Episode 15: All About Morgans
Hello! Welcome to Flip N Tails: a tiny podcast for BIG horse lovers! I’m a horse girl who loves to ride and each week I’ll share about what I learn and love about horses. Today is episode fifteen and it’s all about Morgans.
Imagine it’s 1789 in Springfield Massachusetts and a music teacher named Justin Morgan bought a two year old colt named Figure. So Figure was an amazing horse for Justin Morgan because he could do lots of things like help plow fields, and Justin Morgan could ride him to the school that he taught at, so Figure was really a big useful horse. Figure was a two year old bay colt who was 14 hands high who could walk, trot and pull, and was a good family horse. What’s interesting about the year 1789 was it was only a couple of years after the Revolutionary War.
What was the Revolutionary War?
Well the Revolutionary War, was a war between England and America before America was a country. After America won the war, the settlers needed horses like Figure with their farms. The Justin Morgan horse was the first Morgan horse ever recorded.
This breed is super cool.
No matter the mare, the foal was always almost a duplicate of the stallion. Morgan horses can come in many colors including bay, chestnut, black and more.
What are they, a horse or a pony?
They’re a horse because they stand between 14.2 and 15.2 hands high.
What are they known for?
Being in harness. They can do dressage, western and English riding.
What I love about them.
I love their endless hard work because they work like night and day which is really cool in my opinion. They’re basically a role model for me.
What makes them different?
They have an endless spirit to work, compete, play and be a good harness horse and companion horse.
A story about Ginger
I want to share a story about a Morgan cross named Ginger. He may not be world famous, but he’s famous in our family. Okay guys, this is a special episode honoring my great grandma who just turned a hundred years old. My great grandma was born in 1923 on a farm in the midwest. Times were hard. It was hot. A tough time to be a farmer. You can imagine how excited she was in sixth grade to get a horse of her very own. The horse named Ginger was a Morgan cross born on the trail, and my great grandmother trained him from the very beginning.
They had many adventures together. She rode him to school every day. He helped with all of their farm chores. And he was the only horse out of eight other horses to survive a disease on the farm.
When my great grandmother tells stories about her Morgan horse Ginger, the biggest story she tells is how he taught her how to fall off. She learned how to fall, she learned how to get back up, and she learned how to do it while holding on to the reins.
Because even if you get bucked off, you can always take the reins and keep going where you want to go. Maybe that’s the secret to living to one hundred years old.
So Happy Birthday to my great grandmother, and thank you to this very special Morgan horse.
So that’s it! Now you know a tiny bit more about this special horse. Join us next time and subscribe for another episode of Flip N Tails: a tiny podcast for BIG horse lovers!