The Percheron horse

by Charles Du Hays

Such is the result chiefly obtained with the too distingué English horse, even when delivered to the best working mares. In the army, especially, is this point settled; they have there recognized and proved that the worst subjects were always the issue of authors having too much blood and too impressionable. No horses are more apt than these to provoke and render ill humored, and, if I may so speak, ruin the temper of the men placed over them.

When a working race is crossed with the English, it is indispensable that the stallion should be well bred and be but a quarter blood,—a quarter at the utmost. And the manner of balancing the blood is neither an indifferent thing nor a thing to be neglected. We should be very careful not to accept as such the product of a full-blooded or even half-blooded stallion and a common mare, but should rather take the product, ameliorated through generations, of strong races that have been gradually perfected, such as, for instance, certain Norfolk horses, certain roadsters and trotters, of which old Juggard was a type, and of which Performer, although not so marked, vaguely recalled the memory.

Since I have mentioned the name of Norfolk, let me say, that after the Arab race, of all the foreign ones, the Norfolk trotter is the one which seems to me to offer the greatest advantages in an alliance with the Percheron. With both, good qualities and defects are diverse, so that they can complete and correct each other by means of a wisely combined and carefully studied connection.

The Norfolk horse has, it is true, an ugly head, and his eye is small and destitute of expression; but his neck, with good lines, starts well from his breast; his shoulder is fine and well-sloped; his chest magnificent, and his girth enormous; his loins broad, well-sustained and well-attached; his haunches long, his croup horizontal; his buttocks well filled out and low; and his limbs strong, but not quite free enough from fat; nor is his action always sufficiently stylish, yet he has a quick and free gait.

Give to this horse a mare having a fine and expressive head, lighted up with a large, intelligent, well-opened eye; let her possess lean, elegant, and perfect limbs, and, a hundred to one, you will get a valuable colt. But, with the Norfolk, as with all others, there are degrees, and if I cross the Channel in search of a stock horse, I should wish him to possess the following qualities:

This stallion should be rather large, have thick and strong limbs, chest fully developed, the girth as great as possible, very heavy in the hind-quarters, buttocks descending well, forehead broad and open, and the eye large and expressive. He should be always shorter in height than the mares, but quite as broad, and, I repeat it, as short-limbed as possible, on account of an invariable, innate tendency of the English horse to height and thinness. He should be neither cross, nor, above all, affected with that nervous sensitiveness too common in the English breeds. His action should be quick, well kept up, bold and square. He should have, if possible, a decided and well-pronounced color, either a dark bay or a chestnut. Breeding stock of his get should be chosen under identical conditions, and then they would be on a footing with him, although, logically speaking, there would be always an inclination to prefer the type to the sub-type.

But, at present, it is easy to be deceived, even in England, in regard to the stock of the country. There is less risk in using, if he can be found, a good, heavy Anglo-Norman horse, bred and reared under our eyes in Merlerault or on the plains of Alençon, than a spurious English one, which is often none other than a forlorn hope of some nameless region. In fact, from certain appearances, there is reason to fear that persons from the other side of the Channel visit the continent to do a smart thing, and purchase heavy, lymphatic colts to bring up on some English farm, and then resell them as Norfolk horses. What kind of improvement is to be expected from such means? We should always respect the will of nature, which allows us to assist her in her course, but we should never violate her laws.

Man vainly wishes to force nature with all these crosses, at which she takes exceptions. To all this so-called science she opposes her relentless logic; these products are an unnatural brood, which she refuses to acknowledge as her own. She stops short, and, no matter how good these results may appear in themselves, the error crops out, and it is known by experience that they almost all fail when put to the test of breeding.

But suppose every measure of prudence taken, even suppose there has been no mistake, most of the produce resulting from this first crossing will be, generally, lighter built than their dams. However, among the number there will be found some which, uniting weight to beauty, will constitute good types with athletic and regular forms. The latter only should be preserved, and these only can be usefully employed, either among themselves or outside of their own families, in the improvement of our stock.

At the second crossing, the imperfections observed at the first will disappear in a great measure, and from the third crossing, with constant care, unflinching attention, and unwearied patience, the difficult problem will be solved: size combined with vigor, hardiness of constitution with style, and weight with elegance.