Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1909-01-15

Room 81, BATTELL BLOCK, MIDDLE
BURY, VERMONT
Versatility of American Horses.
The horses that battled for first hopors
in a class for walk and trot saddle horses
at.the recent Chicago international Show,
Miss Ann and Ike Taylor, exemplified the
close relationship between the riding
horse and the driving horse in conforma-
ton and in action. Both were trained
to go the Kentucky saddle gait in their
younger days and were then schooled
for speed In light harness. Miss Ann
trotted a mile in race to wagon over
the Lexington, KY, track in 2:25!, and
has shown a half mile in 1:Os1s. Ike
Taylor is an equally fast trotter and is
said to have worked mile in 2:17. Both
horses are at home in heavy harness and
good judges say that If shown in the
runabout class might win in almost any
company.
The above, taken from the Western
Horseman of recent date, shows the YER
satility of the American horse, particu-
larly the Morgan branch. From the
time of Justin Morgan down they have
been unexcelled as general purpose
horses. Justin could in his day out-trot,
out-run and out-pull any horse he ever
went against and never refused chal-
xr-ln .
the Morgans were to the stage-coach
service of New England Green Noun
tain Morgan was the champion saddle
horse of the United States in his day.
Nor did he stay at home and rest con-
tent at beating local horses, but he made
a tour of the largest fairs IN the country,
going as far as st. Louis; and he not only
heat all competitors, but was so easily
first that he left no contention or zeal
ousy behind him. Black Hawk was the
champion trotter of his day. Ethan
Allen, was at one time the champion
trotter of his day and his son Daniel
Lambert was at one time the greatest of
living sires of 2:30 trotters. There was a
time when the Morgan horse did prac-
tically all of the farm work done by
horses in Vermont and at the same time
these same farm horses could be hooked
up to light hitch Cpd out-travel day
after day any breed of horses brought
against them. Now, when the demand
comes for horses to step high, wide and
handsome" and at same time go fast
with good stiff load behind them, the
Morgan is the one to fill the want; and it
behooves the owners and breeders of
Morgans to let it be known to those that
are not already aware of the fact.
l know of an Addison Co. horse, a
grandson of Aristos. that was bought for
$3.50, taken west in the fall, castrated,
call heavy harness show use, and the
following spring taken to New York and
sold at auction at the American Horse
Exchange for over 300 dollars. And
this horse was not quite 1879 hands high.
The fact that he could be bought in Ad-
Olson County shows that he was not con-
sidered great among great horses. There
are great many great or so-called great
horses that would not cause much stir in
Vermont The following clipping is
from the Horse World of Jan. 5th.
Said a noted horseman a while ago in
the course of casual conversation: ut
is too late to think of regenerating the
Morgan horse the breed was allowed to
become too nearly extinct to permit its
being brought back again" The man
who expressed himself as quoted evil
IDENTIFY does not know that the blood of
the od-time Morgan horses has never
been allowed to die out. In some locali-
ties, it is true, that there are no horses of
Morgan blood, or practically none. In
other sections of the country, however,
there has never been time when there
were not some horses kept in which
there was strong Morgan strain. This
is plainly shown when one tries to
analyze the pedigrees of the fast trotters
and PAGERS. Few are they, indeed, of
those which do not trace to the Morgan
family in one or more lines. There has
long been talk of the dying out of the
Morgan strain of blood, but there were
far more admirers of the Morgan than
most persons realized who chung to their
old ideals and continued to breed in lines
running to the earlier branches of the
family established by Justin Morgan. If
one were to run across a stallion having
so crosses of the blood of Abdallah l,
(sire of Hambletonian 10), that stallion
would be regarded as being bred pretty
in Abdallah lines, would he
not? And horse SO bred would indi-
cate pretty plainly that the blood of
Abdallah was not pronouncedly scarce
or so much diluted with other blood as
to be on the verge of extinction. That
being the case, the same conclusion
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