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 Popular history has it that the Morgan Horse, the Official State Animal of Vermont, was bred by Justin Morgan. Fact is, he had absolutely nothing to do with it. Morgan was a composer and singing master who did no more than accept a horse in payment of debt.
"Figure", as the horse was known, was brought from Massachusetts to Morgan's home in Randolph in 1795. Morgan rented "Figure" to Robert Evans, a local farmer who used the undersized (14 hands) horse for all sorts of work, at which he excelled.
Morgan died of tuberculosis three years later, unaware that an equine breed would be named for him. "Figure" changed hands several times, somewhere along the line was renamed "Justin Morgan", and sired numerous offspring before he died in 1821 at the age of thirty-two.
 Sturdy, alert Morgans, exceptional in their endurance, distinguished themselves in the Civil War, carrying the First Vermont Cavalry in battle. A Confederate soldier captured by this unit was heard to exclaim, "It was yer hosses done likked us!"
The late Joseph Battell's Morgan Horse Farm in Middlebury is now a breeding and training center operated by the University of Vermont and is open to visitors. There is also a National Museum of the Morgan Horse in Shelburne. |
