Let’s start at the very beginning, and possibly with the only concrete evidence that we have of the first Morgan horse actually existing: his stallion advertisements.

Stallion advertisements are exactly what you think they are. They’re very much the same today. They extol a particular sire’s breeding, conformation, temperament, and track record. They announce the price for his services, and where he’s standing. It’s a genre of advertisement that’s been essentially the same for probably hundreds of years.

As best anyone can figure out, Figure lived from 1789-1819. During that time, depending on how you count, he was owned by anywhere from ten to sixteen people. He was leased by still more as a stud. His movement makes sense – there’s no shipped semen in the 19th century, and breeding at his level was highly localized. But it does make things harder.

So far, historians have uncovered just a handful of Figure’s stallion advertisements.

The earliest are all from Spooner’s Vermont, one of the state’s oldest newspapers, based out of Windsor. They are nearly identical, and were all placed by Justin Morgan himself. They date from April 15 & 22, 1793 and April 28, 1794.

You’ll notice a couple of things in this ad.

First, Morgan is already advertising Figure as “famous,” referring to previous stud service in Hartford. To my knowledge, there’s as yet no evidence of time that Figure spent in Connecticut, but there has been some speculation – about which more in a future post.

Second, there’s no lineage described. I’ve been having some back and forth with an equestrian historian about this. It was typical for stallion advertisements at the time describe bloodlines, so some take this as evidence that Figure did not have the breeding that was later ascribed to him.

Third, the ad is dated April 8 – it actually ran for 3 issues, or about 6 weeks. That gives us some useful chronological information.

Last but not least, some people have claimed this is our only true portrait of either Figure or Justin Morgan. It’s neither. It’s a stock engraving that Spooner’s used in other stallion advertisements as well. The best you could claim is that Morgan chose this particular image.

The next Spooner’s advertisement, one year later, doesn’t have the image, and the text is slightly different.

The text emphasizes the locations that Figure will stand at stud, with somewhat minimal description of his prowess – only the last sentence, really.

Morgan advertises Figure one more time, in a different paper – the Rutland Herald, which actually still exists today.

This ad is where things get really interesting. In order:

First, Figure has moved from the central Vermont area (Lebanon, NH, Randolph, and Royalton are all quite close to each other) to much further north – Williston and Hinesburg. Randolph (where Morgan himself lived) to Williston is over an hour by car today, on the highway – just over 55 miles. It would have been quite a bit longer journey in 1795.

Second, that last paragraph tells us SO much.

“A curious horse, owned by Col. Delancey of New York” – he’s finally getting some lineage. I’ll talk about this horse later, but most historians believe this was a Thoroughbred stallion named True Briton or Beautiful Bay. This parentage is extremely interesting on many levels, and I’ll write about it quite a bit more later. But having Morgan himself claim this in writing is a really big and important piece of evidence.

“he is exceeding sure, and gets curious Colts” – he’s been at stud in Vermont for about two years now, long enough for some of his progeny to be on the ground. I’m not sure how to interpret “exceeding sure.” It could mean that mares stay in foal to him – thus a better investment – or it could mean that he’s stamping his get. The latter is definitely part of the Morgan legend: that every horse Figure sired looked just like him, genetics be damned.

The 1795 advertisement is the last time we see Figure belonging to Justin Morgan, who died in 1798. There are conflicting stories about how and when Figure left his ownership, but I’ll talk about those later.

Next post: who else owned/leased/advertised Figure?

This, truly, is one of my favorite things in all the land, and a legitimate reason to look forward to the holidays. Hats off to Tracy of The Printable Pony for working so hard to put the whole thing together. It’s such an awesome community service.

This year, my gift came from Nicole at Equinpilot, a blog I’ve followed for a while. If you don’t know it, go check it out! She has gorgeous Welsh cobs and does super cool things with them. And she does a foal pool every year that is a ton of fun to watch.

My gift was easily one of the most amazing gifts I’ve ever received in my life. I’m still kind of speechless and teary from it.

So, I’m going to present to you my gift in the order I unwrapped it, so you can get the full impact of it.

First: there was a packing list that was stinking adorable.

Then, this intriguing grooming tool that I can’t wait to try out. You sort of hold it together in your hand and use it like a curry tool.

There was also a treat sampler (SO CUTE!) and a really pretty leather bracelet.

Then I opened the last gift and I yelled so loudly and so inarticulately that my husband came running to ask me if I was okay. I was NOT okay.

Readers, I am still not okay.

It’s a cross-stitch portrat of Tristan. THREE portraits.

I am tearing up again writing this. It is SO AMAZING.

I’ve done a little bit of needlepoint in my life, enough to know how much work and talent went into this and I am just so, so so blown away.

I can’t even really articulate how special this is to me.

THANK YOU!!!

Every year, I take Tristan out on a trail ride on New Year’s Day. Some years it’s long. Some years it’s just around the barn.

This year, it was just up the road and back. I pulled him away from his hay, so he was pretty grumpy, and it was windy and icy, so he was dancing around pretty fierce.

But he was still there, and it’s a new year.

Some longer time readers may remember that for some years now I’ve had a project on the back burner: researching the origins of the first Morgan horse.

I’ve picked away at it for two years or more now. 2019 is the year I push it forward.

To that end, I’ve decided that in 2019 I will write “Morgan Monday” posts, at least once a month – sometimes more frequently – exploring some piece of my research. By the end of the year, I hope to have 20,000 words written and have a plan for finishing a manuscript by the end of 2020.

What exactly am I writing about?

I don’t know how much people know about the Morgan horse breed, so buckle in; I’ll start with the basics.

The story that’s usually told is that about two hundred years ago, a singing teacher named Justin Morgan acquired a horse. He brought that horse to Vermont, where it became known as an extraordinary worker and soon a prepotent stallion. By the time that stallion died, he had taken on his owner’s name as “the” Justin Morgan, and become the founding sire of a new breed: the Morgan horse.

I want to do two things: first, to look at closely and as intelligently as possible about what actual historical evidence we can find for that first horse. That involves comparing known sources, like newspapers, family papers, court records, town histories, personal letters, and other sources. In some cases I have realistic expectations of finding new information; in others, I’ll be trying to contextualize and analyze information that’s already been found.

Second, I want to take that historical evidence and set it against the backdrop of the myth that’s grown up about the Morgan horse and use that juxtaposition to examine how we think about American history, Vermont history, and humankind’s relationships with horses.

There are a lot more specific questions to dig into with those huge themes, and I’ll hopefully address them in future posts. I have a lot of thinking out loud to do as I parse this, and a lot of nitty gritty combing through things to do as well.

Hopefully some of you will find it as interesting as I do!

Yeah, so that sort of blog hop going around?

This is what comes up when you search for Tristan.

So….that’s a thing.