The horse : with a treatise on draught / by William Youatt.

  • William Youatt
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The horse : with a treatise on draught / by William Youatt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    60/624 page 44
    THE FRENCH HORSE. According to the survey of 1829, France contained 2,400,000 horses including those of every description. The number of mares was 1,227,781. The greater part of these were employed in the breeding of mules, and perhaps not more than a fourth part were used for keeping up the number of horses. Besides these, nearly 27,000 horses are annually imported into France, either on speculation of immediate sale, or for the express purpose of improving the breed. Two thirds of the French horses are devoted to purposes of light work, and possess a certain degree, and that gradually increasing, of Eastern blood. There is room, however, for a great deal more than the French horse usually possesses. One third of the horses are employed in heavy work ; 70,000 in post work ; and about the same number are registered as lit for military use, although not more than half of them are on actual service. The ascertained number of deaths is about one in 12 or 13, or leaving the average age of the horse at 12. This speaks strongly in favour of the humanity of the French, or the hardihood of the horses, for it exceeds the average duration of the life of the horse in England by more than two years. Calculating the average value of the French horse at 400 francs, or 16/. 135. 4d., there results a sum of 960,000,000 francs, or 40,000,000 pounds sterling, as the gross value of this species of national property. It must be supposed that so extensive a country as France possesses various breeds of horses. Auvergne and Poitou produce good ponies and galloways; but the best French horses are bred in Limousin and Nor- mandy. From the former district come excellent saddle-horses and hunters, and from the latter a stronger species for the road, the cavalry service, and the carriage. M. Houel has recently published an interesting work on the varieties of the horse in France. He states that in the time of the Romans there were but two kinds of horses, — the war-horse, and the sumpter or pack-horse. The carriage, or draught-horse, was comparatively or quite unknown ; and even men of the highest station suffered themselves to be indolently drawn by oxen. Great care was taken to preserve or to renew the strength and speed of the war-horse, and African or Arab blood was diligently sought. An animal, the type of the English Cleveland breed, the handsomest and strongest description of the coach-horse, was thus pro- cured. By degrees, this horse was found too valuable for a hackney, and too liigh-trotting for a long journey, and a more smoothly-moving animal was gradually introduced. Still the charger did not grow quite out ot^ fashion, and in Normandy the rearing of this animal became an object of much attention to the farmer. At first they were bred too slow and pon- derous, but by degrees a horse was obtained of somewhat lighter action and considerable speed without much sacrifice of strength, and they now constitute a most valuable breed. “ I have not elsewhere,” says M. Houel, “ seen such horses at the collar, under the diligence, or the post-carriage, or the farm-cart. They are enduring and energetic beyond description. At the voice of the brutal driver, or at the dreaded sound of his never-ceasing whip, they put forth all their strength, and they keep their condition when other horses would die of neglect and hard treatment.” The little Norman cart-horse is perhaps the best for farm-work. The Norman horses—'and the same observation applies to all the northern provinces of France —are very gentle and docile. A kicking or vicious one is almost unknown there; but they are, with few exceptions, treated with tyranny and cruelty from first to last. The reign of terror may to a certain degree bo
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