128 CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK AND COMPLETE STOCK DOCTOR. 



loads at a fair rate of speed. A pair of the lighter Perche horses (ciMled 

 in France Diligence horses, from their use in drawing the coaches of this 

 name) are capable of going at a speed of seven or eight miles an hour. 



These horses may now by regarded as having become a fixed race, cap- 

 able of reproducing itself perfectly, unchanged, and without deterioration 

 through generations, when pure sires are bred to pure dams. Bred to 

 inferior mares, the stallion marks his impress wond^ifully upon the )iro- 

 o-eny, and the pure mares also transmit their characteristics in the same 

 vvouderful manner. 



V. The Percheron of To-Day. 



The Percheron makes a capital cross upon any of the large, roomy 

 mares of this country. When the Percheron is bred to this kind of dams, 

 the progeny will possess gi-eat size, and will partake essentially of the 

 qualities of the sire. If this progeny is again bred to a pure sire, the 

 result is a three-quarters-bred horse that is but little inferior to tlie Per- 

 cheron in all that constitutes power and capability for w^ork. 



The Percheron is not w^hat would be called a fast horse. He is r^ot 

 suited for pleasure driving, and yet he is capable of making long jour- 

 neys at a speed fully equal to that of horses of more pretentions to 

 speed. An instance is given where 58 miles out and 58 miles back w^as 

 accomplished ])y a Percheron horse, in two days, the traveling time out 

 beino- four hours and two miimtes, while m returning the time was four 

 hours, one minute and a half ; and this ^dthout being urged wath the 

 whip. Again, a horse of this breed was driven 55 3-5 miles over a hilly 

 and difiicult road in four hours and twenty-four minutes, without distress 

 to the animal. 



In outward appearance the Percheron presents a head that is not long, 

 with broad brow and slightly dished face, showing intelligence, in which 

 respect he resembles the Arabian. The neck is of fair length, strong, 

 muscular and well-arched, but, like the head, well proportioned to the 

 close-ribbed, lound-barreled , short-backed body. The hind-quarters and 

 shoulders a.*e muscular, the lower part of the leg short, hairy and pos- 

 sessing immense tendons. The hoofs are hard, sound, free from disease ; 

 but the Percheron is somewhat inclined to be tlat-footed. The height is 

 from fifteen to sixteen hands, though many excellent specimens of the 

 breed are somewhat under fifteen hands, especially the lighter Percheron 

 proper. The same description will apply to the Norman proper, except 

 that he is larger and somcNvhat coarser. Their general color is gray, 

 running from iron-gray to the handsomest dappled gray. 



So difficult is it to draw the dividing line between the Norman and the 

 Percheron, that the editor of the Percheron-Norman stud book seemed 

 undecided just what, and what not, to admit into the stud book. Hence 



