The pure Percheron races in the south, and in the canton of Bazoches; in the west, in the parishes which border on Mesle-sur-Sarthe, mares possessing in various degrees some of English blood, got from the government stud of Mesle-sur-Sarthe, which is composed exclusively of thoroughbred stallions; the canton of Moulins, in the north, nourishes another high-spirited variety, endowed with excellent action, but deficient in height. Accordingly it is more valued for furnishing good horses for service than for furnishing ameliorating types. The best centers for stallion colts are: Regmalard, which is, if I may so say, the principal place for good stallions; Mauves, which furnished, thirty years ago, the famous stallion Jean-le-Blanc, of M. Miard. For fillies, Villers-en-Ouche, which stocked this country with magnificent Percheron mares; Verrieres, Corbon, Comblot, Courgeon, Loisail, Reveillon and Villiers. As for the rest of Perche, it supplies Beauce and the Chartres country, on account of the great similarity existing between them. A country of transition, it buys colts to plow the fields, keeps them only a year, and sells them grown to the cultivators of Beauce, to be sent to Paris after a sojourn of a year or so upon their farms. The environs of Courville—Chateauneuf, Brézolles, La Loupe, Champroud, Thiron, Pontgouin, Verneuil, etc.—are celebrated for the taste of its farmers for fine horses. Illiers, which formerly possessed this specialty, has occupied itself for several years in weaning colts. [Illustration: Decoration] CHAPTER III. SPEED AND BOTTOM OF THE PERCHERON HORSE. We have said that one of the distinctive qualities of the Percheron horse, and one which has won for him universal esteem, was fast trotting while drawing a heavy load. It would be, however, an error to suppose that this faculty of fast trotting puts him on a level with the blood-horse. The latter draws little, it is true; but he has a long stride, and, as regards mere speed, he beats the Percheron out and out. For the presence upon the turf of such horses as _Décidée_ and _Sarah_, who have trotted against blood-horses of the first order, sometimes honorably beaten and more often victorious, the presence, I say, of such horses, is but a happy and rare exception. The specialty of the Percheron, quick draft, has then its limits, and it is these limits that I wish to make known by means of numerous examples collected with care. What the Percheron has done in the diligences, mail and post-coaches is known to everybody; and it is useless to repeat it. From one relay to another, never dragging less than two, and more often three thousand pounds, in hot weather and cold, and over hilly, difficult roads, he made his three leagues to the hour easily, and sometimes four; but this was the “_ne plus ultra_,” beyond which it was not reasonable to go.