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About Mary Mel Morgans
Mary Mel Morgans was founded many years ago by Mel Frandsen. He created this prefix several years into breeding Morgans and created the name after his wife, Mary and himself. He used the prefix for over 30 years and developed a reputation for producing sound, strong, well put together Morgans that had the ability to perform intermediate gaits. He was very selective in his breeding and it still shows with the quality of Mary Mel Morgans today. As he got older and his body no longer allowed him to raise horses, he passed the prefix to his son, Dan, who has been training and breeding Morgans his entire life. Today, Dan and his two sons, McKay and Weston, and Josh Frandsen (nephew) still breed quality Morgans under the Mary Mel prefix, as was intended by Mel. McKay, Weston and Josh have owned Morgans of their own for 24+ years and have been breeding their own since 2012. Their good friend, Brady Durrant has many Mary Mel bred horses of his own and has been breeding for over a decade.
McKay, Weston, Josh, and their friend Brady Durrant (Durrants Morgans) spent much of their childhood and teenage years at Mel's barn working his foals and helping him prepare horses to be sold. As a tribute to their work, Mel allowed these four young kids to name most of his foals for the span of 10-15 years, which is why many of the names are so "creative", such as Marymels Fudger, Forest, Jenny, Peaches, Apricots, Tyke, etc. Everything they learned was instilled in them by Mel who sparked their desire to raise high quality Morgans. The same selective breeding is being practiced today as it was by its founder. We continue to produce the same look of horses that Mel would be proud of owning through careful consideration of any horse that we plan to breed. If the horse does not fit the mold, it will not be bred.
The Mary Mel prefix can be found on hundreds of pedigrees at the current time and many can attest to the quality of a Mary Mel bred horse. Each year we produce more Marymel horses with the intent to improve the quality of Morgans worldwide. It would be selfish not to mention other breeders that worked with Mel to advance the breed such as Ken Thomas (KTM Morgans), Gary Gray (Silvershoe Morgans), Brent Skidmore (Sky Harbor Morgans) and several others. There are not many gaited Morgans around, so it takes many dedicated breeders to maintain and hopefully increase the number and quality of gaited Morgans.
A Brief History
Mary Mel Morgans was established by our grandfather, Mel Frandsen in 1967. In the 1960s and 1970s, he began breeding and showing his horses all around the western United States with his family, where he had much success. In time, he began to shift his focus from the show ring to developing his breeding program to include gaited Morgans. Some of his most well-known horses include the following: Stellar, Omar Sheriff, Wingo, Cleo-Patricia, Estrelita and many others.In 2007, Mel suffered a stroke that inhibited his ability to continue his breeding program that he had spent so much time perfecting. We were able to keep several mares and a stallion that we used to continue the great legacy that he made.
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