THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



51 



opportunities for observation, and the weight 

 of authority that he brings to bear against us. 



Paris, December 24, 1852. 



My Dear Sir,— I had the satisfaction, some 

 few days ago, to receive your letter of the 19th 

 ultimo. I proceed, with great pleasure, in obe- 

 dience to your request, to give you the results 

 of my observation on the horse in Europe. No 

 subject, out of the line of my official duties, 

 has engaged so much of my attention since 

 my residence here as this — not merely from 

 the strong bent of my own tastes and predi- 

 lections, but because I have felt that much yet 

 remained to be done with us for the regenera- 

 tion and improvement of the most useful, as 

 well as the noblest, of the domestic animals. 



Horses here are generally divided (putting 

 out of view, for the present, the race-horse,) 

 into four distinct categories or classes, accord- 

 ing to the nature of the service they are re- 

 quired to perform. There is, 



1st, The heavy draught horse, (cheval de gros 

 trait,) used in towns for the dray or cart, and 

 in the country for coarse farm work or the 

 transportation of produce and merchandise. 



2dly, The lighter draught horse, (cheval de 

 trait lege?;) usually employed in public vehi- 

 cles, the diligence, or post-chaise. 



3dly, The coach or carriage horse, here 

 called the camssier. 



4ihly, The riding or saddle horse, sometimes 

 called the cheval de route, sometimes the cheval 

 de selle. 



These several descriptions of horses have 

 strongly marked characteristics, differing in 

 general widely from each other, and are ordi- 

 narily supplied by separate and distinct races, 

 which derive their appellations from the dis- 

 tricts or provinces in which they are usually 

 bred. 



It is the race called Bmdonnais, originating 

 in the country about Boulosrne-sur-mer and in 

 the ancient province of Picardy, which sup- 

 plies, for the most part, the horses for heavy 

 draught. This race is very large and clumsy, 

 with coarse limbs, short neck, very heavy and 

 ugly head, and distinguished by their bushy 

 manes and long and coarse tufts of hair con- 

 stituting the fetlock. They are, doubtless, of 

 great power, but excessively slow and sluggish 

 in their movements. 



The second class of horses (those for lighter 

 and quicker draught) is furnished mainly by 

 two races, the Breton and the Percheron, the 

 former so called from the ancient province of 

 Brittany, in which it had its origin and is yet 

 chiefly bred; the other deriving its denomina- 

 tion, for I he same reasons, from the district of 

 Perche, which under that name formed a part 

 of the ancient province of Maine. These two 

 races of horses are really of great value in 

 reference to the particular service for which 

 they are employed. They are very hardy and 



muscular, of short but quick movement, mak- 

 ing at the rate of from eight to ten miles the 

 hour with the diligence or post-chaise, under 

 a system of relays averaging about five miles 

 each. They are round-bodied and compact, 

 short and rather low, rarely exceeding five 

 feet in height. They are disfigured, like the 

 Boulonnais horses, by a big, heavy head and 

 short, thick neck, which is owing, in part, 

 to a circumstance common to both classes of 

 horses— that they are almost always unaltered. 



The carriage or coach horse in France, so 

 far as it is obtained from the native stocks of 

 the country, is supplied almost exclusively by 

 the Norman race, coming chiefly from Lower 

 Normandy. This race is of a much more 

 distinguished appearance and character than 

 either of those abovementioned. It bears a 

 general resemblance to the coach horse of 

 England, but is decidedly inferior, both in 

 beauty and power, though of late years it has 

 been progressively improved by crosses with, 

 the highest English breeds. It has not yet 

 been brought to such a degree of perfection 

 as to satisfy the demands of Parisian taste 

 and luxury, and most of the superior carriage 

 horses you see in Paris are still imported di- 

 rectly from England, or otherwise from Meck- 

 lenburg in Germany. 



The best native riding horse of France is 

 supplied by the Limousin race, so called from 

 the ancient province of that name which was 

 formerly much celebrated for its breed of horses 

 adapted to the saddle. The Limousin horse 

 is of Arab origin, as are almost all the horses 

 in the South of France, and partakes of the 

 characteristic lightness and agility of his ori- 

 ental ancestor. From neglect and other causes, 

 this peculiar race of horses has been very 

 much reduced in numbers, and it is not often 

 that you meet with a Limousin steed of the 

 ancient strain and qualities. There is another 

 race in the same part of France bearing a 

 considerable resemblance to it, and also very 

 much esteemed for the saddle, called the A«- 

 varrin, from the native country of "Henry of 

 Navarre," (the ancient province of Beam.) in 

 which it is bred. Both of these races of horses 

 are subject to the objection of being under- 

 sized; and the larger Anglo-Norman horse, 

 produced by a cross with the thoroughbred 

 English horse, is now more used than either. 

 But almost all the fine riding horses you meet 

 with in the capital are imported directly from 

 England, being generally one-half or three- 

 quarters bred. 



Besides the abovementioned uses, there is a 

 great demand in France, as in the other coun- 

 tries of Europe, for horses to supply the wants 

 of the army. The cavalry horse is drawn 

 from the one or the other of the two last named 

 classes of horses, that is, the carriage and the 

 riding horse, according as he is wanted for 

 the heavy or the light cavalry, for the officers 

 or the men. This being the case, no separate 

 classification is made here of the cavalry horse, 

 though he is always taken into consideration 



