DAUGHTER OF SPORTSMAN M, CANADIAN, 1779
| Color: gr
Bred by Justin Morgan.
Foaled c1779, West Springfield, MA.
What was the original Morgan\'s pedigree? Can Arabians claim all the credit here, too?
From what we can piece together, his pedigree was:
http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/justin+morgan
Cited in this 1857 book below, Justin Morgan\'s own son signed an affidavit that said
\"I know that my father always, while he lived, called him a Dutch horse.\" Where did
his Dad find a Dutch (Friesian) horse? They were imported frequently to Quebec, from
King Louis\' stables. Quebec wasn\'t far from where Justin Morgan lived. If you search
for the word \"Dutch\" in this book, two descendants of Figure, out of Dutch mares, were
both still only 15H, so height is not a disqualifier for a Dutch ancestress.
http://books.google.com/books?id=I6UCAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA328&lpg=RA1-PA328&source=bl&ots=p8oKgYfbPI&sig=wP5GcOFkewSQEgPKeZ43pPZr1YY&hl=en&ei=pBMoSubrIJSoM9GY6bUF&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8#PPA99,M1
Trivia: On page 14 of this very old book on the Morgan, written in 1857, says that
\"The Persian horses were very celebrated long before the Arab was known.\"
Yet one more reference that Arabian horses are at least 4-5 breeds younger than
the oldest living breed.
Despite the 1857 book author citing gait and stamina differences between some Morgans
and Canadians, not all horses within a younger breed are the same, and the pictures below,
of later, more settled in type, Canadians and Morgans, are very convincing. Canadians
evolved from top quality Barbs, Turks, Dutch (Friesian), Spanish and Arab horses sent
to Quebec from the Royal stables of King Louis IV of France in the 1600s. It appears
that when you cross a short Oriental horse with a Dutch (Friesian), the progeny stays short.
There is one record of a Morgan being shipped to Quebec to improve Canadian horses, but he
can\'t have had that far reaching of an influence, to say the inheritance was all one way,
when, even a few years after Justin MOrgan died, people kept saying his dam was Canadian.
http://horses.suite101.com/article.cfm/morgan_horses_and_the_canadian_connection
http://www.suite101.com/view_image.cfm/769934
http://www.suite101.com/view_image.cfm/771264
Figure\'s \"Arab look,\" and tendency to throw dark progeny, was reinforced by his Araby
looking great grandfather Morton\'s Traveller, whose dam was the daughter of the
Bloody Buttocks, whose grabdfather was actually a Turk, the Selaby Turk, and whose
mother was sired by a Barb, but out of the Old Vintner Mare:
http://www.tbheritage.com/HistoricDams/EngFoundationMares/Family9/Family9.html
\"she was probably not a natural [100%] Barb or Arabian\", but she was black, and her
sire was Henry Curwen\'s Arabian.
In summary, a pedigree like this would explain two genetic sources, leading to possible
homozygosity (at least when two descendants of Figure were crossed), for each of Figure\'s
prepotencies he tended to pass on so consistently:
* speed from being over half Thoroughbred
* an Araby look from his TB ancestors, plus a rumored actual Arab, Sportsman, up close
* strength, vertical neck, thicker mane and tail, and a tendency to throw dark coloring,
with little white, from at least two possible Dutch sources, leading Justin Morgan himself
to always refer to Figure as a Dutch horse, in front of his son. Possibly sire side contributors
to these traits, leading to homozygosity, could be color from Bloody Buttock\'s black granddam,
and the rest from the Godolphin Barb, who looked similar to Figure in several ways:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Godolphin_Arabian.jpg
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