230 A HISTORY OF THE PPECHEBON HORSE 



days, but contented himself rather with eulogizing 

 the breed, and accepting, apparently without ques- 

 tion, such traditions as had been handed down by 

 writers who made no pretense of basing their 

 statements upon anything more reliable than mere 

 hearsay. True to their ancient habit of being more 

 interested in the work of the moment than delving 

 amidst dusty documents dealing with a long for- 

 gotten past, these stud book organizers builded, as 

 best they could, upon Du Hays and the memories 

 of the older inhabitants of the district at the time 

 they took up pedigree registration. 



Obviously little success was met with in attempt- 

 ing to obtain actual pedigrees of the remote an- 

 cestors of the horses found in the Perche at the 

 date this basic volume was undertaken. Clearly, 

 in the absence of any known written records, the 

 practical thing to do was to make a beginning with 

 the stock in the hands of the leading breeders of 

 the district at the time, with such particulars as 

 were to be had concerning the ancestry in the 

 first and second generations. This was the course 

 in the main pursued and in this respect the be- 

 ginnings of Percheron registration on both sides 

 the Atlantic differed in no wise from the circum- 

 stances surrounding the first attempts at establish- 

 ing public records for all our other best-known 

 breeds of improved domestic animals. 



The Case of Jean-le-Blanc. — The great majority 

 of stallions and mares entered in the first volume 

 were animals foaled between 1878 and the date of 



