CHAPTER XXXII 

 THE MORGAN HORSE 



npHE Morgan horse Is a New England product and 

 "*■ might be described without much exaggeration as 

 an Arabian horse adapted to New England hfe and 

 chmate. In October, 1780, a very beautiful thorough- 

 bred stallion, called True Briton, and afterward Beauti- 

 ful Bay, was stolen from a King's officer, Colonel James 

 De Lancey, at West Farm on the Bronx River, by some 

 patriot, who mounted the horse, ran him across the 

 bridge, and thence escaped to Connecticut. This horse 

 was the sire of Justin Morgan, founder of the Morgan 

 family. True Briton was a small horse, as all thor- 

 oughbreds were at that time, being close to the Arabian 

 stock, and he was described in an advertisement of that 

 date as "very light at the canter and at the trot." 

 This lightness of step is inherent in the Morgans down 

 to the present day. 



It is not known certainly what was the dam of Justin 

 Morgan. It has been said that she was by Lindsey's 

 Arabian, a famous horse imported to Connecticut and 

 afterward taken to Virginia. Others have asserted 

 that the dam of Justin Morgan was by Wildair, an 

 imported thoroughbred; others have declared, but 

 without proof, that she was a Canadian horse of Nor- 

 man stock; and others again contend that she was sired 

 by a Dutch horse. Dutch horses, not unlike the Mor- 



[176] 



