The Percheron race comes from the Arab; but it is useful to know the causes which have separated it from the primitive type. How has it been modified? How has it lost the Arabian character, in which it must have been at first clothed? A large number of the French races have been even more profoundly modified, and have become abject, miserable, puny, and misshapen. All equine races have been changed by the effects of climate, by the extinction of the feudal system, and by the inauguration of peaceful habits which have made an agricultural and draft-horse of the horse primitively used for the saddle and for war. The Percherons must have been especially modified by contact with the breed of Brittany, where their striking characteristics are now met with in a large number of individuals.
However, it has been vigorously attempted to offset the intrusion of the heavy horse by the continued use of the Arabian horse. Indeed, we see, towards 1760, under the administration of the Marquis of Brigges, manager of the stud-stables of Pin, all the large number of fine Arabian, Barb, and eastern stallions, that this establishment owned, were put at the disposition of the Count of Mallart for use at his mare-stables of Cóèsme, near Bellesme. The arrival of the Danish and English stallions at the stud-stables of Pin put an unfortunate end to the influence of the Arab horse in Perche, and it will now be many a long year before the eastern blood will be seen as before. It is only towards 1820, still at the same chateau of Cóèsme, with the grandsons of those old admirers of the Arabians, that we find again two Arab horses from the stud-stables of Pin, Godolphin and Gallipoli. These two valuable stock-getters, both gray, again gave tone and ardor to the Percheron race, and transformed definitely into gray horses the stock of the entire country, which had, it was said, become less uniform, and of all colors.
The Brittany horses have been strongly attracted towards Perche by the immense outlet offered by the public service, since the increase of the roads, to the Percherons. Mixtures between the two races must have been frequent. And when a good Brittany horse was there met with, he must have been made use of, and the old native type has gradually tended to disappear, and its traces become more and more rare. This mixture of Percheron and Brittany blood, too well marked to be questioned, arises from several causes, which we will take up successively in review.