Page:Hints to Horse-keepers.djvu/64

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56
HOW TO BREED A HORSE.

sinews and feet, apparently unconscious of disease, for which the latter race are famous.

An English writer in The British Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, speaking of the general working-horse of Normandy, says: "The horses of Normandy are a capital race for hard work and scanty fare. I have never seen such horses at the collar, under the diligence, the post-carriage, the cumbrous and heavy voiture or cabriolet for one or two horses, or the farm cart. They are enduring and energetic beyond description; with their necks cut to the bone, they flinch not; they put forth all their efforts at the voice of the brutal driver or at the dreaded sound of his never-ceasing whip; they keep their condition when other horses would die of neglect and hard treatment. A better cross for some of our horses cannot be imagined than those of Normandy, provided they have not the ordinary failing of two much length from the hock downward, and a heavy head." The two points last named are precisely those which are entirely got rid of in the best style of Percheron Normans, which are, as we have stated, those of the Normans most deeply and thoroughly imbued with the Arabian, or, to speak more correctly, Barb blood of Andalusia. It is not easy to procure the best and fastest stallions of this breed, as they are bought up by the French Government for the diligence and mail service, for which they are highly prized, and in which they are constantly kept at a pace varying from five to nine miles an hour, over roads and behind loads which would speedily kill an English or American horse, without loss of health or condition. But there is no difficulty in obtaining the choicest mares at comparatively low rates—mares being little valued for work in France. Mr. Edward Harris, of Moorestown, N. J., who has been at much pains to import fine horses and mares of this breed, asserts of his horse "Dilligence," that