Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-03-20
MORGAN HORSES IN SOUTH DA-
kOTA.

almost all horse breeders in the early
SOS and held possession to such an eX-
tent that style. action, beauty and en-
durance were lost sight of, reached out
to the boundless prairies lying west OF
the mississippi, the great grazing region
of the United States. and forced breed
ers to abandon the line of breed
ing they had been following and to
adopt the new fad Of every man raising
a two-minute trotter. In 1889 a few
men who had been breeding a type of
fancy road horses-of the old style of
gans-determined to organize for
self-protection. At that time every
livery stable was decorated with the
picture Of Il horse-or something repre-
sentIng "A horse-and the pedigree showed
that such animals traced back in direct
line HroHgd Justin Morgan to Vermont
Black Hawk, IIale's Green Mountain or
some other noted Morgan: a strain of
IIambletonian easily reaching RYsdyk,
while they were only ore or two genera
tons removed from Messenger.
\ few old Green Mountain boys, led
by breeder of many wears experience,
called meeting at the State capital to
take action regarding the bogus pedi-
grees so extensively published. and at
such meeting they organized the South
Dakota Morgan Horse breeders assoc
citation. The total membership at the
organization was seven. and they each
owned at least one well-bred Morgan
either gelding. mare or stallion-that
they were able TO trace the pedigree d.
rectly back to Justin Morgan. At this
time there were perhaps half a dozen
well-bred stations in the State, but more
than halt "A thousand that were claimed
to he Morgans. The constitution and
bylaws adopted were somewhat crude,
as it was supposed to be-and was, so
far as | knOw-the first organization of
the kind in the United States. Several
and at each meeting changes were sug-
gested and made. The difficulty they
had hoped to overcome was still facing
them. and il was determined to start a
pedigree register. The requirement for
registration was that the pedigree must
trace in three distinct direct lines to JUS
tin Morgan. The establishment of such
register had the desired effect; horses
that were advertised in 70 as being
strongly bred in Morgan lines had lost
all such blood by ~, and from that time
until the present breeders of the genuine
old type have succeeded in making some
money. and the establishment of the
association has done much toward the
greatly increased interest taken i'm Nor
gan horses.
At the present time the association
numbers something over 80. The re-
quirementS for registration have been
changed from time to time until at this
time it requires One-SiXteenth blood.
The question of blood lines coming di-
rectly through the sire has been dis
cussed at great length, bur the opinion
seems to prevail that while if we get
the blood it is Just what we want. yet
experience has proved that through the
dam we fully as often-many think
Oftener-get the true type of the Nor
gan and the crosses from stations of
other blood on mares of Morgan blood
have in more cases given Us extreme
speed than the crossing of Morgan stall
lions on mares of other blood. The
question of disseminating our register
(the Model Morgan Register has fire.
quently been talked of, and it will
doubtless be done when the National
ASSOCIATION adopts Il register, or when
MIR. Battel views the question from our
standpoint or we can be made to see it
as he does. Undoubtedly to Mr.. Battel
we are indebted for more knowledge re-
garding the Morgan horse than to any
other man, and As breeders we appre-
ciate his untiring efforts in this line,
and we have full faith to believe that we
shall all get together on these little
points of difference and shall have one
grand register. The Model Register
gives all stations a number, commence
ing with Justin Morgan as No. /. We
have never made any effort to obtain
pedigrees for registration from outside
the State, yet we have registered many
horses from other States. We publish
no register. but issue certificate of
registry. Our association at this time
is differed as follows: Hon. +. F.
Conklin, president, Clark, 5. d.; Hon.
F. j. Washabaugh, LIST vice president,
DeadwOod, :. D.; ID. G. Bowen, I'd vice
president, Clark. ). D.; X. Lewis, Sd
vice president. Lake Preston, 5. D..
Don c. Needham. secretary and treasur-
er, Crow Lake, 5. D.; c. A. Conkln,
chairman board of directors, Calamar,
5. ID.