". I never ride green horses when no one is around so between that and my busy schedule, riding just gets put on the back burner. Today was so beautiful- 65, no wind and sunny- and since Coral kept following me around as I did my cleaning of pasture and drylot- I figured she wanted some one on one time. I am not sure this is exactly what she had in mind ;-) but she does like the attention. I have been working with her and Charli on ground work and lungeing this fall- which I CAN do with no one here- so I decided I would just climb aboard today since Jim was home from his AM bike ride. Here I am trying to get her to move off after mounting by "untracking" her.


Got her going! (My chaps do not like to zip up over sweat pants and one of the zipper pulls is broken. I really need new chaps.)


We are stalled! This happened a lot. As I told Jim, I would MUCH rather have this problem than one who wanted to go too fast, though!


This was my favorite picture from this ride.


September 2012- Coral has been sadly neglected in the photo department this year. I really liked this one, even though she wasn't clean and her mane and tail hadn't been brushed in ages except to pick out the dreads she seems to get - overnight. Funny, her dam is the same way!


Photos taken August 26, 2013- In October, Coral won a spot in the 2014 Rainbow Morgan Horse Association calendar with the first pic. Both are very candid shots (she was not even groomed).

 

September 2, 2013- The above pictures were taken with Coral cleaned up in the hopes of getting something I liked better than the above picture to enter in the Rainbow calendar contest. I decided one was about as good as the next so stuck with the original, more "artsy" picture. Wasn't it nice of her to just stand there posing for me without anyone holding her? My horses get very good at this!



September 16, 2013- Coral "helping" Jim prep the barriers for Cyclo Cross season.



October 5, 2013- Every October, we host a model horse show (similar to doll house or railroad miniatures, with an additional emphasis on artistic qualities) called The Southern Model Horse Convention, here at the farm. This year was our 26th year! The show is a unique opportunity to introduce and promote Morgans to the model horse hobbyists that attend the show from all over the southeast. Classes are similar to those found in real horse shows, but in miniature- held on a tabletop "show ring" in the barn. Our Morgans are nearby outside, hanging around the pasture gate begging for attention pretty much all day. Entrants are given a chance to ride a Morgan, and several SouthCon regulars have become Morgan owners and breeders after meeting Morgans at the show.

My favorite picture of the day was this one of Coral with Montana Cook (L) and Jorja Alewine (R). I loved how Coral was really working it to get some lovin'! She is a love sponge, for sure!


Coral's "famous" picture in the snow was chosen as the "Photo of the Month" for the January 2014 EQUINE JOURNAL magazine!


February 13, 2014- Coral enjoying herself in a rare Georgia snow.


March 2015- This is the picture that accompanied my Facebook announcement of Coral's impending foal-to-be. Coral was entering her 11th month in foal.


4/4/15- Coral the day before her official due date (she ended up going 9 days overdue!). Jim was working on some repairs to the run in shed in the drylot and of course, Coral had to "assist". She is a character, but then, that's a Morgan for you!


April 7, 2015- Expectant mother Coral, enjoying the shade of the newly repaired run in shed on an 80 degree spring afternoon. Jim did a GREAT job on this window! You can see the peach coloring and dapples that is her spring coat peeping through the remaining winter fuzz. In another few weeks she'll be "white" again, though.


4/24/15- Coral with her 10 day old filly, Callie. You can see more of Callie on her web page here.


A dry summer and fall meant hay was scarce for the 2016-17 winter. Our regular hay suppliers never got a fall cutting. Rather than just drop loose hay out three times a day, I decided to expand on the slow feed net supply. I had two slow nets already  in use for Pat, and wanted to make one for each of the other horses as I could afford the materials. The main herd was separated into two different groups/two different pastures to reduce competition/stress, as well. The first picture is Coral with her first new net, October 29, 2016. A month later (second picture, November 23) I made more nets so that everyone had their own- she and Topaz had been happy sharing the single net, but this allowed more hay to be fed at each feeding. It takes them between 3 and 4 hours to completely empty their nets- SO much better than the previous 15-30 minutes it took them to clean up when hay was fed loose. They seem very content with this new arrangement!


September 1, 2017- Last fall, Dr. Phil Sponenberg, author of EQUINE COLOR GENETICS, contacted me about using some of my photos in the fourth edition. Of course, I was thrilled! Equine Color Genetics is the oldest authoritative book on horse color, and to be featured in its pages is quite an honor. Today my copy arrived! Ten of my photos are in the book- three of my own Morgans (including Coral, pictured above) and seven of my friends' Morgans. Charli's full brother Unconventional (bred/foaled here) also made the book! To see all of the Morgans pictured in the new ECG, you can visit my album on Facebook here. The album is public, so even if you don't have a Facebook account you should be able to see the pictures. This is just such wonderful promotion for the breed- and it is the THIRD major book on equine color that our Morgans have been featured in! Very exciting! To purchase the book- it is pricey, but worth every penny- go here.



January 12, 2019- We had a lovely visit with Helen Prentice- from England! Helen's Mom lives in Ocala, FL and Helen was in the States visiting her. It was a relatively short trip (5 hours from Ocala) for her to come and see the ancestors and relatives of her colt, Pepe. Pepe (registered name Divine Intervention) is by Coulee Bend Talisman, the gorgeous silver dun son of Unconventional (aka Connor, who was bred/foaled here). His dam is Helen's own mare, Withecott Celestial Star. Pepe got his sire and grandsire's silver gene- he is a beautiful bay silver colt.

Before Helen left we wanted to get a few quick snaps of us with now 27-year-old Topaz, who is Pepe's great great grand dam. The first picture was taken right as  Coral, Topaz's daughter, decided to photobomb us! Jim was laughing so hard that the photo is kinda blurry, but it's cute any way ;-)


May 10, 2019- Coral (snacking on some fresh cut fescue/orchard hay) is darker this time of year and will be for a few weeks until she fades to "white" again. She also has some dapples, so I got some reference pics of them.


April 21, 2020- Coral the night before she foaled Thunder.

   

July 17, 2021- A few days after I took these pictures of Coral, we had a small bump removed from the point of her left shoulder. I  thought it was a cyst, but it had grown a bit, so I was concerned. The pathology came back as worst case scenario: hemangiosarcoma. The margins were not clean so we assume it has spread; the vet could not give me any sort of timeline on what to expect. I decided not to haul her to UGA for further testing because the outcome will be the same regardless. Meanwhile she is acting completely normal, the wound has healed after a bit of an issue with inflammation from the sutures, and I'll do what's best for her when the time comes. I'd hoped to breed her one more time next spring but I can't see that happening now.


Taken the same day as the above pictures. My "ear getter"- the umbrella- and the only outside pic I got before it started to rain.


10/10/21- Long time friend Cassidy Sutherland, her Mom Rhonda, Cass's son Evan and niece Laurel visited today to meet Leelee (who was a hit) and see the other horses, who were more intent on eating their hay than socializing. But Coral volunteered, briefly. She likes to make a dreadlock in the middle of her mane. I can take it out and it will be there again tomorrow. I guess she is the fairies' favorite ride. If you don't know, there are many legends surrounding the "why" of "witches' knots" or "fairy knots". The one I like the best states that the fairies come in the middle of the night and twist the mane into knots, forming stirrups for them to ride their chosen horse.



June 20, 2022- Coral had a cutaneous hemangiosarcoma removed from her shoulder last August. The margins weren't clear, so I was prepared to lose her. In February I had bloodwork done on her, which was completely normal with no signs of cancer. So I decided to breed her one more time and had her ultrasounded to see where she was in her cycle. Alas, her uterus was full of cysts. The vet started out mapping and measuring them, but soon gave up as there were too many. So it isn't likely Coral will have any more foals, though I've heard that the cysts may resolve with time.


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Jim and Laura Behning
75 Glass Spring Rd.
Covington, GA 30014
(770) 385-1240
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