Old Breed Standard

Standard of Perfection for Morgan Horses
HEIGHT: 14.1 to 15.2 with some individuals over or under.
WEIGHT: 900 to 1,100 pounds.

GENERAL CONFORMATION:
Good saddle conformation. In general, the Morgan should be compact, of medium length, well-muscled, smooth and stylish in appearance.

QUALITY:
The Morgan should have clean, dense bone with sufficient substance, well developed joints and tendons, and with fine coat.

TEMPERAMENT:
The Morgan should be tractable but with good spirit.


HEAD and NECK:
Head:Medium size, clean cut and tapering slightly from jaw to muzzle. The profile can be straight or slightly dished, never Roman nosed. Wide, clean cut lower jaw, medium fine muzzle with small and firm lips and large nostrils. Ears should be small. fine pointed, set wide apart and carried alertly. Eyes should be full, bright and clear.

FOREHAND:
NECK: Medium length, well crested, clean cut at the throatlatch, smoothly joined to shoulder and deep at the point of the shoulder.

Mane and foretop good and full.
Shoulders of good length and slope, blending into smooth, well defined, but not too high, withers. The withers should be slightly higher than point of hip.
Forelegs should be short, squarely set, well apart, with short muscular arms. Viewed from the front, the legs should be thin and must be straight; viewed from the side should be wide and sinewy.
The forearm should be wide, flat and muscular. Knees should be wide and flat.
Cannons short, wide, flat and free from meat. Fetlock joint should not be round but rather wide. Pasterns should be clean and strong, of medium length, the slope to correlate with slope of shoulder. The hoofs should be of medium size, nearly round, open at the heel, smooth and dense but not brittle.

BODY:The body conformation of the Morgan is distinctive, with chest of good depth and width, and with back short, broad and
well muscled. The loin should be wide and muscular and closely coupled. The barrel, large and rather round, with well
sprung closely joined ribs and deep full flank.

HINDQUARTERS:
The hind legs of the Morgan should be squarely set and so placed that he turns on his hindquarters with legs well under him. The hips should be well-rounded. Hip bones should not show. Croup should be rounded gently with fairly high-set tail, well-carried. The tail to be good and full. Quarters and thighs deep and well-muscled with strong muscular stifles and medium length wide muscular gaskins.

The hocks should be wide, deep and clean. Viewed from the rear, the hind legs should be perpendicular with the hocks neither closer together nor wider apart than the fetlocks.
Cannons: Short, wide, flat with tendons standing well out from bone and well defined.
Pasterns: Strong, medium length, not too sloping. The hind feet should resemble forefeet and should be round, medium in size, smooth and dense.

ACTION: The walk should be flatfooted, elastic and rapid with a long straight, free stride.
The trot must be square, free-going, collected and balanced.
The canter must be smooth, easy, collected and straight on both leads.
AMERICAN MORGAN HORSE ASSOCIATION, INC.
Oneida County Airport Industrial Park, Box :, Westmoreland, N.Y. 13490


Reprinted with Permission of The American Morgan Horse Association

MORGAN HORSE JUDGING STANDARDS 1997 Version
MORGAN HORSE JUDGING STANDARDS
I. IN HAND SECTION (the Breeders Division of the show)ONLY, Extracted from the 1997 Judging Standards and reprinted with Permission of AMHA




A. TYPE is the ideal or standard of perfection for the breed. A Morgan is distinctive for its stamina and vigor, personality and eagerness, and strong natural way of moving.

B. CONFORMATION is the degree of perfection of the component parts and their relationship to each other.
Correct MORGAN type and conformation is the same in each section of the Morgan Horse division where conformation is considered. There is only one standard for type and conformation of the Morgan Horse. If in-hand classes are offered for horses in specific disciplines or specific classes or suitable to become classes, (Classic Pleasure In-Hand; Western In-Hand, etc.) horses must be judged against the criteria stated in the Judging Standards
manual for the in-hand section. If such classes are offered, show management must print this paragraph in the prize list to assure there is no misunderstanding and that no horse will be judged against any standard for another breed, discipline or division.

Judges should seek the same correct Morgan type and conformation not only in the In-Hand Section, but also in those Performance Sections where rules indicate type and conformation is to be considered. When judging type and conformation, the maturity of that individual should be consistent with the age of that individual.

1. The head should be expressive with a broad forehead; large, prominent eyes; straight or slightly dished short face; firm, fine lips; large nostrils; and well-rounded jowls. The ears should be short and shapely, set rather wide apart, and carried alertly. Mares may have a slightly longer ear.

2. The throatlatch is slightly deeper than other breeds and should be refined sufficiently to allow proper flexion at the poll and normal respiration.

3. The neck should come out on top of an extremely well-angulated shoulder with depth from top of withers to point of shoulder. It should be relatively fine in relation to sex. It should be slightly arched and should blend with the withers and back. Ideally, the neck should have sufficient length and be set on high enough to allow the individual to set his head in a proper position while still maintaining his entire head and nose above the line of the withers. Judges must be cautious, however, not to reward length of neck over proper placement of the neck, and must keep in mind the balance and symmetry necessary to maintain the
" Morgan look " which is predicated upon the way the neck grows out of the back. The top line of the neck should be considerably longer than the bottom line. The stallion should have more crest than the mare or gelding. An animal
gelded late in life may resemble the stallion more closely.

The withers should be well defined and extend into the back in proportion to the angulation of the shoulder.

5. The body should be compact with a short back, close coupling, broad loins, deep flank,well-sprung ribs, croup long and well muscled, with tail attached high, carried gracefully and straight. A weak, low, or long back is a severe fault. The Morgan horse should not behigher at the rump than at the wither. Judges must penalize unnatural tail carriage.Unnatural tail carriage includes evidence of tail settings and/or breakover, dead tail and wry tail (wry tail is defined as twisted, carried askew, or distorted). Judges have an obligation to see that tails carried vertically with an abrupt breakover are severely penalized.

6.The stifle should be placed well forward and low in the flank area. It is imperative that weak or loose stifles be severely faulted.
7.The legs should be straight and sound with short cannons, flat bone, and an appearance of overall substance with refinement. The forearm should be relatively long in proportion to the cannon. The pasterns should have sufficient length and angulation to provide a light, springy step.

8.The structure of the rear legs is of extreme importance to the selection of a long lasting equine athlete. Judges must take special care to severely fault individuals displaying weakness in this area. Any sign of poor angulation of the hocks, sickle hocks, or cow hocks must be considered a severe fault. Lack of proper flexion of the hock is cause for very close examination of the entire structure of the rear legs and should not be tolerated in breeding stock or show ring winners.

9. The feet should be in proportion to the size of the horse, round, open at the heel, with a concave sole and hoof of dense structure.

10.Viewed from the front, the chest should be well developed. The front legs should be perpendicular to the ground and closely attached to the body.

11.Viewed from the side, the top line represents a gentle curve from the poll to the back,giving the impression of the neck sitting on top of the withers rather than in front of them, continuing to a short, straight back and a relatively level croup rounding into a well-muscled thigh. The tail should be attached high and carried well-arched. At maturity, the croup should NOT be higher than the withers. The under line should be long, and the body deep through the heart girth and flanks. The extreme angulation of the shoulder results in the arm being a little more vertical than in other breeds, placing the front legs slightly farther forward on the body. The front legs should be straight and perpendicular to the ground. The rear cannons should be perpendicular to the ground when points of hocks and buttocks are in the same vertical lines.

12.Viewed from the rear, the croup should be well-rounded, thighs and gaskins well-muscled. Legs should be straight. The gaskin should be relatively long in relation to the cannon. The Morgan should portray good spring of rib and well-rounded buttocks. Slab-sided individuals should be faulted.

13.The height ranges from 14.1 to 15.2 hands, with some individuals under or over.

14.Horses must be serviceably sound-i.e. must 'not show evidence of lameness, broken wind, or complete loss of sight in either eye.

15.Stallions two years old and over must have all the fully developed physical characteristics of a stallion. Mature stallions must be masculine in appearance, and both testicles must be dropped and appear normal. Mares must be feminine in appearance.

16. Coat or eye color shall have no bearing when judging Morgan horses.

17. Brands,including freeze brands, shall not be discriminated against in any class.

Reprinted with Permission of American Morgan Horse Association
And Extracted from the 1997 Version of The Morgan Horse Judging Standards, As Adopted by The American Morgan Horse Association,Inc.