CARRIAGE HORSES AND COBS. 193 
The next type of carriage horse to be considered 
is the French coach horse. <A great antiquity is com- 
monly set up for this family by its admirers, but I 
have never been able to find any evidence in support 
of their assertions. Moreover, it is difficult to dis- 
cover exactly what was the origin of the French coach 
horse. It is commonly said to have been a cross be- 
tween the English thoroughbred and the Arab. It is 
certain that the English thoroughbred figures largely 
in the pedigree, and there may have been infusions of 
Arab blood; but the French coach horse has a bulki- 
ness of form and a mildness of temper that indicate 
some other element, and it is probaly that of the an- 
cient and admirable Percheron family. The French 
coachers are large, handsome horses, usually chestnut, 
sometimes bay, and occasionally black in color. They 
have very fine, intelligent heads, rather short necks, 
broad chests, good sloping shoulders, and the best of 
legs and feet. 
In one respect, that of speed, they are far superior 
to any strain of English coach horses. In order to 
satisfy the government test in France, a coaching 
stallion must trot two miles and two fifths at the rate 
of a mile in three minutes, and this on a turf track. 
They are also, as a rule, more gentle and docile than 
the English carriage horses, but a little inferior to the 
latter in point of “quality,” and not possessed of so 
proud a carriage. Very few French coach horses have 
been imported to the Eastern States, but there are 
many in the West. 
The action of a carriage horse should be bold and 
free; but excessively high action, being incompatible 
with speed or endurance, is a fault in the true coacher. 
13 
