Happy Friday! Here is your Friday Flashback! This one is from Lippitt Lore II, pp. 22-24 – and was *really* enjoyable for this admin to read as she was re-typing it for here! Hope you all enjoy it, as well!
Ancient Gossip – provided by Bruce Orser
The following article is the last of these highly descriptive and telling articles about Green Mountain Morgan. When you have finished reading, you may have the feeling that the memories of the author are your own, so vivid are they. Not only will there be added admiration of Green Mountain Morgan, the reder will find new insight into the life and character of Gifford Morgan, his famous sire, and perhaps feel a bit closer to those old Morgans who seem a bit larger than life.
A respected horseman and judge of the 1908 Morgan classes at the Vermont State Fair in White River is the author of this article:
Probably my first acquaintance with any horse of the Morgan breed dates from my father’s purchase of a four-year-old stallion from David Ralph in or about the year 1830. I was then four years old. This colt, which we called “the Ralph horse,” was sired by Woodbury and was bred by Mr. Ralph, who lived on Ralph Hill, South Woodstock, Windsor County, Vermont.
The Ralph horse was a bay with a small white star. He was of perfect Morgan pattern and as near as I can remember, about 14.1 in height. Possibly he was a trifle lower at the shoulder than over the hip. He was full of fire, at all times ready and willing to travel any distance, and able to maintain good speed. His endurance is beyond that of any horse I ever drove or rode. He was gentle as any pet animal, was perfectly broken to harness and saddle, and would kneel at my command for me to mount him. I could ride him with only a halter. Other children besides myself were permitted to drive him. He would plough or draw a load of hay beside another horse. We owned the Ralph horse until his death in 1840. He left some excellent stock which resembled him with great uniformity. Of his colts, I remember particularly a mare owned by my cousin, R. Madison Slayton, who lived on Densmore Hill, Hartland (VT). He had her until as late as 1850. She was full of courage, prompt, and always ready to trot up a stiff hill.
At the muster of the Vermont state militia on Mower’s Meadow, Woodstock, in the year 1840, I saw both Gifford Morgan and Green Mountain Morgan (afterwards called Hale’s Green Mountain Morgan) under saddle. I think I had known Gifford, or “Old Gifford,” as we called him, for several years prior to 1840. My recollection in this regard is confirmed by the statement in Battell’s Morgan Register that Gifford was owned by Ira Coolidge of Barnard, Windsor County, Vermont, for several years. Barnard is the next town south of Woodstock and I lived continuously near South Woodstock until the autumn of 1851. At all events, Gifford was to me a perfectly familiar sight when I saw him at the muster in 1840, although he made a greater impression on me at that time than ever before or since.
Gifford is said to have been about 14.2 in height. This accords with my recollection of him. He was a very dark chestnut, in fact, nearly black. He carried his head so high that it emphasized the shortness of his legs. At the date of the muster, he was tender and crippled forward and was over on the knees as is apparent from the picture of him in Battell’s Morgan Register. His shoulder may have been a trifle lower than his hip. My father always said of Gifford that the sound of music made him forget that he was sore. I saw complete proof of the truth of this saying at the muster. Gifford was not in the parade, but was ridden all around the parade and all over the meadow by a man who was greatly stimulated by liquor. The old horse was given no rest, but seemed thoroughly to enjoy the occasion and was perfectly willing and obedient, though sweating profusely and being used hard. Especially when the band played, Gifford was in his element and showed no trace of soreness. Music was his inspiration. I was well acquainted with F.A. Weir of Walpole, N.H., who bought Gifford about 1846, but I do not think I saw the horse after Mr. Weir became the owner. I have always understood that Mr. Weir found Gifford near Whitehall or Crown Point and that the horse was then being used to haul a peddler’s cart. Mr. Weir was commonly reported to have paid $75 for him, and was jeered at for having bought a worthless horse. Weir soon sold him to a stock company in Walpole for $500.
On the day of the muster I saw, for the first time, Green Mountain Morgan. he was ridden by Col. George Pratt, aide to the inspecting officer, Gen. Truman B. Ransom, then president of Norwich University. During the morning, Colonel Pratt rode a gray Messenger and I did not see the Green Mountain Morgan until Colonel Pratt mounted him in the afternoon. I have never been so fascinated by any horse as by Green Mountain. He was perfect in every respect. He was conditioned to the highest pitch and groomed to the limit. He glowed like a glass bottle. He was beautifully saddled and bridled, wore a breastplate and was fitted with a huge and showy curb bit. No horse could compare with him. Though his height is given as the same as Gifford’s, I should say Green Mountain was a shade the taller. He was at any rate about 100 lbs. the heavier when the two were in equal flesh. Linsley gives Gifford’s weight as 1000 and Green Mountain’s weight as 1100. I should think these estimates perhaps excessive, but the old-fashioned Morgans would tip the scales at greater weights than a casual observer would guess. Take, for instance, Green Mountain Morgan, who was nimble in the extreme. With all his activity and nimbleness he was thick-set, low built, and deep bodied. Then, too, he had great bone. Like Gifford, Green Mountain carried his head so high that his legs looked very short. He was a dark chestnut, but not so dark as Gifford. As a colt, I presume he may have been almost a sorrel. Some of the books describe him as a deep bay. This is error.
Colonel Pratt rode Green Mountain from the meadow to Woodstock after the review. I walked beside him all the way, not taking my eyes off the horse. It seemed to me that I could not see enough of him. Daniel Cushing of North Springfield, Vermont, kept Green Mountain for a time for the owner, John Woodbury of Bethel. It was not a great distance from on the Reading road to Cushing’s place, and it was perhaps due to this fact that I kept in touch with Green Mountain for several years after 1840. Moreover, after Mr. Hale bought him in 1942, Green Mountain occasionally appeared in Windsor and Woodstock for service. I never saw Green Mountain in harness and I never knew of his having been harnessed. The story was that he was broken only to the saddle. For the saddle he was perfectly trained and he was as gentle and obedient under all conditions as it is possible for a horse to be. The familiar picture of Green Mountain, which appears in various publications, gives a very clear idea of the conformation of this horse as I remember him.
Both Gifford and Green Mountain retained their youthful spirits after they became old, but there is this distinction between their careers: Gifford had had a hard life and received very little care, while Green Mountain always had the best of care and seemed never to have endured grief. With equal advantages, I think Gifford would have been as handsome as Green Mountain. I would have valued one of Gifford’s colts quite as highly as Green Mountain’s. I consider that naturally Gifford was as good a Morgan horse as ever lived.
The late James Mackenzie, whose farm was in the town of Hartland and not far from South Woodstock’s village, owned one or more stallions by Hale’s Green Mountain. I think he bought one in or near Bradford, Vermont. Mackenzie’s horses were excellent specimens of the Morgan breed, were well cared for and were popular with breeders. James Mackenzie’s brother has often told me of the cavalcade of Black Hawks and Morgans at the Rutland fair in 1852. The Black Hawks were stately and kept in perfect line as they were led up the track. The Morgans, on the other hand, did not keep such perfect alignment and when, as the two lines approached the grandstand, and the band began to play, every Morgan instantly began to dance and their line became anything but straight. The Black Hawks, on the contrary, kept to their line with great dignity. John Mackenzie was highly amused at the way the Morgans showed their traits. On account of their vastly greater activity and more restless spirit, he preferred them to Black Hawks. Green Mountain was at the head of the Morgans and was ridden by Silas Hale.
I saw at the recent Vermont State Fair (1909) several Morgans that strongly reminded me of Green Mountain and Gifford. I understand that some of the spectators who have known the breed for many years, though hardly as long as I, failed to find in the exhibits the fire and nerve of the Morgans of 40 to 70 years ago. The same idea may have occurred to me; but I am by no means sure that the idea is correct. Surely the bay stallion, Donald, for example, showed as much life as a Morgan is entitled to. While these Morgans of long ago, which we remember so well, made a great impression on our mind, we must remember that we were young then and much more impressionable. Then we saw them frequently, if not usually, under less restraint. The horses with which we then compared the Morgans were not up to the standard of other breeds of today, and the contrast was for that reason more marked. I am not prepared to say that we have not with us at the present time foundation stock sufficient in blood, type and numbers to breed the equals of Gifford, Hale’s Green Mountain, and other perfect specimens of the Morgan breed with which I have been well acquainted.
Proud with head held high,
defiance in his manner,
full of force and fire,
Old Hale’s Green Mountain Morgan
(Woodcut of Hale’s Green Mountain Morgan.)
