THE MORGAN HORSE. 63 



pleasant in all harness, and one of the best saddle horses of his 

 day. He could out-draw any horse of his own weight, and at 

 short distances was a fast runner. 



I have been explicit iii my description of this horse, both in 

 appearance and disposition, as he was the most remarkble ani- 

 mal, perhaps, in the entire history of American horses, and the 

 founder of a race inheriting his characteristics to a remarkable 

 degree. 



Perhaps no horse in America, living or dead, ever stamped 

 upon his descendants even to the eighth and ninth generations, 

 his own striking, valuable characteristics, equal to him ; and 

 now after a lapse of upwards of seventy years after his death, 

 we find some of his descendants possessed of his prevailing char- 

 acteristics enough to convince the horse connoisseurs that they 

 are indeed Morgans. 



Justin Morgan died in the winter of 1821, the property of 

 Levi Bean, near Chelsea Village, Vt., aged twenty-nine years. 

 It was supposed that a kick received from another horse, and 

 want of proper care, hastened his death, perhaps by several 

 years, as he was as sound as a colt up to the time of the acci- 

 dent causing the same. 



As to the color, weight, and height of the Morgans as a 

 family, from their foundation as such, the bays, chestnuts, 

 browns, and blacks predominate, with an occasional gray. 

 The bays, as a rule, have black points with but little, if any, 

 white. The chestnuts are mostly dark chestnuts — not sorrels 

 — many having the tail and mane of a lighter hue than the 

 body, and some have a white stripe in the face, with an occa- 

 sional white foot or two. 



A particular shade of brown seems peculiar to this breed, 

 hence the name " Morgan brown." As to the weight of the 

 old New England stock of Morgans, we find it to range from 

 about 875 pounds up to 1,000 pounds ; but when of the larger 

 weight we usually find the outcross on a larger type of mares. 

 As to height, from thirteen and one-half to fifteen hands will 

 about cover the whole ground. 



