26 THE HORSE AND THE WAR 



irksome and exacting existence on board ship. Yet, through it all, as he 

 stamped and fretted to be free, and as he stepped on shore, he flung out a 

 challenge to his new masters. He was willing to be born again. Blacks and 

 greys there were in abundance. They were obviously the prevailing colours, 

 and there were also, of course, bays and chestnuts ; but the colour scheme 

 afforded a contrast to that to which we in this country are used. Blacks and 

 greys are by no means the dominant colours here. Then, after noting the 

 colours, you would remember that the Percheron stallions of France are 

 chiefly black and grey, and that the war-horse from the United States and 

 Canada is first and foremost the progeny of the Percheron horses that were 

 imported from France through all the years. 



Certain characteristics belonged to them all. Take the black horse that 

 has just stepped jauntily off the " brow " and which has neighed with a 

 lustiness and inquisitiveness betokening health and a vitahty quite opposed 

 to his ungentlemanly appearance. He is i6 hands, and the first and last 

 impression is of his thickness and sturdiness of physique. 



This idea of thickness seems to belong to him in every respect. His 

 head is plain and thick across the jowl ; his neck is short, cresty and thick, 

 and it passes abruptly into straight shoulders. Then his middle-piece is 

 thick and capacious, and, though the croup is short, he is thick across the 

 quarters because the loins are wide and inclined to be ragged. He stands 

 on sound, clean legs, showing very little hair about the heels, but the legs are 

 not orthodox as we would have them. The hocks are slightly away from 

 him and he shows a tendency to be back at the knee ; while the feet are big, 

 flat and saucer-like in shape ; too big, one would think, for the rest of the 

 animal. Still, those all-important legs have splendid bone. 



Yes, this black horse we are looking at is undoubtedly a stranger — a 

 " Yank," as we have learned to designate him; but h? is the great utility 

 horse of the war, useful rather than ornamental. Through him and all of 

 them the stamp of the Percheron in the breeding stands out clear and 

 distinguished. It is there in the power of the quarters, the shortness and 

 crestiness of the neck, the clean, sound legs, the hard constitution and good 

 temper, and the willingness to work. 



