110 THK HORSE. 



nothing was more to be expected, than what seems to have ac- 

 tuall}' happened, the stealing of the animal ridden. 



But again, even if Truie Briton were thoroughbred, of 

 which there is not a reasonable supposition, the original Mor- 

 gan horse, got out of a mare having three-sixteenths of pure 

 blood, would have only been an inappreciable fraction better 

 tliau a half-bred. 



If True Briton himself were but a half-bred, and I can 

 see no possible grounds for believing him any thing materially 

 better, then the Justin Morgan horse would have been a trifle 

 better than a one-fourth-part-bred horse ; and such, I think, any 

 good judge of horseflesh w^ould pronounce him to be, more or 

 less, from the description of him given by Mr. Linsley in his 

 agreeable and comprehensive volume. 



MEMOIR AND DESCRIPTION OF THE JUSTIN MORGAN. 



" The original, or ' Justin Morgan,' was about fourteen hands 

 high, and weighed about nine hundred and flffy pounds. His 

 color was dark-bay, with black legs, mane, and tail. He had no 

 white hairs 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 around the edge of tlie lid. His nostrils 

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

 His back and legs were, perhaps, his most noticeable points. 

 The former was very short ; the shoulder-blades and thigh-bones 

 being very long and oblique, and the loins exceedingly broad 

 and muscular. His body was rather long, round and deep, 

 close-ribl)ed up; chest deep and wide, with the breast-bone 

 projecting a good deal in front. His legs were short, close- 

 jointed, thin, but very wide, hard and free from meat, with mus- 

 cles that were remarkably large for a horse of his size; and this 

 superabundance of muscle manifested 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 



