The Percheron horse

by Charles Du Hays

It is well known that after the defeat of the famous Saracen chief Abderame by Charles Martel, on the plains of Vouille, the magnificent cavalry of the foe fell into the hands of the victors, since more than 300,000 infidels were killed on that day, and the horses which they rode were, like themselves, from the East. Upon a division of the spoil a large number of these were assigned to the men of La Perche, of Orleanais, and Normandy, who composed the bulk of the French forces, and they must necessarily have left in their progeny indelible traces of their blood.

La Perche, like all Christian countries, furnished, as is well known, her contingent of fighting men to the crusades, and the chronicles cite several Counts of Bellesmer, Mortagne, and Nogent, barons and gentlemen of that province, who, with many of their vassals, made pilgrimages to the Holy Land.

The Abbe Faet, in a letter addressed to the Congress of Mortagne, July 16, 1843, and in his great work upon La Perche, cites in this connection a lord of Montdoubleau, Geffroy IV., and Rotrou, Count of La Perche, as having brought back from Palestine several stallions, which were put to mares, and the progeny most carefully preserved. The small number of the sires, their incomparable beauty, and manifest superiority, must have led to the in-and-in breeding so much deprecated by most breeders; but the qualities of the sires became indelibly fixed upon their progeny.

The lord of Montdoubleau was, it is said, the most zealous of the advocates and breeders of the new blood, and, being the most zealous, was the most successful; hence it is that the Montdoubleau stock is to this day the best in Perche. The Count Roger, of Bellesmer, imported both Arabian and Spanish horses, as did Goroze, the lord of Saint Cerney, Courville, and Courseroult; these are historical facts which have their importance. Like chronicles, it is true, exist for other provinces—for Limousin, for Navarre, for Auvergne (the land of noble horses), also for Brittany and Maine; but in the latter not the least sign of Eastern blood is perceptible. The fact is, the crusaders from all the French provinces naturally brought back with them more or less of the Eastern blood, which they had learned to appreciate on the plains of Palestine—but the truth is, it has not been preserved elsewhere; and that we in La Perche, after so many centuries, should be so fortunate as to be able to show the traces of it, should stimulate us to its careful preservation.

From the time of the Roman domination, the horse in his oriental forms was not only valued by the Gauls, but was particularly prized in Perche. In 1861 a subterranean vault was discovered in the middle of a field, near Jargeau (Loiret), upon the borders of Perche. It contained a statue of Bacchus, surrounded by bacchanals, with which were found a horse, a stag, a boar, some fish, a grape vine, and other native products of the country; but the horse was indubitably of the Arab form, which goes to prove, either that at that remote period there were Arabians in the country, or that the native local race from which the portrait was taken resembled the Arabian.

These historical data, these inductions, incomplete as they may be, lead to the belief that for antiquity the Percheron yields to no other of our French races, and that the soil which has nourished and preserved it, must be one of the best in France for horse breeding.

Under the feudal rule and inhabited by tenants ever at war, Perche must always have been an equestrian country, and the horse must have been there in every age the companion of man. He must have been really a first class necessity. In those times of continued war and hostile surprises, what property was more movable and so easily taken to a place of safety? How glorious the possession of such noble coursers, and like the Rotrous, to own more than could be counted, as was proudly shown by the heraldic chevrons upon their broad banners, displayed from the towers of Mortagne and Nogent!

But had the Percheron then, as a race, the characteristics it now possesses? This is not probable; it must have been lighter, but still possessing within itself the character which it now presents. The essential point is to prove that there was, at that period, a native race; and if the extraordinary life formerly led there—if the aspect of the country, which must have been always fertile—if the historical inductions do not prove it—the universal tradition of the whole country should not leave us in any doubt in respect to the fact.

Let us, then, take no account of the silence of historians. This silence is no proof of the non-existence of the Percheron. Most of these writers were gentlemen of the equestrian order; they prized the saddle-horse, while they ignored the equally useful breeds of all work.