As its name suggests, this horse was mainly used to pull carriages, and its uniform color made it possible to form homogeneous groups.

[9] According to Eugène Gayot, Claude Bourgelat and Louis-Furcy Grognier confused the Carrossier noir du Cotentin with the Merlerault, as the coat color and the breeding cradle did not match.

[11] Louis-Furcy Grognier attributes the ancestry of the breed[12] to the "Danish horse"[12] introduced to the Duchy of Normandy by the Vikings.

[14] In 1812, Pichard wrote in his "Manuel des Haras": "The Normande breed is almost lost... We no longer recognize these famous Cotentin Bidets, which were the admiration of all Europe".

[16] According to archivist Alain Talon, it was cornage, a respiratory disease, that was responsible for the demise of this breed, as breeders believed it was transmitted by Carrossier Noir stallions.

[15] The last Carrossier noir stallion at the Saint-Lô stud farm, named "Le Corbeau" (Matricule 181), died in 1836.

[15][18] This horse is described in the stud farm's registers as "of Norman breed, very strongly built, very short legs, very clean limbs".

[19] It was considered "an impossible substitute for the old Carrossier noir du Cotentin" and was ridden between 1829 and 1836 in Saint-Côme-du-Mont and the Bessin[19] region.

[21] Gayot, on the other hand, describes these horses as compact and regular in shape,[23] but sometimes not very elegant, with "often common heads, short necks, loaded shoulders, low fronts, and slightly long backs", but he recognizes "limbs, cloth, temperament, and substance".

Under the Old Regime, many wealthy families and abbots were keen to acquire herds of Cotentin horses for this very reason.

[21] In 1818, according to the Revue des étalons, the Saint-Lô depot was considered the breeding ground of major[27] carriage makers.