78 



THE HORSE, ASS, AND MULE 



There is not a great variation in color, bay, in varying shades, and 

 brown, being most common. Of 147 stallions and mares owned 

 by two of the leading dealers in the United States there were 

 90 bays or brown bays, 29 browns, 17 blacks, and 1 1 chestnuts. 

 The French Coach is characterized by very good length of body, 

 with a long, somewhat arching neck and a long, wide, level croup. 

 The trot of this breed is long and powerful, rather than high and 

 trappy like the Hackney. The French have sought strong bone 

 and excellent feet and great speed for a heavy type of trotter. 



The French race track, which is either two and one half or 

 two miles long, is over a course of turf. The sod track causes 



a high knee action and 

 long stride as well as a 

 strong, well-flexed hock 

 movement. 



Speed records of French 

 Coachers. As might natu- 

 rally be supposed, the use 

 of stallions from high-class 

 speed ancestry on French 

 mares produced fast trot- 

 ters. The horses of 

 France, however, have 

 never made as fast time 

 as those of America. In 

 1873 Niger trotted 2\ 

 miles in 6.55, while up to 

 1877 the fastest record was by Pactole, who made 2^ miles in 6.38. 

 In 1 89 1 there were 1 399 contestants in races, 3 1 2 of which trotted 

 races from 2 to 3f miles at less than 3 minutes per mile, 137 

 under 2.50, 1 12 under 2.45, and 62 under 2.40. 



The size and strength of this horse enable him to go con- 

 siderable distances at comparatively great speed. In 1875, at 

 Toulouse, Zethus, under saddle, trotted \2\ miles in 37 minutes 

 21 seconds, and in another trial at Caen trotted the same dis- 

 tance in 37 minutes 19 seconds. In 1877 the mare Zacinthe 

 trotted i8| miles on an ordinary road in 59 minutes, defeating 

 Zethus, then fourteen years old. 



Fig. 30. A first-prize French Coach colt at a 

 show in France. Photograph by James B. 

 McLaughlin 



