Origin Story: Hagen-Renaker "Nancy" and "Tony"

When I write about the model horse hobby, I want to help collectors have a better understanding of how the model horses we all enjoy are sometimes directly connected to real horses known to the designer of the model horse figurines. 

Such is the case with two of the earliest Hagen-Renaker horse figurines, the B-626 mare that the HR factory called "Nancy" and her newborn foal, the B-627 "Tony." They were designed by Maureen Love, and issued in Fall 1955 to Spring 1957, Spring 1958, 1964, and 1965. They came in matte grey with darker shading. 

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. 

I believe they are Morgans, because Monrovia/Duarte, California horse rancher Merle Little's older daughter, Marlene, told me that her own Hagen-Renaker "Nancy" model was based on her father's Morgan mare, Betty Joaquin. I can place Maureen at Merle's El Rancho Poco in Monrovia, California -- the home of Hagen-Renaker at the time, too -- in 1953, when Merle's children still lived at home. They remember seeing Maureen in the pasture with her art supplies.

Merle kept many photographs of Betty Joaquin. When Marlene passed away, she left her father's "horse stuff" to me.

Betty Joaquin and her person, Merle Little

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 show how good Maureen was at capturing the body language of a mare with a very young foal at her side.

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

Look at 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.

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.

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 see the Hagen-Renaker Mold Book on Hagen-Renaker historian Nancy Kelly's website: 

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

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."