Plum Ridge Academy
Nescopeck PA
2007


The Morgan horse came into being in the late eighteenth century and grew in popularity throughout the nineteenth century. In the beginning, farmers used them to establish homesteads in Vermont and Northern New England. Before long, people learned that they were fast trotters and could be used for racing.


https://www.morganhorse.com/about/museum/morgan-horse-history/


The Morgan horse is one of the earliest horse breeds developed in the United States. Tracing back to the foundation sire Figure, later named Justin Morgan after his best-known owner, as well as mares of the now-extinct Narragansett Pacer breed, Morgans served many roles in 19th-century American history, being used as coach horses and for harness racing, as general riding animals, and as cavalry horses during the American Civil War on both sides of the conflict. Morgans have influenced other major American breeds, including the American Quarter Horse, the American Saddlebred, the Tennessee Walking Horse, and the Standardbred.


During the 19th and 20th centuries, they were exported to other countries, including England, where a Morgan stallion influenced the breeding of the Hackney horse. In 1907, the US Department of Agriculture established the US Morgan Horse Farm near Middlebury, Vermont for the purpose of perpetuating and improving the Morgan breed; the farm was later transferred to the University of Vermont. The first breed registry was established in 1909, and since then many organizations in the US, Europe and Oceania have developed.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_horse