The numerous conflicts which agitated its breeding cradle at the time of Louis XIV lead the peasants to keep and raise small ugly and puny horses, which they are not afraid of seeing captured or requisitioned by armies.

Designed for pulling wagons and doing small-scale agricultural work, the Lorraine horse is known to be tough on the job, despite its small size.

It disappeared after the second half of the 19th century with the needs of industrialization, in the face of competition from more powerful draft horses and in particular from the Ardennais, which replaced it in its breeding cradle.

The member of the General Council of stud farms and the National Society of Agriculture Eugène Gayot writes about this breed in 1859.

[1] Although all the documents talking about these horses (the oldest as well as recent studies) designate it as a “breed”, the Lorraine has never been officially recognized as such, any more than it has had any stud- book.