Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-01-17
THE MORGAN STANDARD.

Editor of the Register The business of
Mr.. Dunton's criticism on the present
requirements of the Morgan Register
can not be gainsaid. The door is open
wide for trading in Morgan reputation
by owners of mongrel horses. Tempo
rarily the increased number of those
whose interest it becomes to advertise
the Morgan renaissance may give a
seeming advantage to this broad basis
for registry. In the end it means dis
credited stock.
The Justification for renewed interest in
the Morgan horse was the phenomenal
quality which came froma wonderfully
prepOtent horse, and which was augment
ed by happy geographical and social
conditions which led to constant in
breeding. This inbreeding produced in
time as nearly a type of horse in temper,
shape, size and quality as has so tar
been shown under conditions of Ameri-
can breeding. 1t was these qualities
which gave Morgan horses willing ad-
vocates in every latitude and longitude
in the United States. 1t is the memory
of these qualities which holds a loyal
constituency today despite the rise and
spread of other meritOrlOus strains. 1t
is the perpetuation of these qualities
which can save these horses from en-
gulfment under the growing tide of
high-class horses.
The situation is critical in the extreme,
and it may as we'll be faced by those
who care for the horse which Black
Hawk a1d Sherman Morgan were and
which Denning Allen is. Extreme care
in selection and breeding, perfect facili.
ties, high intelligence, broad experience,
~eXhaustless patience are enlisted to es-
tablish just what the Morgan was at his
best. out of t~rotting horse and imported
coach horse and other thoroughbred
blood. The attempts not only menace
the field the Morgan should be in; they
are in it and those making them are
showing the highest quality of horse.
They are going to stay in it and with the
passing of each year the will better the
horse shown the year before.
Now the Morgan is worth saving
through "A register because of certain
practicable and inherent qualities suf-
flciently pronounced to make it desira-
Bile to perpetuate him, OF he is not. If
he is not, IA register is of no consequence
10 his future and the work done in COM
piling the statistics of his history is a
monument to his past, not "A corner
stone of his future. In this aspect,
while we may regretfully name the
scenes of his proves and retell the en-
thuSiasm caused by his beauty and
speed, we might better as breeders turn
to the new blood either for use or for
profit. but if the Morgan type does
still live-and it does-and if the horse
has friends ready to breed him to the
nigh consistent standard set by himself,
then for his sake and in Justice to these
friends the rigid protection of "A register
which bulwarks the true blood from he
spurious, the Shapely from the misShapen,
the thorough blood from the mongrel,
should be extended.
The requirements for registration aS
now laid down in the American Morgan
Register welcome every imposition in
the shape of undcserying stock. | do rot
agree that these requirements were As
bad in the early days of the Register as
they now are. But in the present cir
cumstauccs and for the future. it can
not but prove suicidal to compel this
family to endure "A reputation built up
by horses varying from dray horses to
ponies, from lunk-hcads to the thor
oughbred which runs till it drops, from
the extreme of equine merit to the eX-
IRENE of equine demerit.
1t is argued, and the argument deserves
seriou consideration, that, inasmuch as
pure Morgan blood is not attainable aud
there must enter more or less outcross
in animals entered in the Register, there
should be a chance left open to select
this OutgroSs scientifically and use really
choice blood representing a high class of
NV 80 NNiAl a. wv lulllllilB Nllbl OllGl
bred. Conceding the %desirability of this,
surely it is attainable within registration
lines far safer han those now laid down.
At the present time the Register wei
any horse which has "A direct line
of inheritance through its sire to Justin
Morgan and is not over five generations
away from that starung-point. There
may not be another known line of an
cestry. From the dam back the stock
may be miserable and unknown. In so
far as these ancestors are cheap stock,
the above reasons for loose registration
cannot apply. Why not then require
that no animal be eligible to the register,
hereafter, whose sire does not trace as
now i'm dirppt male line IN .Tustin Mor-