114 THE HORSE. 



raised, tlian in any other equal extent of territory in the known 

 ■world ; but I have yet got to see the first man who believes in 

 loQg-legged horses, or any man who ever used the term a leggy 

 horse, except as a term of disapprobation and reproach. 



But now, to return directly to the point at issue, the true 

 character of the Morgan horse, who first received that name ; 

 I said above, that all which can by the largest courtesy be 

 allowed, as established, concerning the pedigree of this horse, 

 is that he was something between a half-bred and a four-parts- 

 bred animal ; to all appearance, nearer to the lower than to the 

 higher grade ; and that, from the description given of him — 

 and, I might have added, from the woodcut, but that I do not 

 suppose the likeness to be authentic — a person conversant with 

 horse-breeding would suppose him to possess about that propor- 

 tion of blood, and not much more or much less. 



The heavy mane and tail, the hairy fetlocks, and the long 

 hairs extending up the back sinews are more conclusive of the 

 large portion of coarse blood in his veins, than would be all the 

 affidavits that could be sworn to by all the people, in Yermont, 

 who had ever heard their grandmothers talk about their sleigh- 

 ing frolics before the Kevolution, and the superiority of every 

 thing, in the good days of old, to every thing now. 



It is worthy of remark, that not only liis dam, but his grand- 

 sire on the dam's side. Diamond, are both also distinctly stated 

 to have had thick, heavy manes and tails, and hairy legs ; and 

 yet we are asked to believe that Diamond was got by the son of 

 a thoroughbred horse out of the imported mare Wildair, 



Now it is, of course, known that the thinness of the mane, 

 and the absence of hair on the legs, are the first and most char- 

 acteristic external points of the thoroughbred animal ; and that 

 a half-bred, unless he be out of a dray mare, or a Norman, or 

 some other breed distinguished for extraordinary sliagginess, 

 loses the hairy shag of his legs, and shows a comparatively fine 

 mane and tail, even in the first generation. 



But extraordinary hairiness of legs and weight of mane and 

 tail — extraordinary, I mean, as compared to their speed, light- 

 ness of movement, endurance, and general finish of shape and 

 form — is the decided characteristic of what are called the Mor- 

 gan family. This, therefore, I hold at once to set aside, in con- 



