a034  0138  29 Jul 89
PM-Morgan Bicentennial,0347
Show Celebrates 200th Anniversary of Morgan Horses
By TRUDY TYNAN
Associated Press Writer
    NORTHAMPTON, Mass. (AP) - More than 1,100 descendants of a little
bay horse foaled 200 years ago trotted, danced or even popped out of
a cake in honor of their breed.
    Maryland breeder W. Dayton Sumner, manager of the 50th annual New
England Morgan Horse Show, said the six-day spectacle was a sort of
homecoming for the first uniquely American breed of horse.
    ''The Morgans appeal is as universal as his versatility,'' said
Laura Frizzel of Davison, Md., awarding a citation and bottle of
champagne to a group of enthusiasts in straw hats and jeans who
hitched a trio of high-stepping Morgans to a hay wagon and joined the
fancy carriage parade through downtown Thursday evening.
    First prize went to Delaware millionaire Henry E.I. Dupont and his
wife in an ornate antique hunting carriage, drawn by four coal black
Morgans. As they rolled smoothly down Main Street one of the three
grooms in top hat and tails sounded a cheery flourish on an long,
brass hunting horn.
    Morgans, who are equally at home in hunt clubs, isolated cattle
ranches or helping the police maintain order on city streets, reflect
the all-around characteristics that endeared them to New England
farmers.
    They wanted and got a horse strong enough to pull a plow, small
enough to require little maintenance, and fast enough to ride.
    A bronze plaque on a granite boulder along a street in suburban West
Springfield a few miles down the Connecticut River marks the
beginning of what the inscription simply calls ''that useful breed''
in 1789.
    The small, dark horse, with black mane, tail and feet, who bestowed
his characteristics on more than 100,000 descendants, originally was
named Figure by Justin Morgan, the schoolteacher and singing master
who raised and raced him in western Massachusetts and Vermont.
    His lineage is unclear, but some Morgan historians believe he may
have been sired by a Tory colonel's part-Arabian, part-English
thoroughbred stallion ''liberated'' during the Revolutionary War by
farmers in retaliation for raids on their livestock.
    
 
AP-NY-07-29-89 0432EDT
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