Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1858-07-02
The Morgans and Vermont Black
Hawks.
MILWAUKEE, Wis, June 5, 1858.


DEAR SPIRIT ga spirit of inquiry is be-
ing manifested on the subject of breeding
horses says your late correspondent "Bep-
po." This is true in the West as well as
East; and men are beginning to look for a
breed of horses whose adaptation to the
wants and pleasures of mankind are superior
to the overrated but diminutve Morgans and
Black Hawks, with which the West and
East are pretty well overrun. Let us ex-
anime little whether they are the horse
we should raise for all the useful purposes
of life In the first place, all the four son,
of Justin Morgan were small horses, weigh
ing from nine hundred to one thousand
pounds, and from thirteen and one half
10 fourteen and one-half hands high. This
is the estimate of Frederick A. Weir, of
Walpole, N. H., IN ardent a'mirer of the
stock, and one who would put their height
and weight at the highest point. Solomon
W. Jenett, in speaking of the Morgan horse,
says "they rarely exhibit extraordinary
speed" when describing Back Hawk. Now
all the good qualities to which horsetlesa can
attain is claimed by the admirers of the Nor
gan and Black Hawk stock and descendants;
if such is the fact, whence comes it. Should
not the extraordinary examples of speed,
which horses partly descended from Morgan
and Black Hawk stock land they are few
are capable of, have portion OF the credit
given to the dam, which, perhaps, is of a
better stock than any Morgan (say Messen-
ger, or Duroc, or Bashaw,) all thorough
breds, which could out-run, out-trot and
out-last any Morgan or Morgan mongrel
alive. Mr.. Editor, did you ever see Nor
larpo ornnrl, f,,r
mot buggy horses. which span of them
make one very good buggy horse) are they
large enough for omnibus, for stage coach,
for business horses, where there is weigh. to
take, or style is wanted? They have all
style which ponies can have, but want the
commanding appearance of sixteen hand car"
riage horses. When speaking of these stocks
of Morgans and Black Hawks, do not con-
slider the dam of colt, she being Duroc,
or Trustee, or-Messenger, as bringing Nor
gan horse let the better blood with which
such colt is imbued, give him his name,
and not the mongrel stock of Morgan or
Black Hawk, Of which he has an eighth,
perhaps. But, sir, Lady Suffolk bred colt
to Black Hawk, we should only have heard
of him as Black Hawk, and his illustrious
dam would have sunk into obscurity in the
gassy clouds which stallion owners of the
famous Vermont ST ock would have blown,
in their praise of the staple When there is
horse of any note comes out, which by any
possibility could be palmed off as being sired
by one of this stock, perhaps not thirty
second part of that blood, straishtway he is
a Morgan or Black Hawk. Ask Hiram
Woodruff, VIM. Wheelan, Geo. Spicer, or
aEy man of experience, not interested in any
particular stock, and they will tell You they
are pretty good ponies for door-yard horses
or children, two can draw a buggy as far as
one good gelding of common stock, and
they are not remarkable for speed. What
is Ethan Allen little fourteen hand scrub,
that will weigh. we would judge, nine hum
dred pounds Now, what is his weight
A perfect failure as Stallion last trotter,
it is true, but no size nor weight; and what
would he sell for, except for his trotting
speed, which he does not impart to his
stock-good evidence of his mongrel origin.
Who extol and blow the praises OF this mon
grel breed of pony-horses? Is it men of
experience, such as stage-coach owners, is
it livery stable owners, is it men who mar-
ket ne horses2 No. sir! 1t is stallion
owners and their blowers who have inter-
ested motives, and whose preiudices cannot
be removed, any more than the fancy color
ing on their merino sheep, which sheariDg
only can remove; and in every fairly-con-
tested field, where blood stock, like Bashaws
or Messengers, meet this famous stock, you
find, by the record, that Morgans and Black
Hawks will be like the tail Of Padd)'s pig
always behind.
am an adnirer and breeder of horses,
have owned many hundreds, and bred many;
neither own nor am interested in any blood
stallion to the value of one dollar hut do
consider that breeding from the Black Hawk
Morgan mongrels, with which the whole
West is overrun, is doing great injury to the
stock now being raised, and the error of
which will be seen when to late to be rem
edied. A BREEDER.