All the territory north, west, and south, of the district of Mortagne (Orne) comprising the cantons of Moulins, Bazoche, Pervenchères, Bellesme, Theil, and part of Nocé, possesses breeding mares as well as fillies. In Sarthe, the canton of Montmirail; those of Montdoubleau and Droué in Loir-and-Cher; those of Alluye, Bazoche, Cloyes, Authon, Brou, and Nogent-le-Rotrou, in Eure-and-Loir, are likewise centers where only fillies and breeding mares are to be met with. Courtalain, on the south border, is also celebrated for this specialty.
The raising of male-colts occupies all the east, center, and north of the district of Mortagne—that is to say, the cantons of Mortagne, Tourouvre, Lougny, Regmalard, and part of Nocé. This division, however, is not always distinctly marked upon the borders. The parishes upon the confines of each district, such as Bazoches, Courgeoust, Pin, Saint-Ouen, Nocé, Berdluis, etc., have farms stocked exclusively with fillies, whilst others possess only stallion colts.
The region for the mares is itself divided into two cantons: that of the north and that of the south. The southern is the most renowned, inasmuch as its mares pass for having retained the characters of the old Percheron race more closely. It comprises the cantons outside the district of Mortagne. Montdoubleau is the capital.
The northern, enclosed in the district of Mortagne, counts three very distinct varieties, namely:
The pure Percheron races in the south, and in the canton of Bazoches; in the west, in the parishes which border on Mesle-sur-Sarthe, mares possessing in various degrees some of English blood, got from the government stud of Mesle-sur-Sarthe, which is composed exclusively of thoroughbred stallions; the canton of Moulins, in the north, nourishes another high-spirited variety, endowed with excellent action, but deficient in height. Accordingly it is more valued for furnishing good horses for service than for furnishing ameliorating types.
The best centers for stallion colts are: Regmalard, which is, if I may so say, the principal place for good stallions; Mauves, which furnished, thirty years ago, the famous stallion Jean-le-Blanc, of M. Miard. For fillies, Villers-en-Ouche, which stocked this country with magnificent Percheron mares; Verrieres, Corbon, Comblot, Courgeon, Loisail, Reveillon and Villiers.
As for the rest of Perche, it supplies Beauce and the Chartres country, on account of the great similarity existing between them. A country of transition, it buys colts to plow the fields, keeps them only a year, and sells them grown to the cultivators of Beauce, to be sent to Paris after a sojourn of a year or so upon their farms. The environs of Courville—Chateauneuf, Brézolles, La Loupe, Champroud, Thiron, Pontgouin, Verneuil, etc.—are celebrated for the taste of its farmers for fine horses. Illiers, which formerly possessed this specialty, has occupied itself for several years in weaning colts.
CHAPTER III.
SPEED AND BOTTOM OF THE PERCHERON HORSE.
We have said that one of the distinctive qualities of the Percheron horse, and one which has won for him universal esteem, was fast trotting while drawing a heavy load. It would be, however, an error to suppose that this faculty of fast trotting puts him on a level with the blood-horse. The latter draws little, it is true; but he has a long stride, and, as regards mere speed, he beats the Percheron out and out. For the presence upon the turf of such horses as Décidée and Sarah, who have trotted against blood-horses of the first order, sometimes honorably beaten and more often victorious, the presence, I say, of such horses, is but a happy and rare exception.