THE FRENCH COACH 



73 



France. This club was aristocratic, wealthy, and influential, and 

 began to promote racing and breeding. Since that time the gov- 

 ernment haras, the Jockey Club, and horse-breeding societies have 

 done much to improve the horse of France. 



Origin of the French Coach horse. The term " French Coach " 

 is an American one, there being no breed of that name in France. 

 The type of horse that we know by this name in America is termed 

 Demi-Sang in France, meaning half-blood. These horses when 

 descended from Eng- 

 lish sires and mares 

 of Normandy have 

 been called Anglo- 

 Normans and are often 

 referred to as such. 



Besides the Thor- 

 oughbred, there were 

 introduced into France 

 Hackneys and Nor- 

 folk trotters from 

 England and Arabs 

 and other horses from 

 the Orient. Descend- 

 ants of the great 

 Hackney stallion 

 Phenomenon were 

 taken to France and 

 used in the studs with 

 much benefit. Evi- 

 dence before the Irish 

 Commissioners of Horse Breeding showed that during the last 

 quarter of the past century from twenty to thirty Hackney stal- 

 lions a year were bought in England for the French haras, on 

 government orders. These, however, have not as a rule gone 

 into those sections drawn upon for carriage horses for the 

 American trade. 



The leading source of French Coach stock has been in a famous 

 horse region in a district west of Paris, extending to the seashore, 

 notably in the counties or departments of Calvados, Orne, and 



Fig. 25. Apropos 3445, a French Coach stallion im- 

 ported by McLaughlin Bros., Columbus, Ohio, in 

 1903. Grand champion at American Royal at 

 Kansas City in 1904, and at International Live 

 Stock Exposition, Chicago, in 1905. Photograph 

 by author 



