120 A HISTORY OF THE PERCHEKON HOESE 



weighing, in full flesh, about 1,600 pounds. At that 

 time he was a dark iron-gray, but long before his 

 death, he became perfectly white. 



"At this time the writer was living within a few 

 miles of Messrs. Fullington and Martin, and well 

 does he remember the jokes that were hurled at 

 Charley Fullington for what was called his folly in 

 bringing such a horse all the way from France. The 

 chunky, short-legged, gray colt and his importers 

 were the butt of every horseman in that country; 

 but the FuUingtons believed in him firmly, and bred 

 several mares to him in the spring of 1852. His 

 service fee that season was put at $10 to insure, 

 yet such was the prejudice against him that only 

 ten mares were bred to him, and seven of this num- 

 ber belonged to his owners. In the meantime, Mr. 

 Erastus Martin had come to the conclusion that the 

 horse was destined to prove a bad investment, and 

 accordingly, he embraced an opportunity of selling 

 his interest to Mr. Gordon, one of his neighbors. 



"In the spring of 1853 it was thought best to try 

 a new field with the big gray colt, and accordingly 

 he was sent to Dayton, and his service fee was fixed 

 at $15; but he did very little better there than he had 

 done during the previous season in Union County. . 

 Early in the summer of 1853, the few colts that he 

 had got in Union County during the previous season 

 began to show signs of that remarkable excellence 

 that was destined soon to make the despised French 

 horse famous throughout the entire west, and then 

 came a demand that he should be returned to that 

 county. Accordingly, during the next season (1854) 

 he was again kept at Milf ord Center, Union County, 

 and although his fee was placed at $15 — a price hith- 

 erto unheard of in that region — he was well patron- 

 ized by the people who had two years before ridi- 

 culed him." 



