220 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 



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temper. Their color is bay, brown, or black. Some 

 of these horses are very beautiful, and very large also. 

 In Cassell's Book of the Horse, there is an excellent 

 colored illustration of Prince Albert, a magnificent 

 Clydesdale stallion, seventeen hands high. 



The only peer of the Clydesdale is the Percheron. 

 This horse, as everybody knows, is usually gray in 

 color, though sometimes black, and less frequently 

 chestnut or bay. The Percheron stands on some- 

 what shorter legs than the Clydesdale, and is more 

 compactly built, his head and ears being as fine as 

 those of his rival, and commonly even smaller. He 

 carries a long, thick mane, but wears less hair 

 than the latter on his fetlock joints. In England 

 hairy fetlocks are considered a mark of beauty ; 

 but they retain both dirt and moisture, and conse- 

 quently, unless carefully cleaned and dried, produce 

 " scratches." 



Nothing is certainly known as to the origin of the 

 Percheron, though some writers assert that he is de- 

 scended in part, at least, from Arab stock. There is 

 no positive proof of this, and the assumption rests 

 chiefly upon an undoubted resemblance between the 

 Arab and the Percheron, notwithstanding the great 

 difference between them in size and weight. The Per- 

 cheron has the same intelligent and gentle disposi- 

 tion as the Arab, and, like him. a compact body, an 

 arched neck, large eyes, and a tail well set on. There 

 seems also to be a tendency in the breed to revert to 

 a smaller type ; some very fine Percheron stallions 

 stand no more than 15 hands, and the best of them 

 rarely exceed 16-J- hands. This tendency would in- 

 dicate a derivation from smaller ancestors ; and it 



