RECONSTRUCTING FIGURE’S PEDIGREE

“running [horses over] short distances for small stakes was still very common in Vermont. Eighty rods [a quarter-mile] was generally the length of the course, which usually commenced at a tavern or grocery and extended the distance agreed upon up or down the public road.” Morgan regularly put Figure up against all comers in these races, and Linsley testifies that the stallion was “a fleet [galloper] over short distances” who almost always came off the winner.

Herbert’s note about “the public road” which temporarily served as racecourse is important: In most smaller Colonial-era New England communities, there was only one road, created by clearing a strip of forest. Yet during this era, there began a great drive to improve the transportation network. Larger communities came to be linked by turnpikes---broad, smooth toll roads on which travellers and merchants could not only ride horses but drive them. New Englanders were thus the first American colonists who looked for horses that could trot swiftly in harness. Figure was reported to be “bold” and “proud” in harness, meaning that he was neither sluggish nor ponderous and that he carried his head well. Linsley admits, however, that “he was not what in these days could be called fast, and we think it doubtful if he could trot a mile much, if any, within four minutes.”

Partly this was the result of the horse’s style of movement. Linsley reports Figure’s trot to have been “low and smooth,” but the step “short and nervous,” in other words, not longstriding like the leggier American Standardbreds and half-blood Thoroughbreds who came into vogue 50 years later, but rather showing agile, rapid steps and a tendency for collection. In short, his gait was similar

Now we are in a position to parse the all-important pedigree. It is absolutely imperative that anyone attempting to unravel the mystery of Figure’s origin understand the English language as it was used in 18th century America. The advertisement for True Briton “by Traveller” was placed in 1794 by Selah Norton, a neighbor and friend of the Morgan family who owned True Briton at that time. Notice that Norton does not say that the True Briton he owned was by Lloyd’s Traveller; this is a conclusion that has been leapt to by some researchers. Let us instead take Norton at his word, and view him like the horsetrader that he was, or like a modern used car salesman: honest in the sense of speaking no actual lies, but at the same time seeking to put the best face upon the goods he had for sale.

To understand Norton’s ad, the modern reader needs to realize that the old term for an ambler was “a traveller.” Thus, anytime we see a horse named “Traveller” (for example, Gen. Robert E. Lee’s famous horse) it is safe to conclude that it had the ability to amble. This is as likely to have been true of early Thoroughbreds, by the way, as of their American descendants, for as we have seen in previous installments of this series, the ancestry of the Thoroughbred itself is Turkmene/Barb/ Hobby, and all three of these breeds Knox Morgan (1891) by Mountaineer Morgan, who traces to Sherman and Woodbury Morgans. His dam is a grand-daughter of General Knox. This horse presents an example of a “soft” back with rather low withers, yet with a strong coupling—echoing original descriptions of Sherman Morgan. He stands short on the leg, with a cresty neck, deep shoulder, and big, powerful hindquarters. Note the undulating facial profile, which during the 19th century became very common among Morgans.