Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-05-14
THE HORSE
BY JOSEPH BATTELL
From Advance Sheets.
Copyright Secured.
Continued from last 70eek.
VII
EUROPEAN HORSES

CARTS and the decline the quality and numbers of riding and
driving horses in England would be certain and rapid
CANARGUE, LORRAINE AND BRETON HORSES.
Amongst the breeds of French horses which, like the Lmousn
and the Ardenne have been superseded by modern style of cult
vaton and modern demands is impossible pass the
Carmargue only the place holds very interesting
epoch Of the history of France.
river Rhone before flowing into the Mediterranean forms
delta island which the Camargue has been
given On this ourhed wd cattle and
hawd horses According tradition the Camargue horse dates
from the introduction of Numdan cavalry when in the year Rome
Favus Faccus occupied Aries and received further recruits
African blood from the colony julia and the nvasons
OF the Saacens who occupied Provence about D. $780, and again
the epoch of the Crusades.
Camargue that Camsards-thc Calvinists
Cevnnes whom the persecution Louis XIV and the pious
Madame rebcion-omcd their cavalry
AT any whatever be the origin the Camague horse he
this day characterised by of Tartar peculiar to animals
living in a wild
They were not esteemed for ware parade purposes
twelfth thirteenth ages when every cavalier
every they small
and light of bone
There believe that period the resident
gentry Camargue particular pains keep up quality
the breed both by mportaon Africa and by the casaon Of
inferior colts but with the revolution 7S9 these special peCau
tion disappeared.
They still wild during herds twenty
hundred each under charge mounted hesmen who the
lasso with considerable dexter either for catching horses
wild cattle
Zone of these wild horsemen is the hero picturesque
romance by Madame Georges Sand.
The wild horse the Camargue fed entirely wild land is
little better than pony and generally light gray color
with thoroughbred sire brings very good animal but the pro-
duce like the Exmoor requires better food than the
grass of the wild moorand and that does the agricultural
economy the little the district although the climate is
most favorable to stockbreeding of every kind
These emwd horses in past time and still
extent employed the primitive operation readng out the
labor Of exhausing nature.
AT about o'clock the morning the
sinking the until only their heads and backs
forced round struggling in This work is
tnued until nine O'clock nearly five hours when they let
drink and half hour Then they again compelled
the pile and round and round until o'clock the
afternoon when they hour AT three they begin again and
kept sharp until six O'clock when the is
expected be broken lengths of about inches They
nothing except what they pick up the sharp eye
whip of the driver This operation continued the Camargue
nearly month"; of always with the troop horses.
The work eadngou done the herds OF horses driven back
to the marshes until the next harvest
Such is rather the principal value of the Camargue
pony which under the modern system agriculture being super
seeded by the fail and the threshing machine.
The modern Lorraine horse which before the good
roads, dgcnc and carriers wagons showed strong East
blood converted into heavy harnesshorse still exhibits
of the quality of its ancestors, and freely.
The Lorraine have given up riding horseback says
Professor Mo but they go long distances always their
rhaa-banc he original of the wagoncte and you
Loaner empty wagon walking his horses indeed he often
ro with load of hay straw amongst the horse stock of
this class improved by the of English that find the
supplies which becoming important feature in the livestock
importations of England.
Brittany has excellent of small active hacks known by
the bia4 and doubcS-bdthS
They active and enduring sometimes very goodookng
and would doubt be brought high pitch perfection there
the good understanding that usually exists between
country gentlemen and the surrounding farmers The Brittany
a0Hbb has been appropriately called the COsack France
They very successfully with small English thoroughbreds
unfortunately the Beton do speak French One OF
the requests of the councgen (Which represented Brittany
the French commission Supply 1868
the breeding and of horses translated from French
into Breton.