Happy Friday! Here is your First Friday Flashback, kindly provided just for us by historian Betsy Curler:
The following story is about a half-brother of Green Mountain Morgan 42 (also sired by Gifford Morgan):
At this time in the village where Gifford was kept was one of his very best gelded sons. It was claimed he was the first one that he sired. This may have been the case, as he was foaled in 1828. He was light chestnut in color, with some marks, 15.1 hands high and weighed 950 pounds. As a saddle horse or driver he had no superior. So short and light was his step that in riding him one felt no motion. This I knew by experience. It was said that “it was as easy riding him as sitting in a chair.” His easy, tireless gait made him a hard horse to follow all day. It was eighty miles from where he was owned to Burlington and the Green Mountains had to be crossed. He was driven the distance a number of times in a day.
He was naturally kind, but instantly showed fight if abused. Once when he was taken care of by strangers, and used a little harsh, he showed so much fight that they did not dare to touch him, and sent for his owner. A few kind words from him and he allowed them to harness and hitch him to the wagon. All in the village felt a pride in his being owned there. When horse buyers came and asked what good horses there were, this one was told of and his good qualities so extolled that the buyers would anxiously ask the price, and then they were told with something of glee that he was not for sale, and could not be bought. Three hundred dollars was once refused for this horse. When he was twenty-two years old his owner’s affairs became so involved that he had to be sold, and brought at auction $55. He was used a while as a livery-horse, and was then taken to Providence, R.I., and sold for $100, and was used there several years by a rich family as a driving horse.
Excerpted from: “Recollections of Early Morgans” by A.W. Thomson, Wallace’s Monthly, November 1887
