CHAPTER XV 

 THE PERCHERON 



The original home of the Percheron horse is La Perche, France. 



For many centuries draft horses have been bred in France. The 

 Percheron, however, has developed within certain limited French 

 territory. In northwestern France, bounded on one side by the 

 English Channel, is a district known as Normandy. It com- 

 prises nearly seven million acres, and is divided into five depart- 

 ments, — La Manche, Calvados, Orne, Eure et Loir, and Sarthe. 

 In the southeastern part of Normandy, and extending beyond 

 its borders, is what might be termed a county known as La 

 Perche. All of this part of France referred to has from time 

 immemorial been a famous horse-producing region, and many of 

 the draft type of French horses and French Coachers that are 

 imported to America come from this section. The region of La 

 Perche is about fifty by sixty miles in area, and is rather broken 

 of surface, having numerous valleys and small streams of water. 



The origin of the Percheron breed is most obscure. For many 

 centuries horses of a draft type were bred in the vicinity of La 

 Perche. In early times this stock was without doubt typical of 

 the heavy draft horse generally existing in northern Europe, and 

 it is assumed that here existed the foundation stock from which 

 the modern Percheron is developed. Foreign blood, however, has 

 played an important part in the make-up of this breed. 



The improvement of the early Percheron type is generally cred- 

 ited by French and other writers to the use of the horses of the 

 Orient. This is accounted for by the existence of large numbers 

 of Arab and Barb horses in France at the time of the Saracen 

 invasion in the early part of the eighth century. These horses 

 were brought from the East, and no doubt were more or less 

 crossed upon the horses of La Perche. Two government studs 

 were established in the eighteenth century, one at Le Pin, on the 



98 



