One of the new varieties came to be called the Canadian Pacer.  This was an amalgamation of the blood of the Narragansett Pacers brought into the St. Lawrence Valley from Rhode Island and that of the pacing strains of the old French-Canadian horse.  Canadian Pacers were almost a monopoly of the habitants, who particularly valued them for racing on the ice.  The country of the seigneuries, wrote George Barnard, "is ... well peppered with pacing horses; I say peppered, for their presence forms the seasoning of their owners' life throughout the long cold winters."  The Canadian Pacers, it might be added, continued to be extensively bred in the Province of Quebec till recent times, not only for the pleasure of the habitants, but for export.  While there was still a demand for them during the eighteen-seventies as saddlers in the rougher sections of Ontario, Kentucky, and Tennessee, most of those sold then and later found the same markets as the trotting horses of Quebec -- a natural result of the fact that they were usually double-gaited.

A second recognizable and common type of horse was the outcome of crossing the Thoroughbred on the French-Canadian.  In Lower Canada and the nearby parts of the United Stats, one authority remarked, "they have a horse of great speed and power ... called the 'Frencher.'  The English officers bring over from the mother country, fine blooded stallions for troops and parade.  It is the cross of these and the Canadian mares, which produces the 'Frencher,' -- blood is indispensable."  Occasionally, however, the "Frencher" was the offspring of a French-Canadian sire and a blooded dam.  An example was "Conqueror."  Foaled near Montreal in 1825, he was awarded three prizes as the best horse in Canada, and then attracted much attention in Massachusetts and Maine.  There were evidently many Frenchers around Quebec in the early part of the nineteenth century.  Later, especially about 1850, they were to be found at their best in the neighbourhood of Montreal, where they were commonly called "St. Lawrences."  While they were sometimes used as saddle-horses, they won their popularity as roadsters.  From their number came some of the best trotters sent from Lower Canada to the United States in the eighteen-forties and fifties.  It was to a considerable degree through the dams of Frenchers that the blood of the French-Canadian horse entered into the make-up of the American trotter.  There is no record of Frenchers being bred among themselves in the hope of establishing a new breed, though this may well have been done.  If such attempts were made, they were not persisted in, so that sooner or later the offspring must have reverted to ancestral types.  Moreover, on account of the deterioration of the French-Canadian breeding stock hereinafter described, the first cross between the Thoroughbred and the "French-Canadian" mare came to resemble less and less the Frencher or Half Blood of the middle of the nineteenth century, and , indeed, came to be scarcely distinguishable from the cross of the Thoroughbred on common mares.  Doubtless as a result of these two tendencies, by the end of the century the Frencher was considered to have completely disappeared.

A third type of horse was a heavy-draft -- according to early  nineteenth-century standards -- also known as the "St. Lawrence," but of most uncertain ancestry.  They averaged about 1 200 pounds, but some of them weighed 1 300.  The Honourable Sydney Fisher, Minister of Agriculture in the Laurier Government (1896-1911), who as a boy on the Island of Montreal in the eighteen-fifties was well acquainted with them, described them as "generally black, big, proud horses, holding their heads high, with tremendous forelocks, manes and tails, very broad chests, of course, strong animals."  While many of them may have derived their characteristics primarily from the heavy Kamouraska horses, most of them had, whatever may have been their share of French-Canadian blood, an inheritance from one or more breeds of foreign draft-horses.  It is probable that a good many of them were crosses between French-Canadian horses and either Shires or Clydesdales, both of which breed were found among the British settlers around Montreal, and both of which were in the first half of the nineteenth century ordinarily black.  Others were probably descended in part from the "McNitt Horse," or "European," a French draft-horse (perhaps a Percheron) brought into Lower Canada in 1816.  But perhaps the most important contributor was the Vermont draft-horse, itself a mongrelized type, representing an amalgamation of several breeds, including, in the opinion of Henry William Herbert, the Cleveland Bay, the Thoroughbred, the Shire, and possibly the Suffolk Punch.  The horses which were brought northward to Montreal and other towns in trade were ordinarily heavy-drafts, Presumably mostly from Vermont, and such being the case, mostly of this breed.  During the course of the Rebellion on 1837-8, an entire regiment (the First Dragoon Guards) sent out from the British Isles was equipped with these Vermont draft-horses.  Another American draft-horse, the "Esopus," which was of much importance in the lower Hudson Valley in the eighteen-twenties and early eighteen-thirties, may have contributed something to the development of the heavy St. Lawrences, owing to the fluidity of the local and international horse trade of those days, but no mention has been found in the literature of the times claiming that it did so.  By the end of the century the heavy St. Lawrences, like the lighter horses passing under the same name, were no longer found on the Island of Montreal or in its vicinity.  Their disappearance may be attributed to the fact that after 1850 the English and Scottish farmers on the Island of Montreal and in the nearby counties, especially Beauharnois and Huntingdon, emphasized more and more the production of Clydesdale grades.

The crossing and the recrossing of French-Canadian horses with other breeds, whether Thoroughbreds, Clydesdales, Shires, or Vermont draft-horses, or with plain mongrels, had, unfortunately, quite often the result of producing animals which showed in diminishing degree the good qualities of the French-Canadian horse.  As early as 1835 William Evans was lamenting the deterioration of the French-Canadian horses around Montreal in consequence of the crossing with American horses.  A decade later he asserted that it had become almost impossible to procure a French-Canadian horse of unquestionably pure breeding in the Montreal district.  In 1850 another observer reported from L'Islet, theretofore a stronghold of the pristine French-Canadian horse, that the process of mongrelization was proceeding apace as a consequence of the acquisition by the habitants of weedy and vicious horses brought in by American dealers.

The deterioration of the French-Canadian horse was of course more rapid in the other sections of North America where it had once been important, but where the population was no longer predominantly French-Canadian.  By the eighteen-twenties the French-Canadian horses on Prince Edward Island, though still seemingly the commonest type, were being "improved" out of existence by crossing with other breeds.  In Nova Scotia, where, during the late eighteenth century, the horses were still chiefly French-Canadian, the process of amalgamation with other breeds had gone even farther by the late eighteen-twenties than in Prince Edward Island.  They were now described as a mixture of the French-Canadian and English breeds.  This remark also applied to New Brunswick, where, by the late eighteen-forties, the only comparatively pure French-Canadian horses were in the hands of the Acadians.

French-Canadian horses, it will be recalled, were very common throughout Upper Canada in the days of the Loyalists and later.  They were sometimes used for farm work but they seem ordinarily to have been kept as roadsters, particularly by the proprietors of livery stables and others who required an animal which would stand a great deal of abuse.  They were, it was said, when in good condition, "much thought of as superior roadsters and gentle in harness, and will often sell for more money than in the lower province by ten or twenty dollars, if well paired and matched in size and action."  Crossing French-Canadian horses with the second-rate American horses then being brought into Upper Canada in large numbers was considered to make good horses for ordinary farm work.  Because French-Canadian horses really were excellent for the purpose of up-grading, the tendency was to use them for this purpose, just as was done in New England, and not to breed them in their purity.  By the early eighteen-fifties there were so few of the pure breed left in Upper Canada that stallions were being brought in from Lower Canada.

In Illinois the pure French-Canadian horse seems to have disappeared earlier than in Upper Canada, doubtless owing to depletion of the stock through purchases by the American settlers in the early nineteenth century, as well as to failure to replenish the breed by importations from the St. Lawrence Valley.  It may be, however, that the recognized superiority during the eighteen-forties of the horses of southern Illinois to those of northern Illinois was to be attributed to inheritance from the French-Canadian horse.  Certainly those in a position to judge were of the opinion that as late as 1856 there was still in Illinois " a considerable mixture of the French horses."

In Michigan the French-Canadian horse preserved its identity much longer than in Illinois.  Here, however, it seems to have remained entirely in the hands of the old French settlers around Detroit, perhaps on account of a prejudice against it on the part of the rest of the inhabitants, who considered it a "poor man's horse."  As late as 1872, a Detroit historian, writing of the horses of these French settlers, affirmed that "they receive literally no care whatever, and roam in bands, scouring along the roads with the speed of liberty, and often making the night hideous with the uproar," and went on to quote from a poem by a local judge describing "these nightly races through the town."

      Unchecked, with flying leap and bound,

      The savage courser spurns the ground,

      No venturous horseman leads the ranks,

      No spur has galled their heaving flanks,

      No master's hand has grasped the mane,

      No champing jaw has known the rein;

      But in a countless host they press,

      Free as the storm, but riderless;

      Compact as when an army's tramp

      Bears down upon a foeman's camp;

      While the ground trembles, like the shore

      Where foaming lines of breakers roar!

Throughout Upper Canada and the states of the Old Northwest, as well as in the Indian country of the upper Mississippi Valley and of the Canadian North-West, there was in the nineteenth century a considerable intermixture of the blood of the French-Canadian horse with that of the broncho of the southwestern plains.  "The various breeds of Indian ponies found in the West," wrote Henry William Herbert, "generally appear to me to be the result of a cross between the Southern mustang, descended from the emancipated Spanish horses of the south-west, and the smallest type of the Canadian, the proportions varying according to the localities in which they are found, those farther to the south sharing more largely of the Spanish, and those to the north of the Norman blood."  Those found in Upper Canada in the eighteen-twenties and thirties, especially among the Mohawks along the Grand River, represented one extreme.  They were smaller than the French-Canadian horses, being under thirteen hands, but in other respects they resembled them so closely that it was difficult to identify in them any trace of a mustang inheritance.  On the other hand, among the Indian ponies of the South-West there were individuals which passed as pure bronchos, but in which an experienced eye could detect marks of French-Canadian ancestry.  This, of course, is precisely what would be expected, in view of the widespread horse-thievery prevailing among the Indians.  At the end of the nineteenth century, the superiority of the northern Indian pony to the pure broncho in disposition, intelligence, and conformation was ascribed to the fact that the former was partly French-Canadian in origin.

While the demand for French-Canadian horses, pure or crossbred, for export from Lower Canada to the United States attained considerable proportions before 1850, it was much less than it was destined to be in the third quarter of the century.  On account of the proximity of the province to the urban markets of New York and New England, the rising prices for horses which accompanied and followed the Mexican War were immediately reflected in increased activity on the part of American dealers in the St. Lawrence Valley.  During the autumn of 1848, William Evans called attention to "the high prices paid for the pure breed of Canadian horses, by strangers," at Montreal.  The next year he remarked that "there is a constant market at Montreal and other places for the sale of Canadian horses of all descriptions, and at fair prices, to parties coming here to purchase them from the United States."  Dealers from the United States were not content at this time with purchasing such horses as were brought into Montreal and other towns for sale, but were appearing in the seigneuries -- in Beauce and L'Islet for example -- to make their own selections.  The trade expanded gradually thereafter, being helped somewhat by the free entry of the products of the farm into the United States under the Reciprocity Treaty of 1855-66, but not being greatly hampered by the restoration of the American duties in 1866.  Montreal continued to be the leading market.  It was stated in 1882 that "during the season, several thousands [of horses] are bought weekly for the  American market and are shipped from Point St. Charles [a Montreal suburb]."  By this time the older secondary markets, such as that at Three Rivers, in so far as they still existed, were becoming completely tributary to Montreal.

From the late eighteen-forties on, a considerable proportion of the horses exported to the United States was composed of common work-horses.  A few, especially among those sent to the lumbering districts of Maine, apparently were of the heavy-draft St. Lawrence variety.  Many others, as earlier, were trotters, and some were pacers.  Unfortunately, from the point of view of those individuals who sought to preserve the pure French-Canadian race of horses, a great many were stallions.  Such stallions, kept for crossing on the common mares to produce animals suitable for farm work and for driving, were found in most of the northern and western states during the eighteen-fifties.  It was reported from Kentucky in 1853 that breeders there had "recently imported from Canada the Norman French horse, and others from Vermont of the same breed, which have been crossed on our English race-mare, and produced a most valuable stock."  Others were brought into Ohio about the same time.  Four years or so later it was stated that "a black stallion imported from Canada, a few years since, by Mr. John Legg, of Skaneateles, N.Y., has got several hundred colts, which, when broken, have averaged about one hundred dollars a piece in value; a sum considerably above the average prices of horses in the country.  They are almost invariably fair roadsters, and excellent farm horses.  This cross is more and more finding favor among our farmers."  Again, James M. Hiatt, writing in 1881, asserted that "it is well known that a few years ago Canadian stallions were largely used throughout our Eastern and Northwestern States, in which region they attained great popularity."  They lost much of this popularity before 1870, however, partly because they tended to be displaced by Percherons imported from France, partly because fewer good specimens were to be obtained in the St. Lawrence Valley than formerly.

Laments over the approaching and apparently inevitable extinction of the pure French-Canadian horse multiplied in Lower Canada during the eighteen-fifties and sixties, and not without reason.  So many stallions had been exported to the United States by the time of Canadian Confederation (1867) that the best authorities believed that none of undisputed purity of race remained anywhere in Lower Canada -- not even in the remotest parishes of Gaspé, Saquenay, or Chicoutimi.  Principal McEachran of the Montreal Veterinary College regretfully bore similar witness a dozen years later.  "In the Province of Quebec, we are assured by those best qualified to give an opinion, that our horses are steadily but surely degeneration," he wrote.  "The question is often asked; why? and the reply is always the same; the country is over-run by cheap mongrel stallions."

While agricultural leaders were thoroughly in agreement as to the deterioration of the old French-Canadian horse and as to the desirability of arresting it, they differed as to the procedure to be adopted.  Some of them were convinced that the only way of rebuilding the breed was through the importation of horses from Europe to cross on the mongrelized stock found in the province.  The others, however, clung to the idea that it might still be possible to revive the race by careful selection and breeding of the best of the local horses.

The most prominent champion of the importation of foreign horses for the upgrading of the French-Canadian breed was Joson Perrault, who was editor successively of several Montreal agricultural journals as well as an official of the Board of Agriculture of Lower Canada.  He began as early as 1858 to advocate the introduction of Percherons, and very nearly did import some in 1859.  It was not, however, till 1866 that he managed to select several in France, which he bought on account of the agricultural societies of Assomption, Beauharnois, Quebec, Rouville, and Verchères.  The agricultural societies of Chateauguay and Huntingdon counties at the same time imported a few Anglo-Normans and Bretons, under the influence of Perrault but without any direct help from him.  The Anglo-Normans were in reality not an established breed, being a cross between the Thoroughbred and the Norman horse -- that is, very much like the Frencher described above.  In any case, no more Anglo-Normans and Bretons were brought from France, for it was admitted that they were less adapted for improving the race of French-Canadian horses than the Percherons, provided that the Percherons were well chosen.  (It will be remembered that the best authorities frequently remarked the similarity of the Percherons to the French-Canadian.)  Unfortunately, while Perrault was well versed in agricultural theory, he appears to have been a poor judge of horses in the flesh.  The Percherons which he obtained in France were not of the small or diligence type, which was most akin to the French-Canadian horse in conformation, but of the large type, and not a single one of those which he picked out was a first-rate specimen of the large type.  As a result, the chief effect of these importations was not the improvement in the horses of the St. Lawrence Valley which Perrault had confidently anticipated, but merely the discrediting of the entire Percheron race.  Before 1880 they ceased to be imported into Quebec.  This almost immediate loss of favour was the more striking on account of the fact that in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, and other western states wisely selected Percherons were contemporaneously laying the foundation of a specialized heavy-draft industry.

The foremost leader in the endeavour to restore the old French-Canadian horse, as in that to revive the old French-Canadian cow, was Dr. J.A. Couture.  During the early eighteen-eighties he began an agitation which resulted in 1886 in the establishment by the government of Quebec of a French-Canadian Stud Book, and the appointment of a commission to manage it.  This commission accomplished nothing.  In 1895 its work was taken over by the French Canadian Horse Breeders' Association, which came into existence primarily for this purpose.  For four or five years the Association discharged its functions adequately, but then it became so careless that it admitted into the Stud Book many animals which had no justification in either conformation or genealogy to be there.  Accordingly, the Minister of Agriculture of Canada, on the advice of Dr. J.G. Rutherford, who as Live Stock Commissioner had charge of the records of the various breeds of livestock in the Dominion, had a discussion in 1907 with the officers and members of the Association.  The result was a decision to appoint a commission which would make an entirely new stud book, in which entry would be permitted only to such stallions and mares as could meet a defined standard, which was agreed on.  Early in 1909 a total of 2 528 horses and mares had been presented for registration, but the commission saw fit to approve only 134 stallions and 835 mares, and rejected no less than 345 animals which had been in the Stud Book of 1886.  It was only too evident to the commission, as it was to Dr. Rutherford and others who had known the French-Canadian horse of a generation earlier, that most of the animals in Quebec claimed by their owners to be of the pure breed had more or less Percheron or Clydesdale blood )especially the latter), and that even where they had the conformation of the true breed, it was in consequence of atavism.  There were a few supposedly French-Canadian horses in Ontario, Alberta, and Manitoba at this time, but these were of the most dubious ancestry.  It was therefore out of the question to obtain sires of any merit outside the immediate valley of the St. Lawrence.  Dr. Rutherford was of the opinion that the French-Canadian horses wherever found had become so completely mongrelized that it was hopeless to try to restore the race to its original condition.  He did believe, however, that it would be possible, by continued selection and inbreeding, to create what would be in effect a new breed, but one which would have most of the characteristics of the old, and which might even in some respects be an improvement upon it.  A breeding programme of the type he recommended was inaugurated at the Cap Rouge Experimental Station in 1913.  It was transferred to the St. Joachim Farm in 1919, and since 1940 has been continued on a reduced scale at the Experimental Station of Ste. Anne de la Pocatière.  This programme has resulted in the development of the present French-Canadian horse, or, as it is officially called, the "Canadian horse."

While the old French-Canadian horse thus may be considered to have disappeared as a distinct race towards the end of the nineteenth century, its influence was still to be observed in the regions where once it had been known.  The common horses of the Maritime Provinces, New York, Michigan, and Illinois were the better on account of their trace of French-Canadian blood, as were, to a much greater degree, those of Ontario, New England, and Quebec.  Perhaps the most important debtors were the famillies of Standardbreds, whether trotters or pacers.  "The American trotting horse is an American creation," we read in an article in the National Live Stock Journal of 1881.  "The material has been taken from various sources, but more largely from the short, quick-stepping French Canadians than from any other source.  We run against the Canuck blood almost everywhere in our trotting pedigrees....  The Kentucky trotting pedigrees are full of it....  New York trotting pedigrees are full of it....  The New England pedigrees are full of it...and in Mr. Thompson's excellent work on Maine-bred Horses, you encounter this Canuck blood on almost every page."  Surpassed only by the Thoroughbred as a contributor to the development of the leading American horses of the end of the nineteenth century, and unsurpassed as a contributor to the development of the common stock of Quebec, the old French-Canadian horse is worthy of the lasting respect of breeders and historians.

ROBERT LESLIE JONES

Robert Leslie Jones