182 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



by imported Traveller, he by Morton's Traveller, a 

 horse that, while called an English thoroughbred, was in 

 fact an inbred Arabian. Linsley, in his history of the 

 Morgan horse, describes Justin Morgan as follows : — 



" The original, or Justin Morgan, was about 14 hands high, 

 and weighed about 950 pounds. His color was dark bay, 

 with black legs, mane and tail. He had no white hairs on 

 him. His mane and tail were coarse and heavy, but not so 

 massive as has been sometimes described ; the hair of both 

 was straight, and not inclined to curl. His head was good, 

 not extremely small, but lean and bony; the face straight, 

 forehead broad, ears small and very line, but set rather 

 wide apart. His eyes were medium size, very dark and 

 prominent, with a spirited but pleasant expression, and 

 showed no white around the edge of the lid. His nostrils 

 were very large, the muzzle small, and lips close and firm. 

 His back and legs were perhaps his most noticeable points. 

 The former was very short ; the shoulder-blades and hip 

 bones being very long and oblique, and the loins exceed- 

 ingly broad and muscular. His body was rather long, round 

 and deep, close ribbed up; chest deep and wide, with the 

 breast-bone projecting a good deal in front. His legs were 

 short, close jointed and thin, but very wide, hard and free 

 from meat, with muscles that were remarkably large for 

 a horse of his size, and this superabundance of muscle 

 exhibited itself at every step. His hair was short, and at 

 almost all seasons soft and glossy. He had a little long 

 hair about the fetlocks, and for two or three inches above the 

 fetlock on the back side of the legs. His feet were small 

 but well shaped, and he was in every respect perfectly 

 sound and free from any sort of blemish. He was a very 

 fast walker. In trotting his gait was low and smooth, and 

 his step short and nervous. He was not what in these days 

 would be called fast, and we think it doubtful if he could 

 trot a mile much if any within four minutes, though it is 

 claimed by many that he could trot it in three." 



This horse was kept in various parts of Vermont until his 

 death, and impressed his sterling good qualities on his 

 colts from all classes of mares ; and to this day the influ- 

 ence of old Justin Morgan may be seen on many a road 



