562 THE HORSE. 



recently silent with regard to the existence of the Percheron 

 type of horses, we are entitled to suppose that a breed as distinct 

 in its character from others as is the Percheron, has but lately 

 attained its present development. h\r. Du Huys' conclusions are 

 evidently labored ; he seems content with the idea that as the 

 Arabian is as near perfection as any horse can be, and the 

 Percheron is as near perfection as any horse ought to be, there- 

 fore the Arabian and the Percheron are of the same family. He 

 entirely ignores the well-known fact, that the color of the Arabian, 

 within the knowledge of naturalists, has never been confined to 

 gray, but for ages the race has shown the bay and gray and their 

 derivatives clear-bay, brown-bay, sorrel, white, pure gray, mottle- 

 gray, blue-gray, brown and dark chestnut, indicating the mixed 

 blood of primitive stocks. 



He forgets that the Percheron does not possess that nervous 

 ambition, which is so patent in the horse, largely derived from the 

 oriental strain, that we naturally associate this temperament with 

 the idea of blood, or warm-blooded as we term it. 



It is much easier to believe that the base of the Percheron 

 breed has been something of a different character from the 

 Eastern type, the impression of which upon the present stock is a 

 matter of history. 



A gray race of horses in France can be traced back to the 

 eleventh century, when the influence of the martial barons of that 

 period was manifested over Europe in the power of their cavalry. 

 In the succeeding century as the use of heavy armor became more 

 common, we find a disposition to increase the weight and strength 

 of war-horses, which was effected by crossing with the Flanders 

 or Flemish stock. 



About this time very large horses were imported into England 

 from Lombardy, and as the French Counts were intimately 

 connected with the Norman rulers of Britain, it is probable that 

 they made use of the same blood for improving their own stock 

 of chargers. The origin or history of these Flemish and Lombardy 

 horses, we cannot with any degree of certainty ascertain, but 

 know that they were of rather coarse organizations, or what Du 

 Huys calls the musculo-lymphatic temperament. 



According to tradition, the Norman horse of France had been 

 prior to this period largely infused with Spanish blood, a stock 

 which owed its best qualities to the Saracen invasion, with its 

 consequent introduction of the Arabian and Barbary strains. 



This is the well known historical account of the Norman Horse, 

 which has for a long time been one of the celebrated races of 

 Europe. 



A feral race of gray horses, stout and pony built, for ages 

 roamed through the Pyrenean forests in Gascony, and in the 



