222 ROAD, TRACK, AND STABLE. 
The finest Percheron that I ever saw was a coal- 
black stallion, not of great size, high-headed, com- 
pactly built, with flowing mane and tail. This fellow 
had short, quick, smooth action, exactly like that of 
the Morgan roadster family, and he was said — doubt- 
less truly —to be capable of trotting ten miles an 
hour with ease. The resemblance between the Mor- 
gan and the Arabian horse has often been remarked 
upon, and it was honestly come by, for the English 
thoroughbred horse that sired the original Justin 
Morgan was of Arab descent. In shape, also, as well 
as 1n action, there is again a resemblance between the 
Morgans and the Percherons; and so, on the whole, 
it seems not unreasonable to infer that the New Eng- 
land roadster and the French cart horse have a com- 
mon origin, both being descended, not wholly, but 
largely, from the ‘primitive horse,” as the Arab is 
sometimes called. 
No other breed, except possibly English half-bred 
animals, equals the Percheron in ability to draw a 
heavy load at a fast pace. The post and diligence 
horses formerly used in France, as we have seen, were 
Percherons. From Boulogne to Paris the pace was 
ten miles an hour, although the road was paved. The 
harness and reins were of rope, and the hostlers in 
charge of the big gray horses that did the work were 
women. The coachers, before being put to, or after 
they had been taken out, would often engage in a 
fight in the inn-yard, biting and kicking one another 
viciously ; and on these occasions the woman hostler, 
who was quite equal to the emergency, would quickly 
appear upon the scene, and, with a few well directed 
kicks from her wooden sabots, put an end to the com- 
