The Percheron horse

by Charles Du Hays

If, on the contrary, by wishing to make too quick progress, there should be too much difference between the stallion and the mare, the resulting stock, although in appearance successful, will always prove bad breeders, giving ungainly results, with blemishes which would never have occurred in proceeding wisely, especially not in improving by means of the primitive horse, all of whose ancestors are of the same race.

This latter crossing, that is, with the Arab, may sometimes give slower, but with it we are always sure to obtain finally better results. Thus in making choice of the best Percheron mares and crossing them with fine, but the stoutest possible, Arabs, we would advance towards certain improvements, and at the end of a few generations, we would be sure to find at each foaling season fine types, combining with the strength and docility of the dams the style, spirit, and intelligence, of the sires. For, it must not be forgotten, work requires intelligent horses; the more they are gifted with this quality, the longer they last and the more useful their services.

If the drunken driver of the Lyons Railroad, whose adventure is known the world over, had not had for his working companion a brute as nobly intelligent as the old horse Lapin, employed in hauling dirt carts, he would surely have perished. The driver having fallen in a state of intoxication on the railroad, before a train descending a grade, was on the point of being run over, when the horse, seeing him in this perilous situation and at the risk of being himself crushed, seized him by the waist and lifted him off the track. This deed, performed under the eyes of several squads of workmen, was soon known over the whole line, and won for Lapin the title of The (invalid’s and workingmen’s) Adopted Son, a nobly gained title and well-merited reward, if ever there was one.

In the legends of all times are to be found examples of the intelligence of the oriental horse; but I have never heard quoted a single one in regard to the English thoroughbred, which seems only formed for pride, gluttony, and brutality. As an example of the sagacity of the Arab, I will limit myself to mentioning a fact witnessed by all the officers of the school of Saumur. At this school there was an old Arabian known to the whole army. One day, a lady having her handkerchief scented with, I know not what perfume, passed in front of the veteran, caressing and feeding him with dainties. From that time on, the officer who accompanied the lady could never enter her parlor, although the odor of the perfume was imperceptible to all, but the horse, on his return, was aware of the fact, and bore witness to it, each time, by neighing and by a hundred expressions of pleasure.

The vigor and pluck of the oriental horse have passed into a proverb. There is not a soldier in our army who cannot bear testimony to this.

The horses of the English cavalry almost all perished in the Crimean war, whilst our Algerian horses almost all returned. In the Italian war our Algerian horses bore well the fatigues of the campaign, where the horses springing from the English were decimated.

It appears impossible that these two proofs should have no signification and should not teach a lesson. Ought it not to be concluded from them that the war-horse, that is the horse for endurance, should only be of Arab blood or at least derived from the Arab?

And are we not justified in believing that what has taken place with the war-horse applies also to other horses destined for continuous work? Hence are we not right in always preferring the Arab to the English stallion, when it is a question of improving the different breeds of work and draft-horses, as well as the war horse?

The Arabian stallion would seem so much the more fit for this use, as a long experience has proved that his get upon our native mares are much heavier than himself; they, at the same time, always transmitting a rich, unblemished blood and a solid frame—qualities which are preserved indefinitely.

The Arab horse imparts, also, great endurance to his progeny, and without going back as far as the turf, where we see figuring on the top round of the ladder Arlequin, Zephyr, Valencia, Corysandre the Lorraine, whose dam was an Arabian of Deux-Ponts, Anthony, Eylau, Kasbas, and Palmyre, let us be satisfied with citing in mass, all the fine and spirited breeds of Limousin, Navarre, Bigorre, Tarbes, and Auvergne, showing in every pore the presence of the Oriental blood.