The five horse chariot display: It is possible to harness 7 or even 9 horses into a team. All you need is two good horses in the lead who respond well to voice commands and to the reins. Voltige is the eldest mare of the Farm, and she had been leading the team during years and years. Now she is 27 years old and a little bit too old for that. A horse may live for about 40 years and a donkey for about 50, it depends on the type of work they have done and on what they have been fed.
The three horse chariot display :
The horses in this team are Cobs Normands. This breed is commonly found in the La Manche and Calvados regions where they are known for their beatiful gait. But this type of horse will disappear because we are busy breeding lighter weight animals. Indeed until recently horses such as these have become unwanted to the point where their next journey would be to the meatworks. But now there are alternative solutions such as harness teams. These require horses weighing less than 800 kilos. Amongst Bretons horses you can find animals which weigh more than a tonne. That is far too heavy for running ! At the end of the 19th century Percherons weighing less than 800 kilos were used to pull omnibuses in the suburbs of Paris.
However harness team as an alternative solution is not enough. 90% of the foals born this year will go to the abattoirs. The Italians purchase most of the meat, and I suspect we get it back as raviolis !
Vitale's performance : in some country areas, donkeys are called bourris, in the North of La Manche they are known as quetons or ministres. Donkeys can be comparatively expensive to purchase, costing from 5000 to 6000 Francs for a female, as it has become a custom to use these animals as pets instead of shetland ponies.
Biribi's performance :
This aubère coloured horse is a Breton stallion. In fact you can no longer find many horses like this one because of selective breeding for chestnut coloured animals.
As with other horse breeds, draught horse blood lines are recorded in Stud Books in which the genealogies of thoroughbred stock are recorded. When a horse is listed in the book, it is marked with a red brand on its neck. The brand for Bretons is l'Hermine, for Boulonnais a naval anchor and for Percherons the letters SP (Société Percheronne). When branded the horse's coat is burnt through to the skin to prevent the coloured hair growing again.
Notice that Biribi's tail has been cut short, a proceedure known as docking. The top of the tail, which is actually an extension of the spinal column, is cut at a length varying from 5 to 15 centimeters from the horse's rump. The main reason for this operation is to prevent the reins catching in the horses tail. For exhibition at agricultural shows the tails were shaved or plated thus making the horse appear plump. But following pressure from animal protection groups the practice is now forbidden and all the horses will keep their long tail...
The finale : When the horses are tied in a single file to the tail of the horse in front of them, we say they are accoués. This is an expression used in Basse Normandie which can be translated as "head to tail". This was the manner in which horse traders led their animals away from horse sales in times before the introduction of motorised transports.