Why did the Van Houtte horse business in France falter?

That is a question that has bothered me since in the original story of “La Famille Van Houtte,” I take a few assumptions, for which I believed I was writing with context, but did not possess all the facts.

My answers were with Christophe Van Houtte, son of Albert-Louis. I conducted a few interviews and even have recordings, yet never managed to get the answer. The very sad event is that Christophe passed away, while I was in deep research….my key source of fact was no longer there.

I believe to have figured out why Albert-Louis went to Canada, why he started with the Percheron horse breed business, but not what factually happened for him to leave France. His business was going through a difficult period; this we know from Christophe and Pierre Van Houtte (youngest child of Albert-Louis). However, we (I) do not know why that business started to falter.

In “La Famille Van Houtte,” I attributed the arrival of the automobile as the problem, but that is just not realistic. The automobile really took force after Albert-Louis was already in Canada.

Who can know this? Do you, reader, have an answer?

Was it:

– a poisoned inheritance?

– the economic environment?

– Albert-Louis?

– the family feud that strained relationships following the inheritance?

– something else?

This needs to be answered and I will take time to do so.

If you have any information (ideally with facts), theories or hearsay, please provide this information here….it will be very much appreciated.