It all started with a girl and a horse...The love of horses has been passed down from generation to generation in our family, and as grandma always said: it all started with girl and a horse. She was usually talking about her daughter Lisa, but we came to later understand that the original horse lover was actually grandma herself who started our family down the horse road by bringing home a sick foal as a child.
Our love of horses and family are the glue to our operations. Our big decisions are made as a team, usually over a glass of wine. We are engineers by trade, so we do our best to combine a trained eye with a technical edge when we approach our breeding choices. Featured here is our 1988 foundation Morgan gelding Greenback Cominmyway, or Old Beau as we called him since he joined our family at the age of only 6. He took many little girls on rides (often multiple little girls at once) and always stopped to let them crawl back up when they fell off (usually laughing all the way). He was always the one anyone could ride no matter how inexperienced, little or afraid - he was a true "babysitter" and the ultimate family horse. These pictures were taken of Beau around his 30th birthday. He never took a lame step and remained healthy and strong up until his very final day which was just about a year after this photoshoot. One of our main goals in breeding is to provide these very special Morgan horses to those looking for a wonderful addtion to their family.
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Lisa Hermanson
Lisa fell in love with her first Morgan horse as a child. The horse, who she named "Morgan" was owned by a neighbor. Morgan was not for sale at the time. His owner, who thought Morgan was a difficult horse, agreed to sell him because he could see the horse had taken to little Lisa. Morgan had chosen Lisa and true to breed, he was ever loyal to her. They grew up together, riding bareback through the Black Hills. In Morgan's last years he gave Lisa's daughter, Lexie, her first rides as well.
Lisa went to school at South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City, SD, becoming a Geological Engineer. She spent years out of state working for an oil company, before returning South Dakota to raise her family and help her husband, Larry, run his structural engineering company.
Always having horses, Lisa spent many years being pulled away from her love of riding in the hills to help her daughter, Lexie with her horse show aspirations. After several years, Lisa joined in some on the horse showing as well. Throughout the years she achieved numerous awards showing Quarter Horses, although she's the first to admit horse shows aren't her favorite aspect of horse life.
Through it all, Lisa had always dreamed of breeding Morgan horses. She has an impeccable eye, and knew she had to have her when spotted her full foundation Morgan mare Emmie. This choice set the direction for our breeding program, as Emmie proved to be even more fabulous and sweet in person.
Lisa went to school at South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City, SD, becoming a Geological Engineer. She spent years out of state working for an oil company, before returning South Dakota to raise her family and help her husband, Larry, run his structural engineering company.
Always having horses, Lisa spent many years being pulled away from her love of riding in the hills to help her daughter, Lexie with her horse show aspirations. After several years, Lisa joined in some on the horse showing as well. Throughout the years she achieved numerous awards showing Quarter Horses, although she's the first to admit horse shows aren't her favorite aspect of horse life.
Through it all, Lisa had always dreamed of breeding Morgan horses. She has an impeccable eye, and knew she had to have her when spotted her full foundation Morgan mare Emmie. This choice set the direction for our breeding program, as Emmie proved to be even more fabulous and sweet in person.
Lexie Hodson
Lisa often tells the story that all her daughter, Lexie, wanted for her second birthday was to ride her old Morgan by her self. After spending years riding bareback, Lexie started out in 4-H as early as they let her (8). She showed the family's Funquest bred Morgan gelding, Beau, for several years before making a leap to a Quarter Horse in order to partake in the many local Quarter Horse shows. At 13, Lexie got a new Quarter Horse, Starch, to compete in the upper youth age bracket. Lexie and Starch spent the following years successfully competing in all-around AQHA events. A highlight being achieving an AQHA National Championship.
Lexie also went to school at South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City, SD, becoming an Industrial Engineer. She worked briefly in manufacturing before spending years working with patents and trademarks.
After losing several show horses, including Starch, in unrelated instances Lexie decided to join Lisa in her dream of breeding Morgans.... but she hangs on to her love of Quarter Horses and showing through breeding her Quarter Horse mare Reese Chip.
True to her engineering roots, Lexie enjoys researching lines and breeding practices. While researching Emmie's Lippitt lines, Lexie stumbled across our stallion Ace - solidifying the direction of our breeding program to focus on the Lippitt family of Morgan Horses.
Lexie also went to school at South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City, SD, becoming an Industrial Engineer. She worked briefly in manufacturing before spending years working with patents and trademarks.
After losing several show horses, including Starch, in unrelated instances Lexie decided to join Lisa in her dream of breeding Morgans.... but she hangs on to her love of Quarter Horses and showing through breeding her Quarter Horse mare Reese Chip.
True to her engineering roots, Lexie enjoys researching lines and breeding practices. While researching Emmie's Lippitt lines, Lexie stumbled across our stallion Ace - solidifying the direction of our breeding program to focus on the Lippitt family of Morgan Horses.
Our Guys: Larry Hermanson and Audey Hodson
None of this would be possible without the help of our wonderful guys. Neither of them grew up with the desire to own horses, but their love and support has been vital to our life with horses. They are always there for us to move panels, fix fence, repair pastures, and even scoop horse poop whenever we need them to. Larry has taken on the task of putting hands on our foals in their first weeks of life leading to our very friendly, well handled foals.