A major center of horse breeding, the area had numerous regional types that were bred to one another and then crossed with Thoroughbreds to form the Anglo-Norman.

The Anglo-Norman was developed in the early 19th century, and along with Thoroughbred and local Norman blood, influences were seen from other breeds, including British and Russian trotting horses.

Despite active government support for Selle Français breeding programs, variations remained, and Anglo-Norman bloodlines continued to be distinguishable for decades after the merge.

By 1861, the French government attempted to standardize the look of various historic Norman horse types by adding large amounts of Thoroughbred blood.

[3] The first official trotting races in France took place in 1836, in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, at the instigation of Ephrem Houël, an officer of the National Stud.

The breed had a tendency to have a too-upright shoulder angle and one author still criticized the horses as "... [consisting] of two inharmonious and badly united pieces, one being Norman; the other, English",[9] suggesting that better results would occur if breeders used higher-quality broodmares.

The most common crossbreeding was between native mares used by the military or for pulling carriages[14] and Thoroughbred stallions, and by 1914 these types were recognized as "demi-sang" or "half-blood" horses.

At the end of the 19th century, in the Orne, the Anglo-Norman arose almost exclusively in the district of Alençon, specifically Merlerault,[18] with a few being bred in the department of Calvados.

[2] Standing 14.3 to 15.3 hands (59 to 63 inches, 150 to 160 cm), the type was almost always black in color, allowing drivers to easily form matched teams.

[26] Early in the 19th century, in Lower Normandy, breeders focused on the Carrossier Normand, the ancestor of the Anglo-Norman and the French Trotter,[4] which was mainly used as a carriage horse.

[37] The law significantly increased national breeding standards and encouraged the production of half-blood horses, especially Anglo-Normans, for military use.

[39] According to military equestrian Denis Bogros, the economic weight of the Norman horse breeders was such as they negatively influenced the effectiveness of the French army until the early 20th century, producing only large, overweight trotters that became fatigued more easily than Barbs or Arabians.

[42] Bogros states that breeders of Norman horses managed to deceive the French government, through powerful lobbying groups, by selling the military rejects from the breeding programs.

[42] This led to the creation of the Société du cheval de guerre (Society of the War Horse), which in 1906 severely criticized the use of the Anglo-Norman.

In addition, World War II and the German occupation of France caused significant damage to the Norman homeland of the breed as fighting destroyed farms and killed half of the horses at the National Stud at Saint-Lô.

[3] Instead, emphasis shifted toward producing horses for equestrian sports, and a stud book was created for the Anglo-Norman breed on December 7, 1950, at Saint-Lô.

In spite of this merger, for decades afterwards, horses from Anglo-Norman bloodlines were clearly identifiable within the Selle Français due to differences in conformation.

[46] In August 1996, breeder Fernand Leredde, of the "Haras des Rouges" stud farm, developed the idea of the Cheval de Sport Anglo-Normand (CSAN, or Anglo-Norman Sport Horse),[47] to preserve the genetic heritage of four generations of Anglo-Norman horses still extant within the Selle Français breed.

[45][47] Their argument was that the Selle Français had become increasingly crossed with other European breeds since the advent of artificial insemination in 1980 and the opening of the stud book to horses of foreign breeds in 2000;[46] the theory of jus soli allowed horses of foreign bloodlines to be called Selle Français if they were born in France.

The president of the Association nationale du selle français (French Saddle Horse Association), Bernard Le Courtois, publicly spoke out against the idea on June 18, 2013, arguing that competition from other countries is already strong in the world of sport horse breeding, and that creating competition within France should be avoided.

[48] He described the proposed re-opening of an Anglo-Norman stud book as "criminal", saying it would be a step backwards led by a "small group of unscrupulous and fanciful breeders".

[49] In response, the Syndicat des Éleveurs et Cavaliers professionnels de chevaux et poneys de sport (Union of Breeders and Professional Riders of Horses and Sport Ponies) defended the project by stating that the breeder behind the Anglo-Norman stud book project is one of the top in his field in the world, while the Selle Français stud book is "the largest and the most in decline in Europe".

[50] In August 2014, this new stud book was approved by the French government,[51] and made official on May 27, 2015, submitted for publication in the JORF edition of June 4, 2015.