Boulonnais
The Boulonnais is a French draft breed from the Pas-de-Calais, often called the white marble horse for its usual dappled grey coat and its unusually refined appearance — Arabian blood was introduced during the Crusades and again later, and it shows in the head and the elegance of movement.
It stands 15.3 to 16.3 hands and weighs 600 to 900 kilograms. It was once bred in large numbers to haul fresh fish from Boulogne to Paris overnight — the route was called the route du poisson, and a modern relay race commemorates it. The breed is now seriously endangered, with only a few hundred registered animals and very few active breeders.
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Living with a boulonnais
Grey coats and melanomas go together, and the Boulonnais is nearly always grey. Check under the tail and around the sheath from middle age and have new growths assessed early.
Beyond that it is standard heavy-draft management: they are easy keepers, gain weight fast on rich grass, and are prone to laminitis if grazing is not restricted.
The feathering is light compared with a Brabant or a Shire, so chronic progressive lymphedema is less of a concern, but the lower legs still repay regular checking.
Because the breed is endangered, finding one outside France is difficult, and anyone acquiring one should expect to engage with the French studbook and with conservation breeding.
Specialist farriery every six to eight weeks, as for any draft.
General guidance, not veterinary advice. Individual horses vary, and anything about a specific animal is a question for a vet who has seen it.
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