126 THE MORGAN HORSE 



WEASEL, or the FENTON HORSE, was foaled in 1806, and bred by 

 Richard W. Fenton, St. Johnsbury, Vermont. He was a beautiful 

 blood bay, with black legs, mane, and tail, and was fifteen hands high. 

 His dam was bay, and had the reputation of being an excellent 

 animal. Beyond this we can learn nothing about her. Her breed- 

 ing is entirely unknown. 



Mr. Linsley says of Weasel: "He very closely resembled his 

 sire, was very compact, and muscular, and had the same nervous and 

 vigorous action, the same lofty and fearless style, and we are in- 

 clined to think was one of the best, if not the best, of Justin's colts. 

 There were but few colts left by him, as, when he was six years old, 

 he bit his owner severely, and he had him castrated. We cannot 

 learn that any of his colts were kept as stallions". 



Mr. Linsley gives the foaling of this colt as 1808, but in the 

 "Danville North Star" is the following advertisement, dated May 10, 

 1810: "The 'Dutch' horse Weasel, a horse four years old, will stand 

 at the stable of the subscriber, one mile north of St. Johnsbury Plains, 

 Vermont; terms, one to three dollars. Said horse is fifteen hands 

 high, stout built, and sired by the full-blooded Dutch horse that stood 

 at St. Johnsbury last season. 



RICHARD W. FENTON". 



Mr. Fenton again advertises him in 181 1 



From Mr. Joseph Wooley, Rutland, Vermont, ninety-two years 

 old, but of excellent memory, we learned that a small bay horse 

 called Weasel was owned by Mr. Weir of Grafton, Vermont, and 

 kept in that town about 1812, and that his stock was very active and 

 sprightly. Itisquite possible that this was the Weasel by Justin Morgan, 

 and that Mr. Linsley's information that he was gelded was erroneous. 



A little later a horse of similar name and description, that is 

 thought to have been a Morgan horse, appeared at Stanstead and 

 Barnston, Province of Quebec. This horse may have been a son of 

 Weasel, or he may have belonged to some other family. Of this last 

 horse Mr. Wilcox, a very reliable citizen of Derby Line, Vermont, 

 said : " We had a Shark horse here, a Lee Boo and Weasel ; Wea- 

 sel was a Morgan. Then the Hawkins Horse was here, and later old 

 Black Morgan. Many colts were kept stallions from all these". F. 

 A. Weir of Walpole, New Hampshire, says : " There was a Weasel 

 here by Quicksilver; he stood at old Mr. Watkins' hotel at Wal- 

 pole about 1821, when I was a boy. Charles Watkins took him to 

 Canada, but I think this was in the thirties ". We have also been 

 informed that there was a son of Sherman Morgan named Weasel. 



