126 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK AND COMPLETE STOCK DOCTCa. 



walk and trot is majestic but slow, and they are not better suited to West- 

 ern agricultural soils. When lirst introduced into Canada and the United 

 States, both the Clydes and Shires attracted great attention until the 

 Percherons and heavy Normans were introduced. The style, endurance, 

 quicker action and muscular effort was superior, in the eye of the Western 

 man; hence, the Norman and Percheron became the favorites, and they 

 have gained, rather than lost, ever since. This the show rings at our great 

 fairs continue to si ow. Nevertheless, the Clyde and Shire continue the 

 favorites among many breeders and farmers. For export to Great Britain, 

 they are in request. 



rv. The Norman-Percheron Horse. 



Norman-Percheron horses are now generally divided into two classes : 

 the Norman, a heavy, muscular, closely-built animal of great bone and 

 muscle, weighing sometimes 2,200 to 2,300 pounds, and the Percheron, 

 a liirhter, cleaner built and more active animal, attaining a weight up to 

 1,800 pounds. Both these strains of Norman blood are among the best 

 of draft stock ever introduced into America. They are superior in 

 some respects to the famous Conestoga horse of Pennsylvania, now prac- 

 ticallv extinct. Much has been written about these excellent animals, 

 both by partisans and by those who have investigated their history with 

 a view to arrive at the real facts in relation to their ancestry. On the 

 one hand it is contended that they arose from a cross of the Arabian 

 upon the heavy native horses of Normandy ; and the defeat of the Sara- 

 cens by Charles Martel, in which great numbers of their adrairal)le cav- 

 alry horses fell into the hands of the French, is cited in support of this 

 view. Many of these Saracen horses, it is said, were brought to Nor- 

 mandy and to La Perche, and hence the commingling of blood which 

 resulted in the present admirable breed. The old Norman war horses 

 were heavy, bony, slow, but strong, and capable of enduring much hard- 

 ship. They were admirably adapted for their day, since they were capa- 

 ble of carrying a knight in his heavy armor. 



Ao-aln, it is asserted that the Norman horse is descended from a race 

 then peculiar to Brittainy , and used for draft, rather than for war. Another 

 writer asserts that the Percheron is descended from a remote cross 

 between the Andalusian, mixed ^vith the Morocco barb, and again crossed 

 upon the Norman, because, it is said, the Norman was too slow, and the 

 Andalusian too light, for a knight in full armor. The old Norman horses 

 are said to have transmitted to the race their great bone and muscle, 

 while the Arab, or Andalusian, or whatever the cross may have been, 



