Vermont State Animal

Morgan Horse

(Equs caballus)

Adopted on March 23, 1961.

No. 42 of the acts of 1961, effective March 23, 1961, designated the Morgan Horse, Equs caballus, as the official State Animal.

Description of the Vermont State Animal

The Morgan is a breed descended from a horse named Figure, owned by Randolph music teacher and composer, Justin Morgan. Morgan brought Figure, a small colt of unknown heritage, back to Vermont with him in 1795 from Springfield, Massachusetts.

Morgan soon came to find that the little horse was very versatile, having a great deal of endurance. The horse's short, muscular body, with its thick, arched neck and wide, finely chiseled head made for a strong, fast and well-mannered creature. Farmers all over Vermont began to seek out horses of Figure's line because the fine looking animals could be used for both work and leisure. The breed, which became known as the Morgan, is considered the first American breed of horse and is today bred all across the nation. The Morgan Horse was adopted as Vermont's State Animal in 1961 not only because its origins lie in the state but because the very nature of the horse exemplifies the versatile, hard-working, and well-mannered character of Vermont citizens.

Taxonomic Hierarchy of the Morgan Horse

Kingdom	Animalia -- animals
Phylum	Chordata -- chordates
Subphylum	Vertebrata -- vertebrates
Class	Mammalia
Order	Perissodactyla
Family	Equidae
Genus	Equs
Species	caballus

State Animals and Mammals

Mammals are one group of animals. Bears, monkeys and dolphins are mammals. So are humans. But what makes a mammal a mammal?

an·i·mal (ān'ə-məl)
n.

1. A multicellular organism of the kingdom Animalia, differing from plants in certain typical characteristics such as capacity for locomotion, nonphotosynthetic metabolism, pronounced response to stimuli, restricted growth, and fixed bodily structure.
2. An animal organism other than a human, especially a mammal.
mam·mal (mām'əl)
n.

Any of various warm-blooded vertebrate animals of the class Mammalia, including humans, characterized by a covering of hair on the skin and, in the female, milk-producing mammary glands for nourishing the young.