54 THE PERCHEROU" HORSE. 



that these new latitudes, these new regions, would differ 

 but little from those in which they lived. 



The first change that the primitive horse undergoes, 

 from the difference of the regions into which he has been 

 transplanted, being due to nature itself, we call the 

 result the Natural Horse. Here it is proper to remark 

 how wise nature always is. If it modify the primitive 

 horse for the worse, it modifies him, however, under condi- 

 tions better adapted to his wants. In rendering him more 

 puny, it renders him more temperate, and enables him to 

 live and to nourish himself upon the food that the locality 

 is able to furnish. Submitted to the trials and the fatigues 

 of war, and to all the miseries in its train, the natural 

 horse, badly built, ungainly and puny as he is, endures 

 fatigue almost as well as the primitive horse. 



The Cross-bred Horse is, as his name indicates, the issue 

 of a sire and dam of different breeds. This crossing, 

 made with a view to improvement, may give, when judic- 

 ious, more elegant, better made, and finer-bodied progeny 

 and also quicker in their various gaits, but always requir- 

 ing, especially if derived from the English, exceptional 

 care, and so much the 4 more particular as they are of a more 

 distingue nature. 



Abandoned to himself, deprived of blankets, shelter, 

 grooming, and oats, the cross-bred deteriorates early, and 

 in war perishes miserably, while the natural and the prim- 

 itive horse thrives in browsing upon the scantiest herbage. 

 On this score, our two campaigns of the Crimea and Italy 

 have furnished unquestionable proofs. 



Such is the result chie.fly obtained with the too dis- 

 tingue English horse, even when delivered to the best 

 working mares. In the army, especially, is this point set- 

 tled ; they have there recognized and proved that the 

 worst subjects were always the issue of authors having 

 too much blood and too impressionable. No horses are 

 more apt than these to provoke and render ill humored, 



