S82 



The JVorman Horse. 



Vol. VI. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 The Norman Horse. 



Mr. Editor, — I promised to give you some 

 account of my liorse Diligence, and of the 

 race from which he springs, to accompany 

 the engraving from Woodside's portrait of 

 him, which is in preparation for the April 

 number of the Cabinet. In fulfilment of that 

 promise I send you this letter, which you are 

 at liberty to publish as it is, or mould it into 

 Buch form as may best suit your own views. 

 Notwithstanding the great size and weight 

 of the old draught horses, they are active. 

 I have seen one of them draw sixteen large 

 bales of cotton in the streets of Havre. 



If the account — which accompanies the 

 engraving in the present number — of the 

 origin of the Percheron horse be correct, it 

 would appear that tlie crossings with the 

 Spanish horse were continued long enough 

 to reduce, very considerably, the size of the 

 old Norman horse ; and that when the supply 

 of Andalusian stud horses was cut off by the 

 expulsion of the Spaniards from the low coun- 

 tries, breeding their progeny with one another 

 has produced a distinct race, as well marked 

 by character and qualities peculiar to itself, 

 as any race of horses in Europe. 



Diligence was chosen as a full-sized spe- 

 cimen of the breed, possessing all the quick 

 action of the smaller horses, in order that his 

 immediate progeny from our light mares might 

 approach nearer the true type of the race. It 

 must be observed, however, that it is more in 

 breadth and size of bone and muscle that he 

 exceeds the standard, than in his height, 

 which is very little above the average. The 

 portrait, or still better, an inspection of the 

 horse, will convince any one that this race is 

 the origin of the Canadian pony, about whose 

 valuable properties little need be said, as they 

 are well known and highly prized in this sec- 

 tion of the country, and still more to the 

 north, where they have, undoubtedly, given 

 that stamina and character to the horses of 

 Vermont, New Hampshire, and the northern 

 section of New York, which makes them so 

 highly valued all over the Union as road 

 horses; while it is a remarkable fact, that in 

 those states where the attention of breeders 

 has been exclusively devoted to the English 

 race- horse, the carriage and the stage-horse 

 is almost universally supplied from the north. 

 It remains, therefore, for breeders to deter- 

 mine, whether it is not better to resort to the 

 full-sized Percheron to cross upon our light 

 and already too highly bred mares, than to 

 use the degenerated Canadian, (degenerate 

 in size only, through the rigour of the climate 

 — for it must be admittrd that the little ani- 

 mal retains all the spirit and nerve of his an- 

 cestors, and lacks strength only in proportion 



to his size). My own opinion is, that a due 

 portion of the French blood mixed with tho 

 English, will produce a stock of horses in- 

 valuable, as combining all the properties that 

 are required for quick draught on the road or 

 the farm. I need not assure you who are 

 acquainted with the success of Diligence as 

 a stud horse in this place, that such, too, is 

 the opinion of the farmers of New Jersey, 



I have frequently been questioned as to my 

 reasons for selecting this horse for farmers' 

 use in preference to the English draught- 

 horse. My reply has always been, that the 

 draught-horse of England, whenever brought 

 to this country, must prove a failure; he 

 wants the go-a-head principle ; he cannot 

 move out of a walk; which is saying quite 

 enough of him, without dwelling upon hia 

 defects of form, which can only be concealed 

 by loads of fat, and not even then, from the 

 eye of the horseman. The true Percheron, 

 or Norman Diligence horse, on the contrary, 

 combines more strength with activity than 

 any horse I have ever sat behind. All tra- 

 vellers, on entering France, are struck with 

 the properties of these horses as displayed in 

 drawing the ponderous machine called a Dili- 

 gence, by which they are conveyed through 

 the kingdom at a rate fully equal to the ave- 

 rage of stage travelling in this country. Eng- 

 lish horsemen confess that their road-horses 

 could not hold out the same pace before the 

 same load. But I will close this letter with 

 an extract or two from an able article on the 

 Norman Horse, in the British Quarterly Jour- 

 nal of Agriculture. 



The writer, after giving an account of the 

 origin of the horse, which agrees in tracing 

 it to the Spanish horse (of Arabian ancestry^ 

 with the account I have given above, which 

 I procured from French sources, says: "The 

 horses of Normandy are a capital race tor 

 hard work and scanty fare. I have never 

 seen such horses at the collar, imder the dili- 

 gence, the post-carriage, the cumbrous and 

 heavy voiture or cabriolet for one or two 

 horses, or the farm-cart. They are enduring 

 and energetic beyond description ; with their 

 necks cut to the bone, they flinch not; they 

 put forth all their efforts at the voice of the 

 brutal driver, or at the dreaded sound of his 

 never-ceasing whip ; they keep their condition 

 when other horses would die of neglect and 

 hard treatment. A better cross for some of 

 our horses cannot be imagined than those of 

 Normandy, provided they have not the ordi- 

 nary fjiiling, of too much length from the 

 hock downwards and a heavy head." I think 

 that all who have paid attention to this par- 

 ticular breed of Norman horses (the Perche- 

 ron which stands A No. 1), will bear me out 

 in the assertion that the latter part of this 

 quotation will not apply to them, and that on 



