Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Boulonnais horse

Boulonnais horse
This nomination predates the introduction in April 2014 of article-specific subpages for nominations and has been created from the edit history of Today's featured article/requests. 
 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/February 9, 2014 by BencherliteTalk 19:01, 26 January 2014‎ (UTC)



The Boulonnais is a heavy draft horse breed from France. It is known for its large but elegant appearance and is usually gray, although chestnut and black are also allowed by the French breed registry. Its origins trace to a period before the Crusades; Spanish Barb, Arabian and Andalusian blood were added during the 17th century to create the modern type. Originally there were several sub-types, but they were crossbred until only one is seen today. The smallest type was used to pull carts of fresh fish from Boulogne to Paris, while the larger varieties performed heavy draft work on farms and in the cities. During the early 1900s, the Boulonnais were exported in large numbers to the United States. Wars in the 20th century nearly led to the breed's extinction, but it revived in France in the 1970s as a popular choice for horse meat. From an estimated population of over 600,000 in the early 1900s, there are thought to be fewer than 1,000 Boulonnais presently in Europe, mostly in France. Studies as early as 1983 indicated a danger of inbreeding within the Boulonnais population, and a 2009 report suggested that the breed should be a priority for conservation within France.

I noticed a deficit of nominations on this page and thought I'd nominate this one. At my count, the blurb is just under the requisite 1,200 characters. Thanks,  Ruby  2010/  2013  03:27, 22 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Support - it's a great article, and I always have a soft spot for articles on horses. Now...to the blurb (as proposed) in counting 1,199 characters you neglected to count the spaces, which makes it a total of 1,437. so we will have to chop a little over 200 from the blurb. I'll take a scalpel to it over the next day or two when I get some spare time if no one beats me to it.--ColonelHenry (talk) 04:05, 22 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Oh oops, I didn't realize that the count included spaces. I've trimmed some more from the blurb (it is now 1,071 characters including spaces). Thanks,  Ruby  2010/  2013  04:12, 22 January 2014 (UTC)
 * 1,186 characters now (I aim for as close to 1,200 as possible without going over, so 1,071 was a bit light). BencherliteTalk 02:10, 23 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Support, might be nice to use a higher resolution photo. &mdash; Cirt (talk) 06:53, 22 January 2014 (UTC)
 * I've changed the picture. How does that look now?  Ruby  2010/  2013  01:58, 23 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Hrm, how bout one of the whole animal? &mdash; Cirt (talk) 04:05, 23 January 2014 (UTC)


 * We can boost the size of the original image a bit (left, compared to the original size when this was nominated, right) as it's in landscape format. Preferences as between full horse and horse's face? BencherliteTalk 04:10, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

I think this one is the best option from those already shown in the article: File:Boulonnais Agriflanders.jpg. &mdash; Cirt (talk) 04:12, 23 January 2014 (UTC)

These three are the best high resolution options from the Commons category. &mdash; Cirt (talk) 04:15, 23 January 2014 (UTC)
 * File:Cheval boulonnais.JPG
 * File:PSwimereux-6619.jpg
 * File:Chevaux boulonnais.JPG


 * Personally I prefer the horse's face to the horse and man because you don't get to see much of the horse in the latter. I've left a message for Dana boomer about the other images you've found. The third one would work best of those three - the background would need cropping in the others to focus on the horses. BencherliteTalk 10:21, 23 January 2014 (UTC)
 * My preference would be for the current lead image in the article (the whole horse, sideways), because it is the best for showing the conformation of the breed. The "perfect image" we would love for all breed articles is one where the horse is directly broadside to the camera, properly stood up, facing left (into the article), with good lighting, properly groomed, with no extraneous detail. This image misses on a couple of those, but is otherwise one of our better breed illustrations. However, if others disagree for the front page illustration, I won't fuss. Thanks for putting up links to the images above, though - I've switched out one of the images that was previously in the article for one of the group pasture shots above. Dana boomer (talk) 15:04, 23 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Support and like Dana said for the lead image.  Montanabw (talk) 02:44, 24 January 2014 (UTC)