Body shape vs. breed mythology

Breed history has always fascinated me. My interest in horse color led me to follow leads on color lines using pedigrees and other historical documents. I spent a lot of time in registry archives and specialized libraries. Once libraries began digitizing their collections, a whole treasure trove of information became available. That is how I found images like the one at the top of this post. 

Judging from the silhouette, what breed does this look like? Ignore the bad photo cut-out that took away his tail and the edge of his mane. Imagine he has a full mane and tail.

The first time I saw that image, it reminded me of horses like this one. It has the same heavily crested, upright neck and attractive head. 

Hale's Green Mountain Morgan, drawing by George Ford Morris

Here is another image showing the face of the first horse.

The second horse is an artist's rendering of Hale's Green Mountain Morgan (f. 1834). He was intensely linebred to Justin Morgan, with both parents by Woodbury Morgan (a son of Justin Morgan) and out of Justin Morgan-bred mares. He is what most model horse hobbyists would think of as an "old type" Morgan. 

The first horse is Warner (f.1895), an East Friesian. East Frisia is situated between the Netherlands and Germany and has at various times belonged to one or the other. The horses of East Frisia played a significant role in the foundation of the Dutch coaching breeds from nearby Groningen and Drenthe. Below are two East Friesian stallions—father and son—used in the Netherlands. 

It's important to note that these are not the same as what modern equestrians would think of as a "Friesian," although they were sometimes called that. They were also sometimes referred to as hart-dravers ("fast trotters"). To keep things challenging, that term also seems to have been used for traditional Friesians. Because standardizing breeds was a new idea, there wasn't really a sharp dividing line between any of these things! The important fact is that fast trotting roadsters had been bred in the Netherlands for a long time. Many of them looked remarkably similar to this. 

East Friesian stallions Sultann (f. 1895) and his son Mentor (f. 1904)

If you grew up with the image of Maureen Love's Morgan sculptures as your idea of a "typey" Morgan horse, these stallions might remind you of them. If you added a full mane and tail, they would look very similar. 

The Breyer Stablemate Morgan Stallion, sculpted by Maureen Love, compared to the East Friesian Sultan II. (Photo from Identify Your Breyer)

Here is another comparison. Note the similar neck and shoulder to the East Friesian to the right and the Maureen Love Morgan directly above.

The horse to the left is the famous Welsh Cob sire Mathrafal Brenin (f.1911)

All three have similar body shapes. That's something that model horse artists, especially those who came of age during the golden era of customizing, are skilled in recognizing. We know that it wouldn't take much work to make the Morgan Stallion look like either Sultan II or Mathrafal Brenin. 

Breed Mythologies

Why would an old-fashioned Morgan look like a Welsh Cob or a Dutch hart-draver? 

Weren't we all taught that the founder of the breed, Justin Morgan, was by a Thoroughbred stallion and out of a mare of Thoroughbred and Arabian breeding? Those breeds don't really look like this.

Here is a mature Thoroughbred stallion from the same time frame as Warner, the East Friesian at the top of this post. It is hard to imagine Morgan type coming from a sire like this, especially if bred to a daughter of similar breeding.

Wagner (f.1882), pictured in an article in the Thoroughbred Record discussing his upcoming sale in 1897. 

When I was a kid, the answer to that was that Justin Morgan was a "sport." This supposedly explained why he produced his own type so consistently. The idea of a sport, where an organism looks nothing like its parents but then produces copies of itself, isn't part of modern genetics.

It didn't take advances in genetics to undermine that idea, however. When it comes to Morgans, questions about the difference in body type and the official pedigree have a long, colorful history. 

Gilded Age Flamewar

Modern equestrians are not unique in their appetite for drama. The only difference is that in the past, it happened (ever so slowly) over the editorial pages of agricultural journals. One of the most entertaining of these involved speculation about the origins of Justin Morgan. It played out in Wallace's Monthly between 1878 and 1879.

At that time, the story that Justin Morgan was a son of the Thoroughbred "True Briton" and out of "Wildair mare" was widely accepted. However, a conflicting account had been previously dismissed. Justin Morgan's son, Justin Morgan Jr., provided this information in a 1842 letter that was included in an essay on the Morgan Horse, published in 1857.

"I know that my father always, while he lived, called him a Dutch horse"

In July of 1878, O. W. Cook wrote an article for Wallace's Monthly titled "The Pedigree Furnished The Morgan." In it, he shared information that undermined the story that True Briton (also known as Beautiful Bay) was the sire. He also pointed out that "a type of Dutch horse" was present in the area at the time. 

Then, in February of 1879, he wrote a follow-up article when additional information came to light. 

"All I expected to do in the way of reconstruction was to establish, in a general way, that the Morgan was a Dutch horse; or, at least, to insist that his owner’s representations should not be longer ignored. I now find it my duty to offer more definite and particular materials... I consider the following advertisement so important that I transcribe it in full. It fits into the vacuum in the Morgan’s lineage as a fragment of pottery fits into its complement.”

Cook then goes on to include a stud advertisement for Young Bulrock, a stallion "of the Dutch breed" who stood in Springfield the year before Justin Morgan was foaled. There are replies of agreement both from the editor and at least one reader who found Mr. Cook's research compelling. 

In June 1879, Dr. William Leonard wrote to express his contempt for the idea. He suggested that Justin Morgan used Dutch as a pet name, perhaps because he "was the biggest when he lay down." (In subsequent responses, this comment was ridiculed as just as nonsensical as it might seem to modern readers.) Leonard further said of Justin Morgan:

"He must have known that in [True Briton and Wild Air] was found in that day... the best blood, in the common acceptation of the term, that no Dutch horse, or violent cross, could, for one moment, compare..."

Since Justin Morgan was said to be of "upright character", it was not possible that he could claim that the horse was "of the best blood" (which Morgan did) when it had no Thoroughbred blood. That would be a dishonorable lie. Dr. Leonard also insisted that no reputable dealer would try to market "Dutch horses" as roadsters. Everyone knew they were unfit for it! 

It can be assumed that Dr. Leonard was thinking of large drafts, then commonly called "Flemish Horses." He was unaware that Dutch hart-dravers had been bred for generations for precisely that purpose. To be fair to him, most American horsemen were unaware. The editor, John Wallace, replied to this. 

"The theory that [the Dutch horses in the area] were the great heavy team horses from the valley of the Conestoga, in Pennsylvania, is all moonshine."

In the next month's issue, Cook responded to the comment about "violent crosses", saying,

"All these fancies mean just this, that the Doctor prefers to trace his colts to an apochryphal thoroughbred, rather than to a Dutch horse, fearing that the latter is some no-account brute.”

The editor comes down on the side of Mr. Cook, saying the facts were on his side. It is interesting to note, however, that the Thoroughbred pedigree is still the accepted version almost 100 years later. Why?

The Central Myth

The year-long argument between the two men might seem like the nineteenth-century version of a social media spat. One can almost imagine a Mrs. Leonard telling her husband that it is not the end of the world if someone in the Wallace's Monthly is wrong. However, Mr. Cook was pushing back against a central myth in the equestrian world, which was that good horses must have Eastern blood. (He likely wrote for John Wallace because, as a supporter of trotters, his magazine was more open to questioning the idea.)

This is important because this myth distorted the stories told about a lot of breeds that were standardized at the turn of the last century. Modern genetic testing is calling a lot of those stories into question, but artists (and judges of equine art) might already see the truth in body shapes.