AMERICAN BREEDS 123 



open as to include many individuals that could not fulfil the 

 specifications of a breed. The important part played by the 

 Morgan horse in the establishment and development of the Stand- 

 ardbred and the American Saddle horse is sufficiently important, 

 however, and his characteristics distinctive enough, to justify his 

 being considered apart from the other breeds with which he has 

 been closely identified. 



Justin Morgan shares honors with Messenger as a founda- 

 tion sire of the Standardbred, and tlie correction and verification 

 of pedigrees of noted sires and dams have increased the credit due 

 him. lie was a remarkable individual foaled at SiJringfield, 

 Mass., in 1789, and lived to be thirty-two years old. He was a 

 small horse, about 14—2 hands high and 950 pounds weight. Of 

 him wonderful performances of endurance, speed, pulling power, 

 and intelligence are recorded. His individuality was no more 

 striking than the pi-epotency vnth which he impressed his get. 

 Had the Morgan blood been kept pure, there can be little ques- 

 tion of its having ultimately fulfilled all the requirements for 

 recognition as a breed. Even the wide dissemination of the blood 

 has not resulted in the complete obliteration of the Morgan 

 character, which may be discerned though but a fractional part of 

 Morgan inheritance is represented. 



The breeding of the original Morgan horse has never been 

 satisfactorily established, as the horse himself and those who 

 knew of him were dead before any effort was made to trace his 

 ancestiy. Colonel Joseph Battell, who has devoted much time 

 to an investigation of this matter, has given the sire as a Thor- 

 oughbred called Beautiful Bay and the dam as a member of the 

 Wildair family of Thoroughbreds. Such breeding is not indi- 

 cated, however, by the descriptions of the horse with which we 

 are furnished, although the Thoroughbreds of his time were 

 more like him than are the Thoroughbreds of the present. A 

 Dutch origin similar to that of the ISTorfolk trotter has been sug- 

 gested and does not seem unreasonable, since Dutch blood was 

 available at the time of his breeding and he more closely re- 

 sembles in type the old-fashioned Hackney than any other breed. 

 The Thoroughbred ancestry, however, is the one usually ac- 

 cepted, though not altogether satisfactory. 



