ii8 The Book of riiE Horse. 



mile course at a trot, in saddle or in harness, or at a gallop over a mile and a quarter with eight 

 fences. At Caen recently, in the autumn, 6oo horses rising four years old were put through 

 these trials, and the Government bought 156. 



As a test of the merit of stallions, nothing can be more fallacious than these trials ; but they 

 amuse and interest the Norman breeders, and that is a matter of some importance. 



Besides the Government stallions, there are 700 in the hands of private individuals, 

 which have been passed, and received a certificate from public officials. The stock of good sires 

 is not considered sufficient, as the other few thousand in the hands of peasant farmers include 

 every degree of ill-shape and unsoundness. On the whole, the efforts of successive French Govern- 

 ments to imiprove the native breeds of riding-horses have been fairly successful, considering that 

 " outside the army no one rides in France," and therefore there is no school of critics or mass 

 of critical purchasers. The best horse-shows out of Paris are held in Normandy, at Caen, 

 Falaise, and Alencon, in the autumn. Brittany and Picardy stand next to Normandy as horse- 

 breeding districts.* 



NORMANS. 



Normandy originally possessed two very distinct breeds or tribes of horses — both with a high 

 reputation — the one most fit for harness, the other for the saddle. The horses most esteemed 

 by French and English knights in the ages of heavy armour were Normans. " Nearly a hundred 

 years ago (circa 1760), the Norman breed having very much deteriorated, some coarse-bred English 

 stallions were imported, but without satisfactory efi"ect. The Prince de Lambesc, Grand Ecuyer 

 (Master of the Horse) to Louis XVI., imported for the use of the stud-farm of Pin (which is still in 

 existence) twenty-four stallions, none thoroughbred, which produced a very decided improvement 

 by an infusion of blood into the Normans. (We presume that these were stallions the produce of 

 thoroughbred sires and well-bred hunter mares). These English stallions must be considered 

 as the great-grandsires of the present race." 



In 1790 the studs were suppressed, and England being closed by the long wars, a very inferior 

 class of sires was used ; at the fall of the first Empire the quality of the horses of Normandy 

 was at its lowest ebb. 



In 1830, when the improvement of the horse-supply of France was taken into serious con- 

 sideration, the Norman horses were remarkable for huge, coffin-like, Roman-nosed heads, a legacy 

 from Madame du Barri, the infamous mistress of Louis XV. That personage having received as a 

 present from the Danish ambassador a pair of Danish horses, with monstrous heads, small pig 

 eyes, and long flopping ears set close together, these hideous peculiarities became the fashion. 

 In fact, according to M. Gayot's account, the Norman horse of 1830 was very like the worst 

 example of our black mourning-coach stallions. 



Since that date, and particularly during the reign of the Emperor Louis Napoleon, who was 

 a consummate master of all the arts connected with horses, the Norman breed has been 

 steadily improved by crosses of English thoroughbred and roadster trotter sires ; and for 

 some years past carriage-horses have been bred in Normandy which might have passed, and 

 do sometimes pass, for the produce of Yorkshire. 



The Perchcrons arc another breed of light grey trotting cart-horses, which have in name a 

 considerable reputation in England, as useful animals for slow trotting draught, although in 

 form quite the reverse of what a judge of Clydesdales or Suffolks would select. But the 

 greatest equine authorities of P'rance altogether deny that the Perchcrons have any claim to be 



* Abiidgcd from Gibson's " Corn and Cattle of Kianec." 



