THE MORGAN HORSE 39 



education might have conduced to greater success, but the general verdict 

 in this country was that they are a slab-sided, " three-cornered " lot, and 

 unable to compete on any sort of terms with our own. 



THE MUSTANG, OR WILD HORSE OF NORTH 

 AMERICA 



Like the wild horses op South America, those of Mexico and Call 

 fornia are in all probability descended fi-om Spanish blood, and indeed it 

 is impossible now to discover, with anything like certainty, the source of 

 the Indian ponies, large herds of which run wild in the northern and 

 north-western parts of this extensive continent. So little do the Americans 

 now know or care about these wild horses, that the late Mr. Herbert, who 

 has treated of the American Horse in two vols, quarto, omits all mention 

 of them, excepting the most cursory allusion to the Mustang as the origin 

 of the Indian pon}^, in common with the Canadian horse. I shall, there- 

 fore, not weary my readers with extracts from Mr. Catlin's somewhat 

 fanciful writings, but at once proceed to allude to the modern domesticated 



'O'^J 



breeds of horses met Avith in the United States and Canada. 



THE MORGAN HORSE 



The Morgan Horse has been paraded in America as a distinct strain, 

 kept pure in its own district for more than half a century, and descended 

 from a single horse in the possession of Mr. Justin Morgan, a school-master 

 in Vermont. In the year 1856 the Agricultural Society of Vermont offered 

 a prize for the best essay on the subject, which was awarded to Mr. Lindsey, 

 an inhabitant of the same state. According to this authority, the founder 

 of the family, or strain, was got by a horse called " True Briton," which 

 was said to have been stolen, and whose pedigree is therefore doubtful. 

 Mr. Lindsey endeavours to prove, however, that he was a son of the English 

 thoroughbred horse Traveller, which he assumes to be identical with the 

 son of Partner, known as Moreton's Old Traveller, giving as his authority a 

 pedigree inserted in the Albany Cultivator of 1846. The same authority 

 is also adduced to prove that the dam of True Briton and also of Justin 

 Morgan's horse were of nearly pure English blood, and that the latter was 

 descended from the famous " Cub " mare ; but the facts adduced seem of 

 the most doubtful nature, and I believe that the Morgan horse would in 

 this country be considered as undoubtedly half-bred. 



Mr. Lindsey describes the founder of the Morgan strain in the follow- 

 ing terms: — He "was about 14 hands high, and weighed about nine 

 hundred and fifty pounds. His colour was dark bay, with black legs, 

 mane, and tail. He had no white hair upon 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 fine, but set rather wide apart. His eyes were medium 

 size, very dark, and prominent, and showed no white round the edge of the 



