THE MORGAN HORSE 81 



quite convincing to me. And no wonder. This 

 horse died in Vermont in 1820, and not until 

 nearly thirty years after was there any systematic 

 effort made to trace his pedigree. During his life 

 he was known only in his own neighborhood 

 where, notwithstanding his acknowledged value 

 as a stallion, he was used the greater part of 

 every year as a common work horse. My own be- 

 lief is that this horse was very rich in Arab and 

 Barb blood, but not an English Thoroughbred. 

 He had, so far as his history has been told, none 

 of the Thoroughbred characteristics. Nor had his 

 descendants. But whence his ancestors came and 

 where he was born or when are not matters of so 

 much importance as the indisputable fact that 

 his progeny now, for a hundred years have had 

 similar excellent characteristics and have re- 

 mained a fixed type, through good and evil re- 

 pute, so that we know by what we can see to-day 

 that the old stories and songs of our grandfathers 

 as to the strength, the speed, the beauty and the 

 courage of Morgan horses were more than mere 

 songs and stories — they were the truth put into 

 pleasing form. 



