THE PERCHERON HORSE. 67 



Villers, in Ouche, near Sap, (department of the Orne,) has 

 been the sole improving agent of the equine race in Ouche, 

 which, up to that time, was reduced to miserable small 

 horses without any stamp or value. Although heavy, 

 powerful, and, indeed, a shaft-horse, his gait and an inde- 

 scribable something pervading his whole body, recalled so 

 thoroughly the idea of the oriental family that one was 

 disposed to take him for an enlarged Arabian. This fact, 

 often related to us, excited our curiosity. We did not rest 

 until pressing inquiry upon inquiry, one after another, 

 we ascertained that his family had been crossed with a 

 stallion from the Pin stables, standing at the Chateau of 

 Coesmes, near Bellesme. And, what was this stallion? 

 The Arab G-aUipoli! 



What can be inferred from these facts, if it be not that 

 the crossings which have best succeeded in Perche have 

 been those of the Arab, and that the English crosses have 

 only succeeded when tempered by contact with the Arab ? 



But if the absolute want of stallions for improving the 

 breed be felt among the pure Percherons ; if it Be impos- 

 sible- to procure either good Arabs or heavy English, 

 freshly tempered with Arab blood; if important and 

 powerful considerations compel a recourse to the English 

 cross, the latter should only be accepted intelligently and 

 under good and wise conditions. Therefore we ask leave 

 to refer the reader particularly to what we have already 

 advanced in the preceding chapter upon the choice of an 

 English stallion. 



In Brittany, in the department of Finisterre, we have 

 often heard it declared by quite a large number of breed- 

 ers, that for having wished to proceed too fast in that way, 

 they had, from the commencement, experienced number- 

 less disappointments, the second generation from the 

 English cross being always inferior to the first. From 

 stout sires and dams, who, from their general appearance 

 might be classed in the category of heavy-draft, there 



