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 



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 



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 



