The origins

Many authors estimate the genesis of the breed to be when the Roman armies passed through Boulogne, mustered by Cesar in 54 B.C. before embarking for England.

Two thousand horsemen riding numid horses from North Africa stayed in the region ; the breed of Boulogne horses originated from the cross between this breed from North Africa and the local breed of horses.

However, this oriental blood in the Boulogne horse was most probably introduced more recently, during the Crusades of the Spanish Occupation or the First Empire.

Even more recently, Arab stallions have been used by the "Haras Nationaux" in the Boulogne region for crossbreeding with the Boulogne breed. The result is called "Araboulonnais". These horses show qualities for carriage but have not been registered in the stud-book of the breed. However, they are acknowledged as "facteur boulonnais" and the crossbreeding with thoroughbred Boulogne mares produces Boulogne horses.

Similar crossbreedings have been realized in other areas such as la Marne (Gorm des Ollivats is the result of the cross between Balkh d'Aigremont, a thoroughbred Arab horse from the Haras of Montier-en-Der, and Udine, a Boulogne horse, owned by M. and Mrs Monsus).

Characteristics

The paces of the Boulogne horse are active and agile. The Boulogne horse is very elegant, which is why people call it "the thoroughbred horse among draught horses".

The elegance of the Boulogne horse comes from the Arab blood which was reinjected at different times in this very old breed. The Boulogne horses were renowned for their speed under the reign of Henry IV, as they demonstrated during the St Omer races in 1589.

Their eyes are wide and lively, their ears are straight and pointed, their mane is double, their coat is thin and silky. Their croup is voluminous, round and muscular, with a bushy high tail ; their breast is broad, their back is rather short, their cannonbones are short, thick, dry and almost without hairs, their joints are broad and heavy ; whilst trotting, the horse is balancing with a leaning shoulder and a good positioning of the neck, keeping its head up.

From its draught horse counterparts, it has inherited a gentle and frank character and from its arab origin, its paces are sharp.

Traditionaly, the Boulogne horses, as most draught horses, were "caudectomisés" : one cut the last caudal vertebra of the foal, the tail. Fortunately, this practice has been prohibited since 1996. The Boulogne horse is big and strong, shaped during the XIXth century for the work of beet fields and the transport of beets. Some smaller and lighter Boulogne horses can be found, heirs of the fish wholesaler mares which were very much appreciated until the end of the XIXth century for the transport of fish from the Channel ports to Paris. The Boulogne horse is still marked with an anchor on the left part of its neck in order to remind us of its maritime origin.

With these two types of horses, broken for two different uses, the morphological standard varies from 1,60 to 1,78 m in size, and from 650 kg to 900 kg in weight.

At the end of the XVIIIth century, the coats most commonly found were black and dark bay. One century later, grey was considered as a criteria for thoroughbred horses. As a result, grey is the most commonly found coat today but 12% of mares are chestnut. Some also have a very dark bay coat, almost black.

All foals are born chestnut. This coat may then turn to grey with all its shades, from light grey to dark dapple-grey, blue dapple-grey, roan grey, metal grey, mouse grey, etc. Later grey turns very often to pearlescent white and slightly blue-tinged.

The breaking in can start at the age of 2, but the work must be reasonable as Boulogne foals can grow until the age of 5, or even 7.

The past and the future

Nowadays, there remain approximately 680 brood mares, somme fifty stallions and about 359 foals, as well as 120 Araboulonnais. This can be compared to the 600 000 horses in the 1900's.

Two threats jeopardize the Boulogne breed. On one hand, the extinction of the breed because the birth rate has dropped, and on the other hand, the inbreeding. However, the number of Boulogne horses has increased slightly over the last three years with an annual increase of 10%. The inbreeding, due partly to the tininess of the birthplace of the breed, could be solved with a rationalization of the choice of stallions and brood mares according to their origins.

The Boulogne horse had its hour of glory during the XIXth century in agriculture, specially with the developpement of tools in agriculture, and in towns where it could pull heavy loads like the omnibus. More rarely, it was used in the mines of the North. But the advent of the mechanizing in transport after the first world war, and later the advent of tractors after the second world war marked its decline. Only the passion of some "old" horse breeders enabled the breed to survive until the seventies when the development of the leisure horse revived it.

On top of its agricultural use, the Boulogne horse has been famous since the Middle Ages for its "chasse-marée", fish wholesaler mares which used to transport the fish from the coasts of the Boulogne region towards the big cities of Picardy and Paris. These horses were attached to a two-wheel carriage, sometimes in pairs, in fours or even fives. They transported in less than 24 hours the fish to the capital. As early as the Middle Ages, the fish which were transported in big baskets and protected by seaweeds, had to arrive before eight o'clok at the Halle aux Poissons, entering Paris by the street Faubourg Poissonière, whatever the time of the tide in the Picardy ports. Therefore the journeys were taking place at night. It is because the balloon of the tide was late that Vatel committed suicide ! A carriage of four horses could pull up to 3,5 tons ; the fish cart driver changed horses every seven leagues (about 28 km) or sometimes more (about 50 km). The activity of the fish wholesaler horses ended, at least on the Paris route, with the advent of the railway in the middle of the XIXth century.

Until ten years ago, most Boulogne horses ended up in a butchery. Nowadays, 95% of the mares are used for reproduction or leisure purposes. Unfortunately, 95% of the males still end up in butcheries. Some Boulogne horses are used for carriages of course ("Haras nationaux", M. Sainte-Beuve's stables, Conty stables...), by the municipal administrations (City of Rambouillet, Bois de Vincennes), in horseriding farms, by "old" horse breeders who make good use of them for some field works, or by numerous individuals for their leisure.

The Boulogne horses can be ridden, attached to a carriage or worked with long reins. They are sometimes used for work in forests. These horses show no capacity for jumping.

Where can you see Boulogne horses ?

The birthplace of the breed is in the North-West of France, more precisely in the Boulogne area, west of the Pas de Calais region, near Boulogne, Desvre and Marquise. Nowadays 75% of the breeding areas are in the Pas de Calais region, 10% in the North region and 10% in the Somme region.

The national Haras of Compiègne (Oise) owns several Boulogne stallions that are used by its guards for carriage on a regular basis.

From June to October, several breeding contests are organized in the region ; the most important one takes place in Desvres in mid-July (third week-end) where the most beautiful specimen are presented.

Every two years in September, the "route du poisson", created in 1991 by Mr. Pourchet the then director of the Compiegne Stud Farm, takes up the route used by the fish-wholesaler-mares to travel from Boulogne to Paris. These mares brought every day, in a little less than 24 hours and about twenty-five relays, the "ballon de la marée" from Boulogne to the capital city. The last edition of this event, which brings together several draught horse breeds, took place on September 2005. Next editionon September 2008.

The Boulogne Horse Union (Syndicat Hippique Boulonnais) can provide you with the list of several horse breeders who can show you their horses.

A foal costs approximately 800-950 euros, a filly 1100-1220 euros, a female or a gelding of 3 years broken for the leisure carriage 2300 euros, a stallion 3050-6100 euros, a brood mare 1900-2300 euros, a three years old "Araboulonnais" already broken, 2300-4000 euros. These prices are supplied as an indication.

In Europe, you can see also boulonnais horses in Belgium and holland. for the fun, there is noxw three boulonnais horses in Scandinavia. since 2004, a boulonnais mare and her foal (Kaole and Timo) are located in Finland, at Paméla and Harri Piliven home in Lempäälä. since 2006 summer, a boulonnais stallion (Pequo), lives in Denmark at Tina and Svend Gundesen house, near Padborg.

Do not forget that the Boulogne horse, even if it is calm and frank, is lively and strong and thus may not be appropriate for an initiation to carriage.

Please contact the bodies listed below for any further information :

Syndicat Hippique Boulonnais
Lieu-dit "Le Désert"
62240 Desvres
tel 00 33 (0)3 21 86 59 63
e-mail syndicat.hippique.boulonnais@wanadoo.fr

Haras National de Compiègne
60200 COMPIEGNE
tel (0)3.44.38.54.50
e-mail haras.compiegne@haras-nationaux.fr