The Percheron horse

by Charles Du Hays

PART III.
INFORMATION TO STRANGERS WISHING TO BUY PERCHERON HORSES.

Although I consider Perche an exceptional country for the production of good horses, I attribute to its air, to its water, and to the nutritiveness of its grasses, the admirable qualities of the animals bred therein. I am convinced that the excellent care, the wise management, exempt alike from pampering indulgence and from the harsh treatment which irritate the disposition, and from which the good teacher never departs in his intercourse with his pupils, contribute a great deal to the success of the result. Starting from this point, I think I can assert that with care and this identical management, horses can be elsewhere produced that Perche would not disown. It is, then, the recapitulation of this method and management which should be presented to the stranger desirous of raising the Percheron horse. I will tell him what the cultivator of this country does, and in doing like him, provided he make the attempt in a high, healthy district, a district with a sharp air and one often refreshed by winds, presenting some analogy to the rugged hills and the excellent grassy valleys of Perche, no doubt he will arrive at magnificent results. Several suppositions may be presented to the consideration of the stranger wishing to raise Percheron horses. Either he should buy in Perche a mare in foal, or purchase four or five months’ old colts, which he wishes to wean in his own country, or his purchases will be made of yearlings, or, finally, he will carry with him full-grown males and females, or only one or the other sex for the purpose of breeding.

Each one of these suppositions can be determined by the practical knowledge of breeding, and by the study of the methods practised in Perche, and may suggest as many chapters. But, before undertaking anything, I will ask this amateur if he really loves the horse, and if he admits the qualities needed in the Percheron breeder. If he answers in the affirmative, I will enter upon the subject. If, on the contrary, he be not sure of himself and of the agents that he is to employ, I might as well throw aside my pen and not write another word.

The disposition of the Percheron breeder towards his horses is that of a never-changing mildness; and this is why his horse is so gentle and so docile. The Percheron loves his horse, but not with an affection resembling that hearty passion, that sudden blaze of regard, too explosive to last long, of certain amateurs; he loves the horse with an hereditary love, a family love, if I may so express it, and the horse, on his side, loves him hereditarily. The women and children have generally the care of the horse while the men are in the fields. Hence the even and amiable temper of the horses raised under this system. The Percheron cultivator possesses, above all, great patience and a supreme control over himself, indispensable qualities in training young colts, which, if treated with harshness would soon lose their heads, and become infallibly nervously timid if subjected to violence and impatience. Here lies the secret of good training and the art of uniting in the horse a cool and calm temper with a decided character. He is laborious and loves to stir the soil; hence his practice of early working the colts, which renders them laborious and honest. But, as he is, above all, intelligent and loves in a rational way, he only requires of them work in proportion to their strength, and gives them good nourishment. This management, uniting work and good food, is an admirable means of giving strength, health, and a good constitution. Finally, the Percheron inhabits a broken country, where he must constantly ascend and descend. This circumstance is most favorable in giving strength and suppleness to his shoulders, haunches, and hoofs, which, by turns, work and rest in this unparalleled district.

This portrait is not only applicable to the large proprietors and to the farmers, but to all the Percheron population. There is not a man in this district who has not been a working man, who has not raised, trained, and driven colts, and who, even in his tenderest age, when he could walk and hold a little whip, has not lived among the horses and played between their legs. It requires no searching here to find a man acquainted with the horse, a good farm hand; the first face you meet with is that of an intelligent agent, and a trustworthy one in the difficult art of training colts.

If you have such men at your disposal, undertake boldly your task; but if the proper men are wanting, forbear, for you will arrive at nothing satisfactory.

CHAPTER I.
FOOD AND BREEDING.

The stallion, in the districts inhabited by mares, is, with some rare exceptions, a “rover,”—that is to say, he visits the farms at stated periods. His standing season lasts six months, from January to July, and he generally returns four times to the same place. The foal is dropped, ordinarily, very early, and always in the stable, where it constantly remains until weaning time. The dam goes to work every day, and leaves its foal each morning, to see it again only in the middle of the day, and at night. Green clover, or other green forage, is fed, to keep up her supply of milk.