82 THE PEKCHEEON HOUSE. 



foal, or purchase four or five months' old colts, which he 

 wishes to wean in his own country, or his purchases will 

 be made of yearlings, or, finally, he will carry with him 

 full-grown males and females, or only one or the other 

 sex for the purpose of breeding. 



Each one of these suppositions can be determined by the 

 practical knowledge of breeding, and by the study of the 

 methods practised in Perche, and may suggest as many 

 chapters. But, before undertaking anything, I will ask this 

 amateur if he really loves the horse, and if he admits the 

 qualities needed in the Perch erou. breeder. If he answers 

 in the affirmative, I will enter upon the subject. If, on 

 the contrary, he be not sure of himself and of the agents 

 that he is to employ, I might as well throw aside my pen 

 and not write another word. 



The disposition of the Percheron breeder towards his 

 horses is that of a never-changing mildness ; and this is 

 why his horse is so gentle and so docile. The Percheron 

 loves his horse, but not with an affection resembling that 

 hearty passion, that sudden blaze of regard, too explosive 

 to last long, of certain amateurs ; he loves the horse with 

 an hereditary love, a family love, if I may so express it, 

 and the horse, on his side, loves him hereditarily. The 

 women and children have generally the care of the horse 

 while the men are in the fields. Hence the even and ami- 

 able temper of the horses raised under this system. The 

 Percheron cultivator possesses, above all, great patience 

 and a supreme control over himself, indispensable qualities 

 in training young colts, which, if treated with harsh- 

 ness would soon lose their heads, and become infallibly 

 nervously timid if subjected to violence and impatience. 

 Here lies the secret of good training and the art of uniting 

 in the horse a cool and calm temper with a decided 

 character. He is laborious and loves to stir the soil ; hence 

 his practice of early working the colts, which renders 

 them laborious and honest. But, as he is, above all, in- 



