We have spoken, in Chapter II, Part First, of the three types which the Percheron race presents—the light horse, the draft horse, and the intermediate or post horse. These three breeds come of the soil and are the product of ancient crosses. There is reason for their existing and for their marked peculiarities; and reason requires, then, that they should be preserved, and, in maintaining them always in their proper functions, we obey, in that progressive spirit which urges us to embellish everything. The first is destined to become the post horse and horse for private use, the surest and most agreeable means of locomotion. The second cannot be replaced for express carting, and for the builders and contractors of Paris and other large towns. To the third, the omnibuses always offer a steady market. Consequently, it is important to keep them without intermixture and to continue them uninterruptedly each in its respective class. Hence in seeking to add weight to a class it is necessary to avoid crossing it with a race superior in height, and different in conformation and temperament.
The heaviest and strongest of a class, united among themselves, will produce more surely the kind demanded than a too precipitate crossing. Nothing is more risky than crosses made without judgment. It is by them that harmony of form is destroyed, and a degenerate mongrel race is produced as the inevitable consequence. It is then important, in the reunion of types, never to lose sight of equality and similarity of conformation and qualities. But, at the same time, it is necessary to march with the age, study its tendencies, and be always ready to guide a movement which otherwise might drag you in its wake.
We must not lose sight of the fact that the services required of the Percheron horse are not the same as formerly. The omnibus service, especially, which, scarcely ten years ago, was considered the mildest, has, at present, become the hardest, and the one which requires heavy horses, uniting speed with strength.
On the other hand, as a consequence of the great changes in the life and means of conveyance of the wealthy, the Percheron race has been most prominently brought forward. Almost all ranks of the upper classes have now adopted the Percheron horse of the light kind for their private uses, hunts and drives in the country. The fondness for rapid traveling rendering these classes more exacting than formerly, the necessity has arisen of finding in Perche, specimens with weight and speed with a light and stylish form. Accordingly, it becomes necessary to find means of adding the greatest possible speed to the other valuable characteristics of the Percheron horse. To reach this result promptly, we should have recourse to the Arabian stallion, and this, surely, would be the quickest means. But as I do not find this Percheron race, in its present state, sufficiently prepared for this alliance, and as I think that it still needs two or three generations of preparatory crossings with itself, it will be necessary to commence, in order to attain this end, by close interbreeding.
We should, at first, commence by exploring the Percheron centers devoted exclusively to the rearing of mares, and, in these places, we should particularly visit the localities in which they have no great development as to height. Here we would select a group of from fifteen to twenty fillies, the best, the finest limbed, the most compact, the fastest trotters, and having for an extreme maximum the height of 15½ to 16 hands.
The same course should be pursued in the regions where the colts are raised, and there choice should be made of some light stallions, approaching, as much as possible, to the mares in form and qualities.
All the best foals, then, should be in their turn subjected to couplings conducted with the same care, and among the third generation would be found types sufficiently confirmed, either as founders of a race among themselves, or for crossing with the Arab, of which we will speak in the following chapter.
If a little larger size be required, it would not be necessary to have recourse to other types than those which I have just indicated. Well-balanced horses favor every modification. More tonic, substantial nourishment, and more fertile meadows would increase the height and weight, as well as the strength and spirit.
Do you desire omnibus horses?—You can obtain them by selecting in the regions which best produce the post-horse, the strongest types, the heaviest bodied, the most favored as to height, and the fastest trotters. But never yield any of these three points: weight, spirit, and speed.
The animals the nearest alike in size and form should then be coupled together, after the manner indicated above, and when weight, spirit, and speed, are found without failing in all the progeny, it will then be time, but not till then, to add style. The Arabian stallion, whose tendency, as we will see later, is to produce heavier and stronger than himself, while at the same time imparting his mark of supreme distinction, might then be introduced to embellish and confirm our good results.
The heavy draft and the express wagon horses should have weight: this is a sine qua non condition; but it would be a great mistake to confine ourselves exclusively to mere size. They should possess powerful limbs and muscles, joined to great spirit. This crossing, although the easiest, would also present great dangers should we be satisfied with weight alone; we would soon arrive at the mere lymphatic horse. It is, therefore, urgent, for the breeds possessing requisite strength, to choose those which are the most distingué, the most nervous, the finest limbed, and the most spirited, and to avoid the sluggish and lymphatic. These will be found in the elevated and dry centers, where the food is plenty and nutritious.
If Perche proper, Beauce, and the environs of Chateaudun, should not be capable of furnishing their complete contingent in this specialty (as I believe they cannot,) some good specimens could be met with among the Percheron colts raised in the environs of Bernay and on the plains of Sens.
This variety (the draft-horse) demands a great deal less care in the choice of the dams and sires. It is infinitely more elementary, since weight is principally sought after. Still, it is well, even indispensable, to select individuals short coupled and with good quarters, to hold out under the enormous loads they are obliged to draw. The means resorted to to accomplish this are judicious crosses, constantly made with a well-determined and always identical idea, tending to increase weight and strength, while preserving spirit and vigor, abundant nourishment, and breeding in those sections naturally most propitious to style and size. Soon, Perche, placed in a situation without a rival for the present, and, above all, for the future, might forever avoid asking any thing of foreign crossings. For though the choice of the stallion and the mare is so important in the production of the foal, the climate, the kind of food, the agricultural habits, and, finally, the adaptation of the region to horse breeding, are of a great deal more importance in the development of the animal. It becomes, then, somewhat difficult to indicate accurately to what types, in such particular cases, the preference should be awarded. The best are those which most nearly meet the wants of the section.