| Subject: |
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Re: WOW! Dun Morgans? |
| Name: |
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ellie |
| Date Posted: |
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Nov 13, 04 - 2:34 PM |
| Email: |
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ellie1192@hotmail.com |
| Message: |
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The very first horse I ever saw with leg baring (I was a teenager at the time)was a Morgan. I was thrilled. Started trying to reseasrch and find out if this could ever be found again. Took me years to find the Kigers. At first all I knew was about the color. When I learned they were believed to be of Spanish decent I was extatic, and I started looking for info on other "Spanish Mustangs". And Now I am researching Sulphurs.
This is just my theory, and possibly an uneducated one at that. It's my understanding that Justin Morgan's original horse that the breed is founded on was of unconfirmable ancestry right? And that horse was bred to mares of a wide variety of breeds and types with or without known ancestry, with all resulting foals eligible to contribute to the breed, right? So the background breeds that make-up the morgans are not clearly and definately known, right?
Now when I look at morgans I see many (not all) of the traits I have been taught to look for in Spanish type horses. Short back, medium length neck, deep at the base, a bit of a crest, neck set high, tail set medium to low, full mane and tail, they should and often do have a calm, tractble, willing temperment............. I could go on. (although in some horses I have seen from lines bred strictly for the showring the steady temperment appears to have been bred out of them in favor of a more "firey, lively" horse)
Also isn't the morgan credited with contributing at least in part the gaits to the gaited "plantation horse breeds" and to the saddle bred (plus some high leg action), even the pace to the standardbred. These gaits that to my limited knowlege are not associated with the arabs, thoroughbreds, and other northern european horses -- but are associated with Spanish horses.
And the dun morgans with primitive markings.
None of this proves anything. But it does make me wonder if there was a good bit of spanish colonial horse (obviously mixed with other types) that went into the morgans. Where would this spanish blood come from. It seems very likely that horses would be traded up and down the atlantic colonies and it would be easy for spanish bloodlines to travel all the way from Florida to Vermont.
Do I want to see any of this proven, or Morgans listed as a "Spanish" breed? No. I prefer to think of Morgans as a uniquely American breed, and to maintain their mystery. And I think you have said all you need to about a horse's ancestry if you can call it a morgan.
Then again maybe I'm a fanciful dreamer and everything I've said is nonsense. |
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