CHAPTER XV 



Percheron Horses in England 



THERE arrived at a large Remount Depot in the South of England about 

 two years after the start of the war a number of Percheron stahions 

 and mares from France ; the object of those intimately interested in the 

 coming of these animals being to found a distinct breed of this type of 

 draught horse in the United Kingdom. The Government are not the direct 

 purchasers of these horses, but through the Remount Service they have given 

 every encouragement and facility to certain private breeders to exploit their 

 patriotism in this way. This serious introduction of the Percheron breed to 

 England is a matter of much significance to breeders and users of draught 

 horses, and must not be ignored. There may be prej udice and possibly active 

 opposition to the introduction, but there is also support and a welcome to 

 the horses, emanating as it does from a small but influential and growing 

 body of Englishmen who have come to the deliberate conclusion that for 

 militar}/ purposes hereafter, and for general purposes at all times, the type is 

 a desirable one for us to develop. 



Why have they come ? The question is one which opens the way to a 

 simple statement of facts. That statement, if it is to be frank and convincing, 

 must bear on the experiences and lessons derived from the horsing of the guns 

 and transport during over three years of war. I ha\'e endeavoured to show why 

 the light draught horse from Canada and the United States is the real horse of 

 the war. It was shown how our great Armies and those of our Allies had been 

 primarily equipped in regard to horses by the marvellous crowds of animals that 

 had been brought across the Atlantic. And the virtues of the type — great 

 endurance, fine physique, soundness, activity, willingness to work, and 

 almost unfailing good temper — were expatiated on with some enthusiasm. 

 Their introduction to the United Kingdom was foreshadowed as being an 

 inevitable outcome of experiences during these three years of great trial and 

 stress for horses. 



Fortunately for the Allies, the Percheron-bred horse was available in great 

 numbers ; and, to be sure, great numbers were wanted, and may be still. The 

 horse supply of the United Kingdom, by comparison, represented but an 

 infinitesimal quantity of the whole. None was better than the riding-horse, 

 because for the most part the pre-eminent British thoroughbred was conspicu- 

 ous in the strain. But the draught horse is the real horse of the war, and in this 



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