70 A HISTORY OP THE PEECHERON HORSE 



eously all over The Perche, beginning about the year 

 1820, full particulars as to which will presently be 

 given. Practically all these stallions were dapple- 

 gray in color, and they are all classed as "Perche- 

 ron." If either of the two stallions mentioned had 

 been used on Percheron mares the colts would cer- 

 tainly have been smaller in size than their dams, 

 whereas the general tendency at this epoch all over 

 The Perche, following the general prosperity and 

 busy times after the Revolution, was to improve the 

 weight and stature of draft horses to meet the great 

 demand for heavy horses for agricultural and indus- 

 trial and commercial purposes. Then, again, if 

 Gallipoly was sent away as being "too small" as a 

 saddle stallion, is it possible that such a horse would 

 be found large enough and strong enough at 17 years 

 old to sire heavy draft colts? 



If we could find any evidence that would assist us 

 in deducing that either of these two stallions was 

 used to ameliorate the Percheron breed, or even used 

 on real Percheron mares at all, we should be glad 

 to support such a hypothesis, especially when we 

 consider the fact that such statements have been 

 accepted and given official countenance for so long 

 a period. As it is, we can only say that if these 

 two horses had not been given prominence by Du 

 Hays as "Arabs" — to follow up the latter 's accept- 

 ance of the Abbe Fret's traditions respecting the 

 Arabian stallions of the Crusades — they would prob- 

 ably never have been mentioned in connection with 

 the Percheron breed. 



