The "Imagining Morgan History" Youth Essay Contest
The Morgan Horse magazine is holding an essay contest, based on a post from Denny Emerson, the internet’s prolific commentator on all things Morgan.
• Eligibility: Two categories: Grades 4 to 6; Grades 7 to 9. Please specify with submission.
• Word Count: 500 to 700 words on the subject below.
• Judges: Heyday Morgans breeder, Nina Quinn; Author of “Battleship” and “Man Of War,” Dorothy Ours
• Deadline: February 14
• Prizes: The two first place essays will be published in a future issue of The Morgan Horse magazine; first and second place winners receive a free one-year subscription to The Morgan Horse; first place winners, if geographically available, will receive a guided tour by Denny Emerson of historic Morgan markers in Vermont (must be accompanied by a parent or guardian).
• Email your typed essay to Denny Emerson by February 14, 2023 at: e3horse@hotmail.com
THE TOPIC
On remote Frye Road, in the town of Tunbridge, Vermont, there’s an old peg and beam barn set in a meadow above a stream. The Frye Farm, long abandoned, is only a few miles from the farm where the Morgan breed’s founding stallion, Figure (Justin Morgan) died in 1821. A few miles further is the cemetery in Randolph Center where Justin Morgan the singing master is buried. In another part of Tunbridge is the farm where Figure’s son, Sherman Morgan, once stood at stud. This area used to be “Morgan Central,” the epicenter from which Morgans gradually spread across North America and beyond.
We found an old rusty horse shoe, most probably a hind shoe, with raised ends and a toe caulk, buried under the barn foundation, when repairs were being made. It’s a small shoe, Morgan sized, and it leads to this intriguing question---“Who was the almost certainly Morgan horse who once wore this shoe?"
Tell us, from your own imagination, all about that long ago Morgan. There is no right or wrong answer, because it is your imaginings that are telling the story.
