THE PERCHERON HORSE. 563 



Champagne province ; these also may have been used in the for- 

 mation of the Norman, as they have been known to reassume (by 

 judicious crossing and liberal nourishment and attention through 

 a few generations), the normal characteristic of the primitive 

 white stock, large proportions. 



Here then is a race made up of the primitive long-haired white 

 stock, intermingled with several artificial races modified in differ- 

 ent countries by climate, food, and education, but largely indebted 

 to the Arab and Barb influences for nobility, constitution, ambi- 

 tion, and symmetry, which we may term blooded qualities, and to 

 the cold-blooded stock of Germany for size and power. 



In Perche, adjoining the home of the Norman, we find a horse 

 similar in color (white and the mixture of white and bay, the dap- 

 ple) and weight, but finer and nobler, with more constitutional 

 vigor, precocity, and activity ; in short, showing more blood. 



Is it likely, as Du Huys supposes, that these two neighbors have 

 been distinct races for eight hundred years, or is it easier to be- 

 lieve that the Percheron is of comparatively recent formation ; 

 that he owes his cleaner limbs and finer physique to later infu- 

 sions of Eastern blood than that which the Saracens brought into 

 France ? 



Du Huys writes under the head of " Modifications of the Per- 

 cheron race." " The Percheron race comes from the Arab, but it 

 is necessary to know the causes which have separated it from the 

 primitive type. How has it been modified ? How has it lost the 

 Arabian character in which it must have been at first clothed ? A 

 large number of the French races have been even more pro- 

 foundly modified, and have become abject, miserable, puny, and 

 misshapen. All equine races have been changed by the effects of 

 climate, by the extinction of the feudal system, and by the inau- 

 guration of peaceful habits, which have made an agricultural and 

 draft horse, of the horse primitively used for the saddle and for 

 war. The Percherons must have been especially modified by con- 

 tact with the breed of Brittany, where their striking character- 

 istics are now met with in a large number of individuals. 



However, it has been vigorously attempted to offset the intru- 

 sion of the heavy horse by the continued use of the Arabian 

 horse. Indeed we see towards 1760, under the administration of 

 the Marquis of Brigges, manager of the stud stables of Piu, all the 

 large number of fine Arabian, Barb, and Eastern stallions that 

 this establishment owned, were put at the disposition of the Count 

 of Mallart, for use at his mare stables of Cdesme near Bellesme. 



The arrival of the Danish and English stallions at the stud 

 stables of Piu, put an unfortunate end to the influence of the 

 Arab horse in Perche, and it will now be many a long year before 

 the Eastern blood will be seen as before. It is only towards 1820, 



