74 



THE HORSE, ASS, AND MULE 



La Manche, in that section of France known as Normandy. Here 

 was early felt the influence of the race course, and it was found 

 that by using English sires to the Normandy mares a certain 

 degree of coarseness and plainness was removed, while there was 

 an increase in speed and quality. There was much experimental 



breeding, resulting in con- 

 siderable variation in the 

 beginning. English horses 

 were used to a consider- 

 able extent in the early 

 development, but since 

 1840 French-bred horses 

 have been used almost 

 exclusively. 



The coach or carriage 

 horse of France is derived 

 from trotter stock. The 

 purpose of breeding fast 

 horses, capable of per- 

 forming hard work, was 

 clearly in the minds of the 

 French people. The pedigrees of the best of French Coach horses 

 trace back through lines of descent into the blood of English 

 Thoroughbreds, Hackney and Norfolk trotters, Arabs, etc. For 

 example, the stallion Niger, foaled in 1869, had Norfolk Phe- 

 nomenon for sire and Miss Bell, a half-blood American mare, for 

 dam. He was used in the national haras and became a very 

 famous sire. The stallion Tigris is three generations removed 

 from the English Thoroughbred, The Heir of Linne, imported 

 to the national haras at Tarbes, in 1859, ^ stallion that made 

 a strong impression on the Demi-Sang. Another interesting 

 phase of the influence of foreign blood is shown in the stallion 

 Aemulus, foaled in 1871, sired by Mambrino Pilot and out of 

 Black Bess. He was a prize winner on the American turf between 

 1876 and 1880, but was taken to France in 188 1 and placed in 

 the haras of Colaincourt (Aisne), where he rendered good service. 

 Aemulus was a combination of Mambrino blood on the sire's side 

 and Morgan on the dam's. Conquerant, foaled in 1858, another 



Fig. 26. Harley, a prominent French Coach 

 sire in service in France. Photograph by 

 James B. McLaughlin, Columbus, Ohio 



