Percheron

The founding stallion is usually named as Jean le Blanc, foaled in 1823, whose descendants run through the whole modern breed. They were bred first as war horses, then as coach horses, then for farm and city haulage.

The first American imports came in 1839. The association that became the Percheron Horse Association of America was founded in Chicago in 1876, ahead of France's own stud book in 1893, and by the turn of the twentieth century the Percheron was the most numerous draft breed in America. In the 1930s it accounted for 70 percent of the country's purebred draft horses.

The tractor nearly finished it. Registrations bottomed at 85 horses in 1954, and the recovery since has brought the US book back to roughly 2,500 new registrations a year as of 2009.

They are gray or black. In the United States they run 16.2 to 17.3 hands and average about 1,900 pounds; the French range is wider in both directions. The profile is straight, the forehead broad, and the legs carry little feather.

They are known for being active and quick for their size, which is why they were the coach horse of choice.

Docile is in every description, alongside powerful and clean-limbed.

Quick, for a draft: the energy that made a coach horse is still in there, which is a feature in harness and a thing to know on the ground.

Draft and farm work, forestry, carriage and haulage, plus the show, parade and sleigh work that keeps hitches in the public eye. The US Army's caisson horses have included working Percherons.

They remain the common draft cross for sport horses.

Leg checks. Chronic progressive lymphedema, the progressive swelling of the lower legs seen mainly in draft horses, has been described in Percherons, according to UC Davis's Center for Equine Health. It has no cure, but careful management can slow it.

A muscle test and a feeding plan. UC Davis's genetics laboratory lists the Percheron among the draft breeds appropriate for PSSM1 testing. An affected horse is managed with daily exercise and a diet low in sugar and starch, and UC Davis notes that affected horses are often easy keepers.

University of Minnesota Extension also lists drafts among the horses at higher risk of equine recurrent uveitis.

The Percheron graduated from The Livestock Conservancy's Conservation Priority List in 2013, when the global population had passed 32,000. The Conservancy credits breeders in North America and the National Stable in France for the recovery.

The low came after the Second World War. Oklahoma State University's breed history credits a handful of farmers, many of them Amish, with keeping the breed going through the twenty-year draft-horse depression that followed.

The trade is size and upkeep, as with any draft. Gray horses also carry a high lifetime risk of melanoma, which is a real consideration in a breed where gray is the most common color.

The association registers crossbreds in their own category, so read the papers: purebred and Percheron-cross are different things at the Percheron Horse Association of America.

Ask what the horse has done in harness. A made work horse and an unstarted pasture pet are different purchases at the same weight.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.