By Jayna Pellett
The Marvelous Morgan! We are celebrating these horses as our April Breed of the Month on YourDressage! Morgans, named after the breeder who established them, are an incomparably versatile and hardworking breed, making them a perfect partner for accomplishing any and all of your equestrian dreams.
Did you know that dressage riders who choose a member of this versatile breed as their mount are eligible for special awards through the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program, as the American Morgan Horse Association (AMHA) is a participating organization?
Justin Morgan Had a Horse… But Who Was Justin Morgan?
By 1788, Justin Morgan, a Massachusetts-born musician and composer, transitioned from teaching music across the Northeastern United States to working as a town clerk for Randolph, Vermont. While continuing to make music and pursue his new career, Morgan settled on a farm and began to pursue another one of his interests: raising and breeding horses. As town clerk, Morgan accepted three horses from Massachusetts as payment for an outstanding debt balance, subsequently adding them to his herd in Vermont.
One of those three horses, a small bay colt named Figure, quickly proved exceptional as a workhorse, on the racetrack, and as a stud, for which he is known to pass on his above-average versatility, athleticism, and general good looks. Despite being of unknown breeding, these traits made Figure a very popular breeding stallion on the East Coast in the mid-to-late 1790s, and his offspring began passing on the same extraordinary characteristics. With Morgan’s newfound fame for his exceptional stallion, the community began referring to Figure as the “Justin Morgan Horse,” or simply by his owner’s name, Justin Morgan. As a result of the time, many of Figure’s offspring went unrecorded, but three of his colts with pedigree records (Woodbury, Bulrush, and Sherman) are credited with producing most of the founding bloodstock for the modern Morgan horse.
FUN FACT: Marguerite Henry’s book, Justin Morgan Had a Horse, is a fictional account based on the story of Figure and Justin Morgan published in 1945. Walt Disney Studios later adapted the children’s book into a film by the same name in 1972.
Let’s Put It Into Writing
In 1857, Daniel Chipman Linsley of Middlebury, Vermont, published the first compilation of Morgan breeding stallions. Nearly forty years later, Colonel Joseph Battell, another Middlebury native, published the first volume of the Morgan Horse Register in 1894, officially establishing a new formal breed registry. As the popularity of Morgan horses grew into the next century, the then-called Morgan Horse Club, now renamed the American Morgan Horse Association (AMHA), was founded in 1909 to lay the groundwork and guidelines of the Morgan horse breed standard.
With land donated by Colonel Battell in 1907, the United States Department of Agriculture founded the US Morgan Horse Farm in Weybridge, Vermont, intending to continue the development and progression of the Morgan as both a riding and driving horse. In 1951, the University of Vermont became the official steward of the farm, where they continue to raise and promote the Morgan horse breed, offering tours and visits, internships and other educational opportunities, as well as Morgan horse sales, including an annual foal raffle to the public.
Did you know… with deep roots in both states, the Morgan horse was named the official state animal of Vermont in 1961 and the official state horse of Massachusetts in 1970?
Modern Day Morgans
The AMHA’s breed standard describes the modern Morgan as a relatively compact horse characterized by a broad chest, well-angled shoulder, strong arched neck, and expressive eyes, resulting in a generally proud and upright body carriage. Morgan horses move with a high degree of natural animation, elasticity, and collection, and they are also known for having a “can-do” attitude. As the AMHA slogan perfectly puts it, Morgans are “the horse that chooses you!” Most notably, this breed is praised for its versatility and adaptability, garnering success in show rings of all disciplines, including western pleasure, ranch riding, show jumping, driving, endurance riding, and dressage!
As of 2020, the AMHA boasts approximately 90,000 living registered horses, with over 3,000 new foals registered annually, serving approximately 7,000 members across 50 recognized clubs. One of these clubs, the Morgan Dressage Association (MDA), directly supports “horsemen and women who train, compete, breed, and promote Morgans in one of the fastest growing equine sports – dressage” through scholarships, awards programs, competitions, and so much more.
Next time you spot a Morgan at your local dressage show, take a minute to stop and appreciate the culmination of 200 years of development – but beware, you might want to take one home for yourself!
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