Grey Percheron horse: Horse that changes its body color with age

The domestication of horses has always been one of the single most important discoveries for early human societies. Apart from its use for leisure, it serves a lot of important functions around the globe. Further, there are many breeds of horses that are developed as per human requirements. Of these, some horses consist of rare characteristics that do create a fascination for us to learn more about them. Grey Percheron is one among these breeds, let us get familiar with it via this blog.

The fact behind its royal nomenclature.

Having its original roots in France, which was formerly the part of Perche province, the breed included “Percherian” in its name whereas the grey meant its color which is usually black or grey during its birth.

Its scientific features.

Grey Percheron Horse is a breed belonging to the family of a draft horse having western France as its place of origin. Some of its characteristics include:

Their color is grey or black at the time of birth.
They are well-muscled when comparison to many other breeds of horses.
Widely famous for their high brainpower and preparedness to work.
Their ancestors are assumed to have been present since the 17^th century in the Huisne river valley of France.
Being used as war horses initially, are now considered important for shipping heavy goods and in agriculture across many countries.
The size of the grey Percheron horse varies from place to place, for instance, its height ranges between (61 to 73 inches, 155 to 185 cm) and weight from 500 to 1,200 in France, whereas in the US the height range is from 66 and 71 inches, 168 and 180 cm with an average weight of 860 kg.

History of their existence.

Grey Percheron Horse has been an important animal during World war I in Europe. Thereafter, from the year 1918, their breeding got started in Great Britain. It was only after this beginning, the British Percheron Horse Society was formed in the same year.

Certain significant steps taken forward for their lifelong existence were:

The US Percheron registry was developed in 1934, after going through many changes on the name of studbook ownerships.
This species of horse reached a count of 70% of the draft horse populace in the US in the 1930s, but after World War II, got it dropped considerably.
Once, they are provided extra care during the early 2000s, their number has significantly risen.
They are now extensively used for pulling vehicles and carrying out jungle work.

The feature creating fascination.

It is considered that Percherons are mostly grey or black-colored during their birth. In the same way, the grey Percheron horse begins its life with a darker, black color and starts changing its color with age.

Even though the time for greying may vary for different horses, with each passing year, their dark hair color starts varying to grey hairs speckled all over the body. And in the endpoint of their life, this color changes to white. Further, it is only due to this region, Britain has the threshold to take only grey or black prechherons for racing and work purpose. This feature makes its existence a bit suspicious and a fact of fascination for all of us.