THE PER''! 



101 



The characteristics of the best horses are that they run from 15 to 16 hands 

 in height ; the head is handsome, though perhaps sometimes heavy, but more 

 frequently as fine as an Arab's ; the nostrils wide ; the eye large and expressive : 

 the forehead broad; ears silky; neck rather short, but with a good crest: 

 withers high : shoulders long and sloping ; chest rather flat, but broad and 



FIG. 35. Giroust 78504 (69869), a Percheron stallion owned by W. H. Butler, 

 Sandusky, Ohio. A prominent sire of Ohio futurity winners, as well as a high- 

 class show horse. From photograph by E. K. Emslie 



deep ; body well ribbed ; loins rather long ; crupper level and muscular ; the 

 buttocks often high, leaving a depression above the junction of the tail, which 

 is set on high; joints short and strong; the tendons often weak; legs clean 

 and free from coarse hair; feet always good, though rather flat when reared 

 upon moist pastures ; the skin fine, and mane silky and abundant ; the color 

 is generally gray, but there are some grand black Percherons. . . . Docile, 

 patient, honest workers, very hardy, the Percherons are unexcitable, but active 



