DRAFT BREEDS 85 



which the Percheron was to be. When the Saracens invaded 

 France in 732 and were defeated bj Charles Martel, the Orien- 

 tal horses upon which they were mounted, mostly stallions, fell 

 into the hands of the Franks and were eventually, by this means, 

 distributed throughout the different parts of the country. The 

 successful Crusaders also brought back with them entire horses, 

 as the spoils of war, and here was a direct though unintentional 

 infusion of Oriental blood. 



Later when the desirable effect of this Oriental top cross was 

 manifested, there were more or less systematic im]:)ortations of 

 Oriental sires, the most notable of which was Gallipoli, a gray 

 liorse, introduced from the Orient in 1820, whose impress on 

 the horses of the country, especially through his grandson Jean 

 Le Blanc, was most marked. 



Good grass and selection are the other factors chiefly respon- 

 sible for the Percherons we have to-day. LaPerche is world- 

 famed as a grazing district. 



Early Service. — The service in which the Percheron first 

 attained distinction was as a stage-coach horse, in the ante-rail- 

 road days, when all freight and express as well as passengers 

 were moved in this way (Figs. GQ and 67). It was a rapid 

 draft job, hauling loads at an eight mile clip for long and hard 

 stages. An ordinary road horse could not pull the load, while 

 an ordinary draft liorse could not stand the pace nor the dis- 

 tance. The breeders of LaPerche specialized in tlie production 

 of this type of horse, and their success marked the beginning of 

 Percheron popularity (Fig. GS). 



The advent of railroads in the nineteenth century struck a 

 telling blow at the diligence or stage-coach horse. At tliis crisis 

 the Frencli breeders displayed a foresight that might well be 

 emulated by horse breeders of the present motor period. Instead 

 of howling calamity and defaming the locomotive, they had fore- 

 sight enough to perceive a new era of agricultural production 

 on the one hand and of commercial traffic on the other, which 

 had never before been possible, and which would require horses 

 in greater numbers than ever. But the nature of service in the 

 new field created essentially by the locomotive and railway train 

 would require horses of quite a different stamp than had pre- 



