The Percheron horse

by Charles Du Hays

We should, at first, commence by exploring the Percheron centers devoted exclusively to the rearing of mares, and, in these places, we should particularly visit the localities in which they have no great development as to height. Here we would select a group of from fifteen to twenty fillies, the best, the finest limbed, the most compact, the fastest trotters, and having for an extreme maximum the height of 15½ to 16 hands.

The same course should be pursued in the regions where the colts are raised, and there choice should be made of some light stallions, approaching, as much as possible, to the mares in form and qualities.

All the best foals, then, should be in their turn subjected to couplings conducted with the same care, and among the third generation would be found types sufficiently confirmed, either as founders of a race among themselves, or for crossing with the Arab, of which we will speak in the following chapter.

If a little larger size be required, it would not be necessary to have recourse to other types than those which I have just indicated. Well-balanced horses favor every modification. More tonic, substantial nourishment, and more fertile meadows would increase the height and weight, as well as the strength and spirit.

Do you desire omnibus horses?—You can obtain them by selecting in the regions which best produce the post-horse, the strongest types, the heaviest bodied, the most favored as to height, and the fastest trotters. But never yield any of these three points: weight, spirit, and speed.

The animals the nearest alike in size and form should then be coupled together, after the manner indicated above, and when weight, spirit, and speed, are found without failing in all the progeny, it will then be time, but not till then, to add style. The Arabian stallion, whose tendency, as we will see later, is to produce heavier and stronger than himself, while at the same time imparting his mark of supreme distinction, might then be introduced to embellish and confirm our good results.

The heavy draft and the express wagon horses should have weight: this is a sine qua non condition; but it would be a great mistake to confine ourselves exclusively to mere size. They should possess powerful limbs and muscles, joined to great spirit. This crossing, although the easiest, would also present great dangers should we be satisfied with weight alone; we would soon arrive at the mere lymphatic horse. It is, therefore, urgent, for the breeds possessing requisite strength, to choose those which are the most distingué, the most nervous, the finest limbed, and the most spirited, and to avoid the sluggish and lymphatic. These will be found in the elevated and dry centers, where the food is plenty and nutritious.

If Perche proper, Beauce, and the environs of Chateaudun, should not be capable of furnishing their complete contingent in this specialty (as I believe they cannot,) some good specimens could be met with among the Percheron colts raised in the environs of Bernay and on the plains of Sens.

This variety (the draft-horse) demands a great deal less care in the choice of the dams and sires. It is infinitely more elementary, since weight is principally sought after. Still, it is well, even indispensable, to select individuals short coupled and with good quarters, to hold out under the enormous loads they are obliged to draw. The means resorted to to accomplish this are judicious crosses, constantly made with a well-determined and always identical idea, tending to increase weight and strength, while preserving spirit and vigor, abundant nourishment, and breeding in those sections naturally most propitious to style and size. Soon, Perche, placed in a situation without a rival for the present, and, above all, for the future, might forever avoid asking any thing of foreign crossings. For though the choice of the stallion and the mare is so important in the production of the foal, the climate, the kind of food, the agricultural habits, and, finally, the adaptation of the region to horse breeding, are of a great deal more importance in the development of the animal. It becomes, then, somewhat difficult to indicate accurately to what types, in such particular cases, the preference should be awarded. The best are those which most nearly meet the wants of the section.