160 THE HOESE BOOK. 



THE PERCHERON. 



Undoubtedly the Percheron breed flows from 

 the same general fountain head in Flanders as 

 the rest of the draft breeds. The currently ac- 

 cepted belief is that on the defeat of the Sara- 

 cenic host by Charles Martel in 732 the eastern 

 stallions of the invading host were crossed with 

 the larger horses of the low countries and the 

 formation of the Percheron laid in that manner. 

 Continued infusions of Arabian and Andalusian 

 blood seem to have been poured into the strain, 

 authentic information to this effect being avail- 

 able. It is not strange then that 75 or 80 years 

 ago we find that the Percheron was a diligence 

 or bus horse, weighing from 1,200 to 1,400 lbs., 

 according to the official statement. The increase 

 in size during the past three-quarters of a cen- 

 tury to the present scale is traceable, as in all 

 other breeds, to the demands of modern civiliza- 

 tion and in part also to the insistent demand of 

 American importers for ton horses. 



It is probably beyond question that French 

 horses of draft blood were imported into Can- 

 ada about the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury, probably earlier, but the first authentic 

 history we have of an imported horse making a 

 great mark in the stud is of the McNitt horse or 

 European, landed at Montreal about the year 

 1816. There is some dispute about the weight 

 of this stallion. He was a gray and as he was 

 a fast trotter, and begot Alexander's Norman, 



