CHAPTER XIV. 



DRAFT HORSES. 



The Percheron Horse — Breed divided into three classes — Percheron, son 

 of the Arabian — As a draft horse — Road qualities — English draft 

 or shire horse — Origin and history ~- Disposition — Importers — The 

 Clydesdale horse — Introduced into Scotland in thirteenth century — 

 Clydesdale Society of America — Importers. 



THE PERCHERON HORSE. 



THE Percheron horse in his own country, Perche, France, 

 is divided into three classes ; first, the light Percheron, 

 in which the sanguine temperament predominates ; second, the 

 draft Percheron, in which the lymphatic temperament is the 

 most fully developed ; and, third, the Percheron intermediately 

 between these two, partaking of the one by its lightness and 

 the other by its muscular force. 



Breeders of Percherons in Perche preserve pure and with- 

 out intermixture the three types ; but the Percheron horse as 

 bred for export — chiefly to the United States of America — is 

 the second type, the draft breed, and is a horse from sixteen to 

 sixteen and one-half hands high, and weighing, when in full 

 flesh, some 1,600 to 1,800 pounds, and sometimes more ; Ara- 

 bian built, clean limbs, and the .very best of feet, and usually 

 gray in color. 



A French writer on the horse of Perche says : " "We can- 

 not find in history the written positive proof that the Percheron 

 is an Arab, but we believe it easy." 



It is well known that after the defeat of the Saracen Chief 

 Abderame by Charles Martel, on the plains of Vonille, the 

 magnificent cavalry of the foe fell into the hands of the vic- 

 tors, since more than 300,000 infidels were killed on that day, 

 and the horses which they rode were, like themselves, from 



the East. 



(135) 



