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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75401 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s Note
+
+    Page 51 — precints changed to precincts
+    Page 72 — atttention changed to attention
+    Illustration labelled ‘H. F. Lucas Lucas’ Page 110 — is left
+      as printed.
+    The Footnotes have been changed from alpha to numeric.
+
+
+
+
+PONIES PAST AND PRESENT
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _Painted by A. Cooper, R.A._       _Engraved on wood by F. Babbage._
+
+THE SHOOTING PONY.]
+
+
+
+
+    PONIES
+    PAST AND PRESENT
+
+    BY
+    SIR WALTER GILBEY, BART.
+
+    ILLUSTRATED
+
+    VINTON & CO., LTD.,
+    9, NEW BRIDGE STREET, LONDON, E.C.
+
+    1900
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+PAGE
+
+    Introduction                                       1
+
+    The New Forest Pony                               11
+
+    The Welsh Pony                                    25
+
+    The Exmoor and Dartmoor Ponies                    38
+
+    The Cumberland and Westmoreland Ponies            53
+
+    Ireland—The Connemara Pony                        63
+
+    The Ponies of Scotland and The Shetland Islands   71
+
+    Uses and Characteristics of the Pony              87
+
+    Breeding Polo Ponies                              97
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+    The Shooting Pony                        Frontispiece
+
+    The Pony Hack                        To face page  25
+
+    Little Wonder II.                                  59
+
+    Child’s Shetland Pony                              82
+
+    “Princess Victoria in her Pony Phaeton”            87
+
+    The First Leap                                     89
+
+    Arab “Mesaoud”                                    104
+
+    The Polo Pony “Sailor”                            110
+
+
+
+
+_The increasing attention which during the last few years has been
+devoted to breeding ponies for various purposes, more especially for
+polo, suggested the collection of facts relating to our half-wild races
+of ponies. It will be seen from the following pages that we possess
+large supplies of small but strong and sound constitutioned horses
+which may be turned to far more valuable account than has been done
+hitherto. The Polo Pony Society set the example of drawing attention
+to the possibilities of utilising profitably the Moorland and Forest
+Mares, and it is hoped that these pages may be of some interest to
+those who are giving attention to pony breeding whether for polo or for
+any other purpose._
+
+[Illustration]
+
+  _Elsenham Hall, Essex,
+  August, 1900._
+
+
+
+
+PONIES PAST AND PRESENT
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+In another volume, _Horses Past and Present_, brief reference has been
+made to the early subjugation of the horse in Eastern countries by man;
+and it is unnecessary here to further touch upon that phase of our
+subject.
+
+The early history of the horse in the British Islands is obscure.
+The animal is not indigenous to the country, and it is supposed that
+the original stock was brought to England many centuries before the
+Christian era by the Phœnician navigators who visited the shores of
+Cornwall to procure supplies of tin. However that may be, the first
+historian who rendered any account of our islands for posterity found
+here horses which he regarded as of exceptional merit. Julius Cæsar,
+when he invaded Britain in the year 55 B.C., was greatly impressed
+with the strength, handiness, and docility of the horses which the
+ancient Britons drove in their war chariots; his laudatory description
+of their merits includes no remark concerning their size, and from this
+omission we may infer that they were not larger than the breeds of
+horses with which Cæsar’s travels and conquests had already made him
+acquainted.
+
+There can be no doubt but that these chariot horses were small by
+comparison with their descendants—the modern Shire horses;[1] they
+probably did not often exceed 14 hands, and were therefore much on
+a par in point of height with the horses Cæsar had seen in Spain
+and elsewhere. It is unlikely that so shrewd an observer would have
+refrained from comment on the point had the British horses been
+superior in size, as they were in qualities, to the breeds he already
+knew. It is doubtful indeed whether the horses of Britain gained in
+stature to any material extent until the Saxons and Danes introduced
+horses from the Continent. These being for military purposes would
+have been stallions without exception, and being larger than the
+British breed must have done something to produce increase of height
+when crossed with our native mares.
+
+[1] See “The Great Horse or War Horse.” By Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. 3rd
+edition, 1899. Vinton & Co., Ltd.
+
+This being the case, we are confronted with the difficulty of
+distinguishing between the horses and ponies of these early times;
+the chroniclers do not attempt to differentiate between “horse” and
+“pony” as we understand the terms. The process of developing a big
+horse was necessarily a slow one, from the system, or want of system,
+which remained in vogue until the fifteenth century, and was still
+in existence in some parts of England in Henry VIII.’s time. During
+the long period the greater portion of the country lay under forest
+and waste, it was the practice to let those mares which were kept
+solely for breeding purposes run at large in the woodlands, unbroken
+and unhandled. Doomsday Book contains frequent mention of _equæ
+silvestres_, _equæ silvaticæ_, or _equæ indomitæ_ when enumerating
+the live stock on a manor; and there is evidence to show that these
+animals (always mares, it will be observed) were under a modified
+degree of supervision. They were branded to prove their ownership,
+and during the summer selected mares appear to have been “rounded
+up” to an enclosure in the forest for service. Apart from this they
+ranged the country at large, strangers alike to collar and bridle. It
+would be unreasonable to suppose that the mares which were employed in
+agricultural work were not also used for breeding; the surroundings of
+the farmer’s mare in those days were not luxurious, but she undoubtedly
+enjoyed shelter from the rigours of winter and more nourishing
+food than her woodland sister. Hence it is probable that the first
+differences in size, make and shape among English horses may be traced
+to their domestic or woodland ancestry on the dam’s side.
+
+The life led by these _equæ indomitæ_ made for hardiness of
+constitution, soundness of limb, surefootedness, and small stature; and
+we venture to think that the half-wild ponies England possesses to-day
+in the New Forest, Exmoor, Wales and the Fell country are (or were,
+until comparatively modern endeavours were made to improve them) the
+lineal descendants of the woodland stock which is frequently referred
+to in ancient records, and which in 1535 and 1541 Henry VIII. made
+vigorous attempts to exterminate.
+
+The law of 1535 (26 Henry VIII.) declares:—
+
+  “For that in many and most places of this realm, commonly little
+  horses and nags of small stature and value be suffered to
+  depasture, and also to cover mares and felys of very small stature,
+  by reason whereof the breed of good and strong horses of this
+  realm is now lately diminished, altered and decayed, and further
+  is likely to decay if speedy remedy be not sooner provided in that
+  behalf.
+
+  “It is provided that all owners or fermers of parks and enclosed
+  grounds of the extent of one mile in compass shall keep two mares,
+  apt and able to bear foals of the altitude or height of 13 handfuls
+  at least, upon pain of 40s.
+
+  “A penalty of 40s. is imposed on the Lords, Owners, and Fermers of
+  all parks and grounds enclosed, as is above rehearsed, who shall
+  willingly suffer any of the said mares to be covered or kept with
+  any Stoned Horse under the stature of 14 handfuls.”
+
+This Act applied only to enclosed areas, and therefore would not affect
+the wild ponies in any appreciable degree: but six years later another
+Act was passed (32 Henry VIII., c. 13) which provided that—
+
+  “No person shall put in any forest, chase, moor, heath, common,
+  or waste (where mares and fillies are used to be kept) any stoned
+  horse above the age of two years, not being fifteen hands high
+  within the Shires and territories of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge,
+  Buckingham, Huntingdon, Essex, Kent, South Hampshire, North
+  Wiltshire, Oxford, Berkshire, Worcester, Gloucester, Somerset,
+  South Wales, Bedford, Warwick, Northampton, Yorkshire, Cheshire,
+  Staffordshire, Lancashire, Salop, Leicester, Hereford and Lincoln.
+  And furthermore, be it enacted, that if in any of the said drifts
+  there shall be found any mare, filly, foal, or gelding that then
+  shall be thought not to be able nor like to grow to be able to
+  bear foals of reasonable stature or not able nor like to grow to
+  be able to do profitable labours by the discretions of the drivers
+  aforesaid or of the more number of them, then the same driver or
+  drivers shall cause the same unprofitable beasts ... every of them
+  to be killed, and the bodies of them to be buried in the ground, as
+  no annoyance thereby shall come or grow to the people, those near
+  inhabiting or thither resorting.”
+
+This enactment was of a more far-reaching character than its
+forerunner. The “shires and territories” enumerated were those in
+which greatest attention was paid to the breeding of Great Horses;
+“profitable labours,” in those times, could only mean military service,
+agricultural work, and perhaps pack transport, for any of which
+purposes the woodland ponies were useless. How far the law proved
+effectual is another matter: laws more nearly affecting the welfare of
+the subject were less honoured in the observance than the breach in the
+remoter parts of the kingdom in those times.
+
+In 1566, when Elizabeth was on the throne, Thomas Blundeville, of
+Newton Flotman, wrote a book on _Horses and Riding_; and prefaced it
+by an “Epistle dedicatorie” to Robert Lord Dudley, Master of the Horse,
+which begins:
+
+  “It would be the means that the Queen may not only cause such
+  statutes touching the breeding of Horses upon Commons to be put in
+  execution: but also that all such parks within the Realme as be
+  in Her Highnesse hands and meet for that purpose might not wholly
+  be employed to the keeping of Deer (which is altogether without
+  profit), but partly to the necessary breeding of Horses for service
+  [_i.e._, military service] whereof this Realme of all others at
+  this instant hath greatest need.”
+
+It would appear, therefore, that Henry’s laws had become a dead letter,
+or something very like it, within twenty-five years of its finding
+place on the Statute Book. It was afterwards repealed in respect of
+certain counties by Queen Elizabeth and James I. (for particulars see
+p. 26 and p. 33, “Horses Past and Present.”)
+
+These various early edicts no doubt produced some result in the more
+central parts of England, though, as we gather from Blundeville’s
+“Epistle,” those charged with their administration failed to enforce
+them in areas more remote. A certain amount of driving and killing no
+doubt was done, but probably no more than enough to make the herds
+wilder than before and send them in search of safety to the most
+inaccessible districts. The natural result of this would be to preserve
+the breeds in greater purity than would have been the case had they
+been allowed to intermingle with horses which, after the harvest was
+carried, were turned out to graze at will over the unfenced fields and
+commons. It is worth glancing at these items of horse legislation to
+discover that the half-wild ponies have survived, not by grace of man’s
+aid or protection, but in defiance of his endeavours to stamp them out.
+
+Nearly a century later (1658) the Duke of Newcastle published his work
+on the _Feeding, Dressing and Training of Horses for the Great Saddle_
+and therein, urged strongly the desirability of discouraging the
+breeding of ponies. The records of subsequent reigns show occasional
+endeavour to improve by legislation the breeds of horses needed for
+military purposes, tournaments, racing and sport, but until we come
+to the time of George II. we find no _positive_ attempt to discourage
+the breeding of ponies. An Act passed in 1740 was definite enough in
+the purpose it sought to attain. This was the suppression of races by
+“poneys” and other small or weak horses.
+
+Under this law matches for prizes under £50 were forbidden, save at
+Newmarket and Black Hambleton, and the weights to be carried by horses
+were fixed at 10 st. for a five-year-old, 11 st. for a six-year-old and
+12 st. for a seven-year-old horse. This statute had two-fold intention:
+it was framed “not only to prevent the encouragement of a vile and
+paltry breed of horses, but likewise to remove all temptation from the
+lower class of people who constantly attend these races, to the great
+loss of time and hindrance of labour, and whose behaviour still calls
+for stricter regulations to curb their licentiousness and correct their
+manners.”
+
+During the present century organised effort to improve these breeds has
+followed recognition of their possibilities for usefulness, and in few
+localities, if any, does the original stock remain pure. In Devonshire,
+Hampshire, Wales, Cumberland, the Highlands, Shetland, and in the West
+of Ireland, the original strains have been intermingled and alien blood
+introduced. Small Thoroughbred, Arab and Hackney sires have produced
+new and improved breeds less fitted to withstand the rigours of winter
+and the effects of scanty food contingent on independent and useless
+existence, but infinitely better calculated to serve the interests of
+mankind.
+
+Before the establishment of the Hackney Horse Society in 1883 the
+dividing line between the horse and the pony in England was vague and
+undefined. It was then found necessary to distinguish clearly between
+horses and ponies, and accordingly all animals measuring 14 hands or
+under were designated “ponies,” and registered in a separate part of
+the Stud Book. This record of height, with other particulars as to
+breeding, &c., serves to direct breeders in their choice of sires and
+dams. The standard of height established by the Hackney Horse Society
+was accepted and officially recognised by the Royal Agricultural
+Society in 1889, when the prize list for the Windsor Show contained
+pony classes for animals not exceeding 14 hands. The altered Polo-rule
+which fixes the limit of height at 14 hands 2 inches may be productive
+of some little confusion; but for all other purposes 14 hands is the
+recognised maximum height of a pony. Prior to 1883 small horses were
+called indifferently galloways hobbies, cobs, or ponies, irrespective
+of their height.
+
+
+THE NEW FOREST PONY.
+
+The New Forest in Hampshire now cover some 63,000 acres of which about
+42,000 acres are common pasture, the remaining 21,000 acres having been
+enclosed in 1851 for the growth of timber. The greater portion of the
+common land is poor and boggy moor, and on these areas ponies have been
+bred in a semi-wild state from the earliest times. It is considered
+more than probable that the New Forest ponies are the survival of the
+stock which, before the time of Canute (1017-1035), was found in the
+district formerly called Ytene, and which was afforested in the year
+1072 by the Conqueror.[2]
+
+[2] Mr. W. J. C. Moens, in a pamphlet printed for private circulation.
+
+Henry III. (1216-1272), on 15th March, 1217, ordered the Warden of the
+pony stud kept in the New Forest to give to the Monks of Beaulieu all
+the profits accruing from the droves from that date till November,
+1220, this donation being for the benefit of the soul of his late
+father, King John. Thus it is evident that the New Forest ponies of the
+thirteenth century were numerous enough to form a source of revenue to
+the Crown.
+
+The remote history of the breed need not concern us; for it was not
+until comparatively recent times that any endeavour was made towards
+the improvement of the “forester,” as it is called. The first infusion
+of alien blood likely to be beneficial seems to have been made about
+1766; and the circumstances under which this fresh blood was introduced
+are interesting. In 1750, H.R.H. the Duke of Cumberland acquired by
+exchange a thoroughbred foal from his breeder, Mr. John Hutton. The
+animal was named Marske, and was run at Newmarket: achieving no great
+success on the turf, he was put to the stud, but up to the time of
+the Duke’s death his progeny had done nothing to win reputation for
+their sire. When the Duke died, in 1765, his horses were sold at
+Tattersall’s, and Marske was knocked down “for a song” to a Dorsetshire
+farmer. The farmer kept him in the New Forest district, and here Marske
+the sire of Eclipse served mares at a fee of half-a-guinea, till his
+famous son achieved celebrity. Eclipse was foaled in 1764, won his
+first race on 3rd April, 1769, at Epsom, and made his name in a single
+season on the turf.
+
+For four years at least, therefore (until Mr. Wildman ferreted out
+“the sire of Eclipse” and bought him for £20 to go to Yorkshire),
+the New Forest breed of ponies were being improved by the very best
+thoroughbred blood, the effects of which continued to be apparent for
+many years after Marske had left the district.
+
+It is at least probable that Marske ran in the Forest during the
+lifetime of the Duke of Cumberland; for that prince was Warden of
+the New Forest, and evidence is forthcoming to show that he made a
+systematic attempt to better the stamp of pony.
+
+For many decades after this infusion of thoroughbred blood nothing was
+done to maintain the improvement made. On the contrary, the demand for
+New Forest ponies increased, and the commoners took advantage of the
+higher prices obtainable to sell the best of their young stock; thus
+the breed steadily degenerated, until the late Prince Consort sent a
+grey Arab stallion to stand at New Park. The effects of this fresh
+strain of blood were soon evident; but history, as exemplified by the
+beneficial results of Marske’s service, repeated itself; the commoners
+were too ready to sell the pick of the young animals, whereby the
+benefits which should have accrued were heavily discounted.
+
+It must be explained that the large breeders have running in the
+Forest a hundred ponies, or even more; many breeders possess forty or
+fifty, while the small occupiers own as many as they can keep during
+the winter. Their sole responsibility to the Crown in respect of the
+ponies is the “marking fee” (raised in 1897 from eighteen pence to two
+shillings per head), which goes to the Verderer’s Court. The marking
+system enables the Court to know how many ponies are running in the
+Forest, and the latest census showed about 3,000 animals, of which it
+was estimated some 1,800 were breeding mares.
+
+From spring to autumn the droves range the Forest at will, affecting,
+of course, the best pasturage, or, in the heat of summer, the shadiest
+localities; in winter about 1800 ponies are taken into pastures, the
+remaining 1200 being left at large.
+
+It is to be observed that the most profitable animals are the hardy
+ones, which run in the Forest all the year round. The majority of the
+young animals are handled only for the purpose of marking, and are
+never, if possible, driven off their own ground. Thus, unless strange
+stallions are used, it is very difficult to change the blood, the
+forest-born stallion remaining in his own locality and collecting his
+own harem around him. “In-and-in” breeding is therefore inevitable.
+Besides these 3,000 it is estimated that about the Forest neighbourhood
+some 2,000 ponies are worked in light carts and other vehicles, and,
+as many of these ponies are used for breeding purposes, it will be
+seen what an important source of pony supply we have in the New Forest
+district.
+
+When the influence of the Arab sire sent by the Prince Consort
+ceased to be felt, degeneration again set in, the decreased prices
+brought by ponies at the fairs proving conclusively how the breed
+was deteriorating. To combat the evil the Court of Verderers in 1885
+hired four well-bred stallions, which were kept by the “Agisters,”
+or markers of ponies, for the service of commoners’ mares at nominal
+fees. Two seasons’ experience proved that funds would not bear the
+strain, and the horses were sold; with the less hesitation because it
+was found that in the absence of any inducement to the breeders to
+retain promising young stock, good foals and bad were alike sent for
+sale to the fairs. Moreover, the wild mares were not of course covered
+by these stallions, and the majority of the New Forest stock obtained
+no benefit from their presence in the district. The “ponies in hand,”
+nevertheless, were more than sufficiently numerous to be considered,
+and in 1889 it was arranged to provide the necessary inducement to keep
+promising youngsters by giving premiums at a stallion show in April of
+each year, winners of premiums to run in the Forest till the following
+August; and this scheme has been productive of very marked results in
+the way of keeping good stock to reproduce their kind. Her Majesty
+in 1889 lent two Arab stallions, Abeyan and Yirassan, for use in the
+district, and these, remaining for two and three seasons respectively,
+did much good. A son of the former, out of a Welsh mare, now stands in
+the district. His owner, Mr. Moens, states that his produce show great
+improvement, and his services are in eager demand among the commoners.
+The general improvement in the Forest ponies since 1890 is very
+striking.
+
+Lack of funds has seriously handicapped the New Forest Pony Association
+in its work, and the burden of carrying out the programme has fallen
+upon the shoulders of a few. Conspicuous among those who have borne
+the lion’s share of the task is Lord Arthur Cecil, who now turns out
+no fewer than twenty-two stallions for the benefit of the commoners
+generally. For many years past Lord Arthur has interested himself in
+the improvement of the breed; he has been using with much success
+stallions of a distinct and pure breed from the Island of Rum off the
+West coast of Scotland. These are the original Black Galloways which
+were found in a wild state on the island in 1840 by the late Marquis
+of Salisbury, and were always kept pure. Lord Arthur secured the whole
+stock in the year 1888. I cannot do better than give, practically in
+its entirety, his interesting letter on the subject of the ponies which
+for the last ten years have been increasingly used in the New Forest so
+much to the advantage of the breed:
+
+  “The Rum ponies which were much thought of by my father seem to
+  be quite a type of themselves, having characteristics which would
+  almost enable one to recognise them anywhere. Every one of those
+  I bought in 1888 had _hazel_, not _brown_ eyes; and though only
+  a small boy in 1862, when six or seven of those ponies came to
+  Hatfield, I can remember that they also had the hazel eye. They
+  have, almost without exception, very good hind-quarters, with the
+  tail well set up; and it is in this respect that I hope they will
+  do good in the New Forest. On the other hand, they have big plain
+  heads which are not liked by the commoners. This defect, however,
+  is rapidly disappearing with good keep, as it does with all breeds
+  of ponies.
+
+  “After I bought the ponies in 1888 and began breeding I was at a
+  loss to know how to continue the breed, as I could not well use
+  the stallion which accompanied the mares to his own progeny. I
+  remembered having seen at the Highland and Agricultural Society’s
+  Show, in 1883, a stallion which had interested me very much, being
+  exactly like the ponies I remembered coming to Hatfield. I enclose
+  ... copy of a letter[3] received from his breeder.
+
+  [3] “The pony, Highland Laddie ... was bred by us at Coulmore,
+  Ross-shire; being the youngest, I think, of seven foals thrown by
+  the black mare, Polly, to Allan Kingsburgh (Lord Lovat’s stallion)
+  ... and, as far as I know, Polly was never covered by any other
+  horse. Most of her foals, if not all, were shown by us and won
+  prizes at country and the Highland Agricultural Society’s Meetings
+  in the North. Her third foal, Glen, a jet-black stallion, took 2nd
+  prize in his class at the Aberdeen Show in 1880 (I think), and
+  again took the medal for pony stallions at Perth in 1881 or 1882.
+  At the same show Polly’s second foal, Blackie, took second prize
+  in the gelding class, and her fourth foal (the eldest of the bay
+  mares), shown at Inverness by McKenzie of Kintail, would easily
+  have taken a prize in her class but for an accident on the railway
+  or ferry ... which lamed her for the meeting. Your pony has, of
+  course, the same pedigree as those.... The Rum ponies were always
+  supposed to be pure, as the Marquis of Salisbury was known to take
+  a great interest in the breed ... though not sure, I believe a pony
+  stallion of another strain, a dun with black mane and tail (Lord
+  Ronald) was sold by my father to go to Rum.... Allan Kingsburgh
+  and Polly were both bred by my father.... Allan’s dam was a bay
+  mare, Polly’s was a grey named Maria. I know the stock from which
+  both came: it was brought long ago from Glenelg and bred and kept
+  pure by my grandfather and ancestors who lived in Glenelg when
+  that Barony belonged to the MacLeod of MacLeods. I am not sure of
+  the sires of either Allan or Polly, but know they were both pure
+  Highland. One, I think, was Lord Ronald which I formerly mentioned,
+  and the other a pony belonging to a Mr. Stewart in Skye (a known
+  breeder of Highland cattle).”
+
+  ... It is curious that I should have thus dropped on to exactly the
+  same kind of thing that my father is supposed to have used; he used
+  the same blood years ago in Lord Ronald.
+
+  “I think what first interested me so much in these ponies was
+  that, as long ago as I can remember anything, I heard my father
+  describing them to old Lord Cowley and the Duke of Wellington. He
+  told them how like the Spanish horses he had thought the ponies
+  in 1845; and mentioned how he had turned down a stallion on the
+  island and a Spanish jackass—some of the mules are still (1889)
+  at Hatfield. He also said that he saw no reason why they should
+  not be descended from some of the Spanish Armada horses which were
+  wrecked on that coast. When the ponies—most of them stallions—came
+  to Hatfield in 1862, I remember some of them broke out of the
+  station; it took several days to catch them again. They were almost
+  unbreakable, but my brother, Lionel, and I managed to get two of
+  them sufficiently quiet for _us_ to ride, though they would not
+  have been considered safe conveyances for an elderly gentleman.
+  We were never quite sure of their age, but they must have been
+  nearly thirty when they died. I believe my father had intended
+  these ponies to be kept entire, but they were so hopelessly savage
+  they had to be cut. They could trot twelve miles in fifty-five
+  minutes after they were twenty years old, and could gallop and jump
+  anything in the saddle.
+
+  “My father’s theory about the Spanish Armada receives curious
+  corroboration in the well-known fact that a galleon lies sunk in
+  Tobermory Bay; while, in the “Armada” number of the _Illustrated
+  London News_ which was published in 1888 (the same year that I
+  bought the ponies), there was a small map which showed the storms
+  off the North and West of Scotland, which are almost exactly
+  coincident with the occurrence of this particular type of pony,
+  though no place was so favourable for breeding a type as a remote
+  island like Rum.
+
+  “When my mother visited Rum the people of the adjacent island of
+  Canna gave her a pony mare which I also remember, very old, at
+  Hatfield. She was a rich cream colour; she threw a foal which had
+  all the characteristics, the hazel eye, long croup and big head.
+
+  “I have noticed all the deer-stalking ponies I could see on the
+  look-out for some of these characteristics; but, with the exception
+  of the hazel eye and a somewhat strong inclination towards
+  blackness in colour, I cannot say that I have seen much trace of
+  the same kind of pony on the mainland in Scotland. This, however,
+  is no doubt rather through crossing with other strains than because
+  they have not some of the original blood; and I feel sure that the
+  Galloway of olden days was of the same type, though that term has
+  now come to mean something quite different and in no way connected
+  with the district on the West Coast of Scotland.
+
+  “The hazel eye is not uncommon on Exmoor, and occurs in the Welsh
+  pony. It would be a very interesting study to try and trace the
+  tendency to show that colour; it would, I think, throw light on the
+  ancestry of many horses and ponies; or, at least, it would reveal
+  many curious instances of _reversion_.”
+
+Lord Arthur, in conclusion, deprecates the susceptibility of pony
+breeders generally to the influence of fashion; he is of opinion
+that efforts made in some districts to increase size, while efforts
+elsewhere are directed to its reduction, cannot in the long run be
+beneficial; whereas, if Nature were allowed to determine the size of
+pony suitable for each locality, valuable results might be obtained
+by crossing the different breeds. It is quite certain that the
+perpetuation of a breed larger than the character of the country and
+pasture can support can only be secured by the constant introduction of
+alien blood, which in course of time will completely alter the local
+stamp, and not necessarily for the better.
+
+The Hon. Gerald Lascelles, Deputy Surveyor of the New Forest, has
+said of this locality: “You have a magnificent run for your ponies.
+Your mares might breed from ponies of almost any quality.... Ponies
+running out all winter in the mountains of Ireland and of Wales, on
+Exmoor, in Cornwall, and on the Cumberland and Yorkshire fells, have a
+far worse climate to face than that of the New Forest, and no better
+pasture. Such ponies would laugh at the hardships of the New Forest.”
+The New Forest pony is perhaps less hardy than some of the hill breeds,
+but his constitution is quite robust enough to be one of his most
+valuable attributes; and opinions are not unnaturally divided as to the
+desirability of increasing his size, if gain of inches mean sacrifice
+of hardiness. Thirteen hands was the height the Forest breeders
+formerly admitted to be the maximum desirable; but of recent years
+their views on this point have been somewhat enlarged.
+
+The close resemblance of the Rum ponies to the native of the New Forest
+marks out these stallions as peculiarly suitable for crossing purposes.
+For this reason, and also because their number must exercise strong and
+speedy influence upon the wild Forest mares, the foregoing particulars
+have been given in detail.
+
+Lord Arthur believes that the Welsh pony stallion of about 13·1 or 13·2
+would be as good a cross for the New Forest pony as any now obtainable.
+
+Lord Ebrington, who bought Exmoor and the Simonsbath stud of improved
+Exmoor ponies, lent one of his stallions to the New Forest Association
+in the summer of 1898, and this sire has done good service among the
+wild mares.
+
+When broken the New Forest ponies are generally far more spirited than
+the ordinary run of British ponies. The practice of using the “ponies
+in hand” for driving the wild mobs to be branded, &c., teaches them to
+turn quickly and gallop collectedly on rough ground; they thus acquire
+great cleverness.
+
+As regards their market value, the following letter from Mr. W. J. C.
+Moens, a most energetic member of the Council of the Association,
+gives the best idea.
+
+  “At the last Ringwood Fair, December 11th, 1897, there was a larger
+  outside demand for suckers than ever experienced; buyers coming
+  from Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Essex, Somersetshire and Dorsetshire.
+  The prices ran from £4 to £6 10s.; the larger dealers buying about
+  fifty to sixty each, which they trucked (25 to 30 in a truck)
+  away by rail. One lot of about 55 were sold at once by auction at
+  Brighton, and realised £6, £7 and £8 each, one fetching £10. The
+  foals improve enormously on good keep. Our Forest feed is hardly
+  good enough; on richer lands the ponies grow nearly a hand higher
+  and get more substance. Since our Association has improved the
+  breed, of late years, very many have gone to the Kent Marshes,
+  where they are highly thought of, very much more so than the
+  Dartmoor ponies. Yearlings at last Lyndhurst Pony Fair, in August,
+  fetched £5 to £8, but the average was spoiled by two large sales
+  by auction of ‘lane haunters’—old mares and other cast-offs—which
+  realised small prices.... I have seen some of our improved ponies
+  at Hastings and elsewhere, broken in, and about five years old.
+  They are much valued and sell for about £25.... The general
+  improvement since 1889 or 1890 is very marked; and, though there
+  was some opposition to the idea of bettering ‘the real Forester’ at
+  first, now all admit the benefit of the work.”
+
+For the information of those interested in this breed, the following
+description, furnished to the Polo Pony Society for their Stud Book
+(vol. v.) by the New Forest Local Committee, may be quoted:
+
+  _For the New Forest pony it is difficult to give any exact
+  description, but the best class of them are from 12 hands to 13
+  hands 2 inches high according to the portion of the Forest on which
+  they are reared. If taken off the Forest when they are weaned and
+  well kept during the first two winters, they are said very often
+  to attain the size of 14 hands 1 inch. There is sometimes an
+  apparent deficiency of bone, but what there is should be of the
+  very best quality. The feet are wide and well formed. They are
+  often considered goose-rumped, but their hocks should be all that
+  could be desired. In colour they may be said to range through every
+  variety, though there are not many duns, and few if any piebalds
+  left. The flea-bitten greys which are still very numerous on the
+  Forest show strong traces of an Arab cross. The shoulders, though
+  not always what might be desired in point of depth, are almost
+  invariably fine and well laid. It is a great characteristic of the
+  New Forest pony to be always gay and alert, and, though they are
+  extremely good-tempered and docile when fairly broken, they are
+  quite indomitable until they are completely cornered. The true
+  Forester is never sulky._
+
+[Illustration:
+
+A PONY HACK.
+
+ _Engraved on wood by F. Babbage._
+
+A pony well-known on Newmarket Heath and North Country racecourses
+about 1828.]
+
+
+
+
+THE WELSH PONY.
+
+
+At the period when Wales was an independent kingdom live stock was
+protected by a singularly comprehensive series of laws. These were
+originally codified by Howel Dda (the Good), a prince who reigned from
+A.D. 942 to 948, and at a somewhat later period they were embodied in
+three distinct legal codes, the Venedotian, Dimetian and Gwentian,
+applicable respectively to North, South and South-eastern Wales,
+conforming to the local customs which prevailed in each area. Under
+these laws no Welsh serf was permitted to sell a stallion without the
+permission of his lord. The value of a horse (or, accurately speaking,
+pony, as the hill ponies were the only equine stock the country
+possessed in those days) was laid down without regard to individual
+merit till he reached his third year. A foal until a fortnight old was
+worth four pence; from the fifteenth day of his age till one year old,
+24 pence; when a year and one day old he was worth 48 pence, and stood
+at that value till he began his third year when he was valued at 60
+pence. When in his third year he was broken in, and his value depended
+on the work he was fitted for. A palfrey or sumpter horse was valued
+at 120 pence, and a working horse to draw cart or harrow 60 pence. It
+was not permissible to use horses, mares or cows for ploughing for fear
+of injury; oxen only might be employed for such labour. Any entire male
+animal was worth three females; thus a wild stallion was worth nine
+score pence to the mare’s value of three score pence.
+
+If a horse were sold he was to be warranted against staggers for three
+nights, against “black strangles”[4] for three months, and against
+farcy for a year. He was to be warranted against restiveness until the
+purchaser should have ridden him three times “amid concourse of men and
+horses;” and if he proved restive the seller had to refund one third of
+the price he had received.
+
+[4] The commentators believe the disease so termed to be glanders; but
+inasmuch as the warranty against farcy held good for twelve months,
+perhaps we should accept this reading with reserve.
+
+The value of each part of the horse was strictly specified by these
+laws; the worth of his foot was equal to his full value; each eye
+was esteemed worth one third of his full value. For every blemish in
+a horse one third of the total worth was to be returned, his ears
+and tail included: a not obscure hint that cropping and docking were
+practised in Wales at this period, and that opinions varied concerning
+the desirability of the operations. That docking was in vogue is
+certain, for a special clause makes the “tail of a filly for common
+work” worth the total value of the animal. The peculiar value of the
+tail of a “filly for common work” lay in the fact that the harrow was
+often secured to the tail, as was the practice in parts of Ireland and
+Scotland until near the end of the last century. In Wales, as in other
+parts of Britain, the mare was preferably used for draught and pack
+work, horses being reserved for military service. The mane and bridle
+were worth the same amount, viz., four pence; the forelock and halter
+were also coupled as worth one penny each.
+
+Howel Dda’s “Law of Borrowing” was equally comprehensive. The man who
+borrowed a horse and fretted the hair on his back was to pay four
+pence; if he broke the skin to the flesh eight pence; and if skin and
+flesh were broken to the bone sixteen pence. Borrowing without the
+owner’s leave was expensive: the borrower had to pay four pence for
+mounting, and four pence for each rhandir (supposed to be a league) he
+rode the horse. He also had to pay a fine to the owner’s lord.
+
+If a hired horse fell lame or was injured by accident the owner had
+to furnish the hirer with one equally good until the injured horse
+recovered.
+
+The laws which regulated compensation for trespass show that it was
+customary to fetter or clog the horses when they were turned out to
+graze. Trespass in corn by a clogged horse was to be compensated by
+payment of one penny by day and two pence by night. Trespass by a
+horse free of restraint was recompensed by half those sums. In this
+connection it must be noted that stallions were “privileged;” and
+though a broken-in entire ran at large for three seasons (season from
+mid April to mid May and the month of October), he did not lose the
+privilege which relieved his owner from fine for any damage he might do
+in the standing crops.
+
+The Welsh pony is more numerous than any other breed. He wanders
+over the hills and waste lands in all the twelve counties of the
+Principality, and also on the borders of Shropshire, Herefordshire and
+Monmouth; whereas his congeners are limited to areas insignificant by
+comparison. The distribution is of course very unequal, the strength
+and number of droves varying with the character of the country; there
+are no statistics in existence nor has there been made any estimate of
+their number.
+
+Many of the common lands which were once open to the Welsh pony have
+been enclosed of recent years; but in spite of his exclusion from
+the better pastures and the warfare waged against him by shepherds
+and their dogs in the interests of grazing for sheep, he thrives
+marvellously. There are thousands of acres of wet and boggy lands
+whose grasses “rot” sheep, but which afford the hardy pony nourishing
+diet. In some districts he is kept on the move almost as unceasingly
+as are the deer in Scotland or on Exmoor; and the life he leads has
+done much to develope his instincts of self-preservation. Accustomed
+from earliest foalhood to the roughest ground, he is sure-footed as the
+goat, and neither punishment nor persuasion will induce him to venture
+upon unsafe bog. He has good shoulders, strong back, neat head and most
+enduring legs and feet; he is, in short, a strong, sound and useful
+animal. Some of the stoutest and best hunters bred on the borders of
+Wales trace their descent from the Welsh pony mare crossed with the
+thoroughbred sire; and the same may be said of some of the best modern
+steeplechasers.
+
+J. C. Loudon, in his work, _An Encyclopedia of Agriculture_, published
+in 1825, writes:—
+
+  “The Welsh horse bears a near resemblance in point of size to the
+  best native breed of the Highlands of Scotland. It is too small for
+  the two-horse ploughs; one that I rode for many years, which, to
+  the last, would have gone upon a pavement by choice, in preference
+  to a softer road.”
+
+Again, the celebrated sporting writer, “Nimrod” (C. J. Appleby), in his
+book _The Horse and the Hound_, published in 1842, writes of this breed
+as follows:—
+
+  “They are never lame in the feet, or become roarers; they are
+  also very little susceptible of disease in comparison with other
+  horses, and as a proof also of their powers of crossing a country,
+  the fact may be stated of the late Sir Charles Turner riding a
+  pony ten miles in forty-seven minutes, and taking thirty leaps in
+  his course, for a wager of 1,000 guineas, with the late Duke of
+  Queensberry.... The Earl of Oxford had a mare pony, got by the
+  Clive Arabian, her dam by the same horse, out of a Welsh mare pony,
+  which could beat any of his racers four miles at a feather-weight;
+  and during the drawing of the Irish lottery the news was conveyed
+  express from Holyhead to London chiefly by ponies, at the rate of
+  nearly twenty miles an hour.”
+
+Endeavours have been made from time to time to improve the breed, but
+these efforts have been made by individuals, and the benefits, when any
+followed, were local and temporary. The first recorded introduction of
+superior alien blood occurred in the first quarter of the eighteenth
+century, when that famous little horse, Merlin, was turned out to
+summer on the Welsh hills after his retirement from the Turf. The
+small horses which George II.’s Act (p. 8) sought to banish from the
+race-course were not all worthless; “vile and paltry” they may have
+been as a class, but there were some good ones among them, and Merlin
+was the best. This little horse, who owed his name to the smallest of
+British hawks, beat every animal that started against him, and enjoyed
+a career of uninterrupted success until he broke down; he was then
+purchased by a Welsh gentleman, said to have been an ancestor of Sir
+Watkin Williams Wynn, and turned out to run with the droves on the
+hills. So remarkable was the improvement wrought upon the breed by this
+one stallion that in course of a few years the value of the ponies in
+that locality greatly increased. The name of the sire was applied to
+his stock and their descendants, which became famous as “Merlins”; and
+the certificate that proved an animal one of the true Merlin breed made
+all the difference in the market.
+
+That usually accurate authority, Richard Berenger, in his _History and
+Art of Horsemanship_, says, the Welsh breed, “once so abundant, is now
+[1771] nearly extinct;” but in this he must have been mistaken, as
+there is evidence from the district to show that twenty-six years later
+it was very far from extinct. “A Farmer” writes to the _Gentleman’s
+Magazine_ of July, 1797, complaining of the “injurious increase of
+the smallest breed of ponies, which are no kind of use,” and which,
+he says, do an immense amount of mischief to the growing corn. He
+ventured to assert that for one cow found trespassing ten ponies would
+be seen, and strongly urged that an Act of Parliament should be passed
+forbidding right of common to horses under 14 hands high.
+
+In the middle of the present century, when fast-trotting animals for
+harness and saddle were in great demand, it was thought desirable to
+see what could be done with the Welsh pony, and accordingly Comet,
+Fire-away, Alonzo the Brave, and other fast-stepping small-sized
+Hackney sires were brought from Norfolk into Cardiganshire and
+Breconshire to cross with the native ponies. Such a cross could have
+hardly failed to result in a strong, fast-trotting and useful pony.
+
+The Report issued by the recent Royal Commission on Land in Wales
+and Monmouthshire contains some remarks on the subject which must be
+reproduced here:—
+
+  “With regard to cobs and ponies, breeding in this direction is
+  a much larger factor in the farming of Wales. There is plenty
+  of material to make use of, and the breeding of ponies might be
+  made much more profitable than it is at present. In the counties
+  of Radnor and Brecon there has been some systematic attempts to
+  encourage the breeding of cobs, with satisfactory results. On the
+  mountains of North Wales, which were formerly famous for wild
+  herds of ‘Merlins,’ little has, however, been done. Lord Penrhyn
+  purchased an excellent stallion, Caradoc, who might have done much
+  good had he been more patronised. The fault seems to lie in the
+  careless treatment of the herds of ponies, which are allowed to
+  ramble at will, winter and summer, to live or starve as nature may
+  please. No attention whatever is paid to the breeding, the herds
+  being wild to all intents and purposes. It seems a pity that such
+  waste should be allowed. The stoutness and endurance of the Welsh
+  pony is proverbial, and if attention were paid to selection in
+  breeding, separation of the sexes, and feeding and shelter in the
+  winter, an exceedingly valuable addition to the mountain farmer’s
+  profits might be found at a small cost.
+
+  “Turning to the evidence upon this subject: Mr. J. E. Jones, who
+  appeared before us at Tregaron, gave it as his opinion that the
+  breed of cobs was deteriorating; while Mr. Bowen Woosnam, of
+  Tynygraig, near Builth, himself a successful breeder, stated that
+  not nearly as much attention was paid to breeding cobs as formerly.
+  Mr. Woosnam also said: If Welsh farmers were to have a portion of
+  their money invested in ponies and cobs which are suitable to the
+  farms that they are occupying, they would derive proportionately a
+  larger income from them than they would from the cattle or sheep
+  that they are rearing.... I do not mean to say that their stock
+  should exclusively consist of ponies and cobs, but that they should
+  have a few on every suitable farm. There is the greatest difficulty
+  at the present time in getting good ponies and cobs.”
+
+The Commissioners were evidently unaware of the work which has been
+done by the Church Stretton Hill Pony Improvement Society. This society
+was formed to encourage and assist the farmers in the work of improving
+the ponies which they only too generally neglect. The plan followed
+was to take up the best of the native stallions for service: those of
+the truest type only were used, and the improvement in the young stock
+got by these selected sires was marked: they showed more compactness
+of build, better bone and greater spirit than their promiscuously bred
+brethren of the wilds. There can be no doubt but that continuance of
+work on these lines would do much towards converting the scarcely
+saleable raw material of the Hills into profitable stock.
+
+Mr. John Hill, of Marshbrook House, Church Stretton, in his endeavours
+to breed polo ponies has shown that a valuable riding and harness
+animal can be obtained by judicious crossings on the Welsh pony.
+Running more or less wild on the hills in the immediate neighbourhood
+of Church Stretton are ponies closely allied to and very similar to the
+Welsh mountain breed. These usually range from 10 hands to 11 hands 2
+inches in height, 12 hands 2 inches being considered the outside limit.
+About the year 1891 Mr. Hill purchased several of the best and most
+typical mares, wild and unbroken, from the hills: these mares, which
+averaged only 10 hands, were put to an Arab. His stock were handsome,
+compact and hardy, and grew to an average height of 13 hands. The
+fillies of this cross when two years old were put to the best Welsh
+pony procurable, a 14-hand 1-inch stallion with riding shoulders and
+showing bone and quality. These mares were subsequently put to a small
+thoroughbred, and to him threw foals full of quality and in every way
+promising. Mr. Hill’s breeding experiments have all been made with the
+14-hand 2-inch polo pony in view: and he has shown that Welsh ponies
+judiciously crossed with suitable alien blood produce stock for which a
+ready market should be found.
+
+Mr. W. J. Roberts, the Hon. Secretary of the Church Stretton Hill
+Pony Society, states that he has tried the Arab cross, but “the
+offspring is useless on the hills.” A half-bred Arab is not the animal
+to successfully withstand the hardships and exposure of half-wild
+existence on the Welsh hills. The object sought in improving the
+Welsh or any other of these breeds is not to fit it for a life of
+semi-wildness but to make it more serviceable to man.
+
+For the information of those interested in this breed, the following
+descriptions, furnished to the Polo Pony Society for their Stud Book
+(vol. v.) by the Local Committees, may be quoted:
+
+(NORTH WALES DIVISION.)
+
+  HEIGHT. _Not to exceed 12·2 hands._ COLOUR. _Bay or brown
+  preferred; grey or black allowable; but dun, chestnut, or broken
+  colour considered objectionable._ ACTION. _Best described as that
+  of the hunter; low “daisy-cutting” action to be avoided. The pony
+  should move quickly and actively, stepping out well from the
+  shoulder, at the same time flexing the hocks and bringing the hind
+  legs well under the body when going._ GENERAL CHARACTER. _The
+  pony should show good “pony” character and evidence of robust
+  constitution, with the unmistakable appearance of hardiness
+  peculiar to mountain ponies, and at the same time have a lively
+  appearance._ HEAD. _Should be small, well chiselled in its
+  outline and well set on; forehead broad, tapering towards nose._
+  NOSTRILS. _Large and expanding._ EYES. _Bright, mild, intelligent
+  and prominent._ EARS. _Neatly set, well-formed and small._ THROAT
+  AND JAWS. _Fine, showing no signs of coarseness or throatiness._
+  NECK. _Of proportionate length; strong, but not too heavy, with
+  a moderate crest in the case of the stallion._ SHOULDERS. _Good
+  shoulders most important: should be well laid back and sloping,
+  but not too fine at the withers nor loaded at the points. The
+  pony should have a good long shoulder-blade._ BACK AND LOINS.
+  _Strong and well covered with muscle._ HIND QUARTERS. _Long, and
+  tail well carried, as much like the Arab as possible, springing
+  well from the top of the back._ HOCKS. _Well let down, clean cut,
+  with plenty of bone below the joint. They should not be “sickled”
+  or “cow-hocked.”_ FORELEGS. _Well placed; not tied in any way at
+  the elbows; good muscular arm, short from the knee to the fetlock
+  joints; flat bone; pasterns sloping but not too long; feet well
+  developed and open at the heel; hoof sound and hard._
+
+(SOUTH WALES DIVISION.)
+
+  _The South Wales hill pony seldom exceeds 13 hands, and in a pure
+  state is about 12 hands. His attributes are a quick, straight
+  action and sure-footedness; he is low in the withers, short in his
+  forehand, and with faulty hind quarters as far as appearance goes,
+  his tail being set on low and his hocks sickled, but his forelegs
+  and feet are good. His head and eye show breed, courage and sense,
+  and his constitution is strong or he could not live where he does.
+  Of late years he has been crossed with the Cardiganshire cob to
+  some extent; and half-bred two-year-old shire colts have been
+  allowed access to the hills in summer in some places, much to the
+  detriment of the breed. In colour, bays and brown prevail._
+
+
+
+
+THE EXMOOR AND DARTMOOR PONIES.
+
+
+It is certain that ponies have run in these districts for many
+centuries in a practically wild state, and probably have always
+supplied the tillers of the soil with beasts of burden. In times when
+these localities were without roads of any kind and wheeled traffic
+was impossible, the sled and the pack-horse were used for transporting
+agricultural produce. The sleds were drawn by oxen and small horses;
+and ponies were employed to carry corn, &c., in pots and panniers; the
+ponies used for this purpose being the animals which ran at large upon
+the wastes. As recently as 1860 packhorses might still be met with in
+the western and southern districts. They were the larger ponies of
+the Dartmoor and Exmoor breed, and were indispensable to the farmers
+whose holdings at that time lay beyond the region of roads in secluded
+districts. The practice of taking up a few of the best mares for
+breeding purposes and keeping them in enclosed pasture is no doubt an
+old one; but the vast majority of the droves have always been left to
+their own devices. They bred and interbred without let or hindrance,
+and by consequence the weakly died off, leaving the fittest, _i.e._,
+the hardiest and the best able to withstand the rigours of exposure.
+
+Carew, in his _History of Cornwall_, which was written in the early
+part of the reign of James I. (1603-1625), says:—
+
+  “The Cornish horses are hardly bred, coarsely fed, and so low in
+  stature that they were liable to be seized on as unstatutable,
+  according to the statute of Henry VIII., by anyone who caught them
+  depasturing the commons.”
+
+In the year 1812 Exmoor was disforested by George III., and a
+commission was appointed to survey and value the lands. The total
+acreage was found to be 18,810 acres, of which 10,262 acres were
+adjudged the property of the Crown. In 1820 Mr. John Knight purchased
+the Crown allotment; at a later date he acquired Sir Thomas Acland’s
+portion, and Sir Arthur Chichester’s property of Brendon which
+adjoined it, the total area so acquired being over 16,000 acres. Sir
+Thomas Acland had bred ponies, and when Mr. Knight bought the land he
+applied himself to the task of improving the ponies, which for some
+years previously had been fetching only from £4 to £6. The low prices
+obtainable, we infer, were due in a measure to the ease with which the
+local shepherds “took liberal tithe” of the ponies, which, despite the
+anchor-brand they bore to prove ownership, were readily purchased in
+Wiltshire.
+
+The only pure Exmoor ponies now existing, so far as enquiry has
+disclosed, are those bred by Sir T. Dyke Acland, Bart., of Holnicote,
+Taunton. When Sir Thomas Acland sold his Exmoor property to Mr.
+Knight he removed his original uncrossed stock to Winsford Hill, near
+Dulverton; these ponies alone preserve the full characteristics of the
+old strain; they run from 11·2 hands to 12·2 hands, are dark-brown with
+black points, and have the mealy tan muzzle. It is stated that only
+about a dozen mares were left in their old quarters.
+
+Mr. Knight and some other gentlemen were attracted by the accounts
+of the Dongola Arab horses given by the great traveller Bruce,
+and after considerable delay a number of stallions and mares were
+procured through the British Consul in Egypt. They proved to be
+black, short-backed animals with lean heads, and rather Roman noses.
+Their hind quarters were good, but, unlike the typical Arab, they had
+“flattish ribs.” Mr. Knight became the owner of two sires and three
+mares, which he brought to Simonsbath. One of these Dongola stallions
+was mated with a number of 12-hand Exmoor mares; the foals generally
+grew to about 14 hands 2 inches, and though they followed their dams in
+the colour of coat, the distinctive mealy muzzle disappeared. There was
+a desire to retain as much of the Exmoor character as was compatible
+with improvement in the breed; hence those half-bred mares by the
+Dongola horse which did not retain as much as possible of the native
+type were drafted from the stud.
+
+The thoroughbred horse Pandarus, a 15-hand son of Whalebone, succeeded
+the Dongola horse; foals of his get retained the original colour, but
+were smaller, ranging from 13 hands to 13·2. Another thoroughbred,
+Canopus, a grandson of Velocipede, followed Pandarus at the stud, and
+with equally satisfactory results in respect of improved size and
+conformation; but, as might have been expected, these cross-bred ponies
+proved incapable of enduring the hardships of moorland life when turned
+out. Hence, about 1844, Mr. Knight gave up the use of alien blood and
+used his own stallion ponies; the only exceptions being Hero, a sturdy
+chestnut out of a Pandarus mare, and Lillias, a grey of nearly pure
+Acland strain.
+
+After Mr. Knight’s death, which event occurred in 1850, the practice
+of selling the ponies by private contract was abandoned in favour of
+an annual auction, held at Simonsbath. The comparative inaccessibility
+of the spot, however, soon indicated the need of change, and in 1854
+the sale was first held at Bampton fair. The system on which the ponies
+were kept was also changed in the later fifties; some 130 acres of
+pasture were set apart, and on this the foals were wintered instead of
+remaining at large on the bleak hill-sides. The effect thus produced
+upon the size and development of the young stock was very marked. In
+1863 the ponies mustered about four hundred strong, nearly one hundred
+of which were brood mares, young and old. Much of the land which in
+former days was given up to the droves has been reclaimed during recent
+years, and improved methods of cultivation have made it capable of
+growing various crops and of grazing cattle and sheep.
+
+Mr. Robert Smith, of Emmett’s Grange, also devoted attention to the
+improvement of the Exmoor breed. The “Druid,” who described a visit
+to Devonshire about the year 1860 or 1861, remarks that “the original
+colour of the Exmoor seems to have been a buffy bay, with a mealy
+nose, and it is supposed to have preserved its character ever since the
+Phœnicians brought it over when they visited the shores of Cornwall
+to trade in tin and metals.” Enquiry into the ground for supposing
+that the original stock was introduced by the Phœnicians would perhaps
+produce results hardly commensurate with the labour of research.
+
+When the “Druid” paid his visit to the district in 1860 or 1861, only
+250 acres of moorland remained unenclosed, and the breeding stock on
+Mr. Smith’s holding consisted of “some twenty-five short-legged brood
+mares of about 13 hands 2 inches.” These passed the better part of the
+year on the hills and were wintered in the paddocks furnished with open
+sheds for shelter.
+
+After experimenting with thoroughbreds, Mr. Smith procured a 14-hand
+pony sire named Bobby, by Round Robin out of an Arab mare, and used him
+with the most encouraging results for two seasons. Bobby’s stock were
+almost invariably bays. At a sale held at Bristol, in 1864, twenty-nine
+cobs galloways and ponies, nearly all of which were Bobby’s get, made
+an average price of 23 guineas a head, several realising over 30
+guineas. The highest price (figure not recorded) was paid for a bay
+stallion, five years old and 13 hands high.
+
+Whether Youatt refers to the improved breed or not it is impossible to
+say: but that authority states that about the year 1860 a farmer who
+weighed 14 stone rode an Exmoor pony from Bristol to South Molton, a
+distance of 86 miles, beating the coach which travelled the same road.
+This feat proves the pony to have been both fast and enduring.
+
+A most competent authority who a couple of years ago paid a visit
+to Simonsbath to inspect the ponies of the district, describes the
+“Acland” as a wonderfully thoroughbred looking and handsome pony with
+fine lean head, intelligent eye and good limbs. The only fault he had
+to find was in the matter of size: he considered it a shade too small
+for general purposes.
+
+The “Knights” were described as larger than the “Aclands”: they also
+retain the thoroughbred look derived from the Arab and other alien
+blood introduced by Mr. Knight in the second quarter of the century. My
+informant remarks that one of the most interesting sights he witnessed
+was the display of jealousy by the stallions when two droves of ponies
+were brought up for inspection. Each kept his harem crowded together
+apart from the other, “rounding in” his mares with the greatest fire.
+Needless to say the little horses would show at their very best under
+such conditions.
+
+Among the gentlemen who have endeavoured to improve the Exmoor pony,
+mention must also be made of the Earl of Carnarvon, Viscount Ebrington
+and Mr. Nicholas Snow, of Oare, who have breeding studs; but their
+strains, like those of the farmers’ who rear a few each, are larger
+than the representative “Aclands.”
+
+Dr. Herbert Watney, of Buckhold, near Pangbourne, until recently
+possessed herds of Exmoor and Arab-Exmoor ponies; their numbers have
+quite lately been greatly reduced by the sale of mares and young stock,
+Dr. Watney holding the writer’s view that ground in time becomes staled
+if grazed by numerous horses.[5] Dr. Watney laid the foundations of
+his herd by the purchase of about a dozen mares of the Knight and
+Ackland strains, and to serve them he acquired the 13·2 Exmoor stallion
+Katerfelto, winner of the first prize for pony stallions at the Devon
+County Show, and first prize in his class at the “Royal” in 1890. The
+stallion runs with the mares, and the herd lead on the Berkshire downs
+exactly the same free life they led on Exmoor; they are never brought
+under cover, and only when snow buries the herbage in severe winters
+do they receive a daily ration of hay. The richer grazing and their
+exclusive service by Katerfelto has resulted in distinct increase of
+size, the ponies ranging from 11·3 to 13·3 in height, yet retaining all
+the characteristics of the Exmoor native stock.
+
+[5] See “Young Racehorses” (Suggestions for Rearing), by Sir Walter
+Gilbey, Bart., Vinton & Co., Ltd.
+
+Dr. Watney drafted off a number of the best mares to form a herd for
+service by the Arab pony stallion Nejram, a bay standing 14·1, bred by
+Mr. Wilford Blunt at Crabbet Park. Nejram’s stock show in marked degree
+the distinctive character of their sire in the high set and carriage of
+the tail, full barrel, blood-like head and the long pastern; but at the
+same time they inherit from their dams the wonderful sure-footedness
+of the Exmoor pony. These ponies run from about 13 hands to 13·3. Half
+a dozen of these Arab-Exmoors, three years old, handled but unbroken,
+were sold in the year 1898 at an average price of over £14 14s. each.
+Twelve pure Exmoors by Katerfelto, also handled but unbroken, three
+years old, brought an average of over £16 16s.
+
+Bampton Fair, held in October, is now the great rendezvous for Exmoor
+ponies. Every fair brings several hundred animals in from the moors for
+sale. Like other horses and ponies, the Exmoors are suffering from the
+competition of the bicycle, but good prices are still obtained under
+the hammer. They are much used for children, and the less desirable
+find ready sale to coster-mongers and hawkers. Newly-weaned suckers of
+five or six months old fetch from £3 to £6; exceptionally promising
+youngsters command a higher figure.
+
+The Dartmoor pony’s good points are a strong back and loin, and
+substance. For generations past the farmers appear to have been in the
+habit of taking up a few mares for riding and breeding purposes; to
+these 11 or 12-hand dams—they rarely reach 13 hands—a small Welsh cart
+stallion is put, and the result is an animal hardy and serviceable
+enough for ordinary farm work. Even these would seem to form a small
+minority. For the most part the Dartmoor ponies still run wild, shaggy
+and unkempt, on the waste lands on which they breed uncontrolled, on
+which they are foaled and live and die; often without having looked
+through a bridle. Those taken up for riding purposes or for breeding
+are of course the pick of the droves, and thus we find an active force
+at work which is calculated to lower the average standard of quality
+among the wild ponies.
+
+In considering the various efforts which from time to time have been
+made in the direction of improvement by the introduction of fresh
+blood, we must bear in mind that the mares on which such experiments
+have been made are those which have been taken up by farmers and kept
+within fences. We cannot find that stallions of alien blood have ever
+been turned out to run on the moors, and in view of the conditions
+under which the moor ponies exist it is highly improbable that a
+stallion boasting such blood as would produce beneficial results on the
+native breed would long enough survive the exposure and scanty food
+to make any appreciable mark thereon. The endeavours, more or less
+continuous and successful, to improve the breed have been confined to
+the few, and have, therefore, produced little effect or none on the
+main stock.
+
+Early in the present century Mr. Willing, of Torpeak, made successful
+experiments in crossing the Exmoor pony with the smaller variety
+peculiar to the Dartmoor “tors.” Mr. Wooton, of Woodlands, says a
+writer in the _Field_ of 9th October, 1880, was in the habit of
+purchasing mares of this cross from Mr. Willing from about the year
+1820, and possessed a considerable number of them. He used to put
+these to small thoroughbred horses standing in the district. The names
+of Trap, Tim Whiffler, Rover, and Glen Stuart are mentioned, and
+about 1860 he sent some of his Exmoor-Dartmoor mares to a small Arab
+belonging to Mr. Stewart Hawkins, of Ivybridge. Mr. Wooton’s endeavours
+to improve the Dartmoor breed are the first that were made on any
+considerable scale, so far as it is possible to discover.
+
+About 1879 a resident who devoted much attention to the improvement
+of the Dartmoor breed introduced a brown stallion by Mr. Christopher
+Wilson’s Sir George out of Windsor Soarer, and as his mares—a selected
+lot, 12·2 to 13 hands, either brown or chestnut—came in use, put them
+to this pony with the object of getting early foals. The young stock
+thus got were carefully weeded out, the best stallions and mares only
+being retained. The colt foals were kept apart and at two years old put
+to the mares got by their sire. The experiment was very successful,
+browns, black-browns and chestnuts being the colours of this improved
+breed, which sold well.
+
+Mr. S. Lang, of Bristol, some years prior to 1880 sent down two good
+stallions, Perfection and Hereford, for use in the district, but it
+is stated that these ponies were little patronised by the farmers.
+Hereford, a pure thoroughbred pony only 13 hands high, left a few
+beautiful foals behind him.
+
+A description of Exmoor and Dartmoor ponies exhibited at the Newton
+Abbott Agricultural Show in May, 1875, may have had reference to these
+improved ponies. The following is quoted from the _Field_ of 29th May
+in that year:—
+
+  “Instead of deteriorating the stock improves yearly, and the
+  care which is now taken to infuse pure blood without harming the
+  essential characteristics of the original denizen of the moor has
+  succeeded in producing an animal of superlative merit, fitted for
+  any kind of work, whether for the field, the road, or the collar.
+  It must be observed that the word ‘moor’ should apply to Exmoor
+  and the Bodmin wastes as well as the Forest of Dartmoor, Dartmoor
+  Forest itself being within the precincts of the Duchy of Cornwall.
+  The moor pony or galloway of 14 hands is often in reality a little
+  horse; and when it is stated that Tom Thumb, the well-known hunter
+  of Mr. Trelawny, was a direct descendant of the celebrated Rough
+  Tor pony of Landue, and that Foster by Gainsborough, belonging to
+  the late Mr. Phillips, of Landue, carrying for many years fifteen
+  stone and upwards in the first flight, was from a moor pony near
+  Ivybridge, the assertion is not made without bringing strong
+  collateral proof of the validity of the statement. Moreover, a host
+  of other examples could be added. These animals possess many of
+  the properties of the thorough-bred—speed, activity, any amount of
+  stay, with legs of steel; they can jump as well as the moor sheep,
+  and much after the same fashion, for no hedge fence can stop either
+  one or the other.”
+
+For the information of those interested in this breed the following
+descriptions furnished to the Polo Pony Society for their Stud Book
+(vol. v.) by Local Committees may be quoted:
+
+
+(THE EXMOOR DIVISION.)
+
+  _The Exmoor pony should average 12 hands and never be above 13
+  hands; moorland bred; generally dark bay or brown with black
+  points, wide forehead and nostril; mealy nose; sharp ears; good
+  shoulders and back; short legs, with good bone and fair action._
+
+  _There are a few grey ponies in Sir Thomas Acland’s herd, but no
+  chestnuts._
+
+
+(THE DARTMOOR DIVISION.)
+
+The official description of points is identical with that given for the
+North Wales pony, with the following amendments and additions:—
+
+  HEIGHT. _Not exceeding 14 hands for stallions, 13·2 for mares._
+  COLOUR. _Brown, black, or bay preferred; grey allowable, other
+  colours objectionable._ HEAD. _Should be small, well set on, and
+  blood-like._ NECK. _Strong but not too heavy, and neither long nor
+  short; and, in case of a stallion, with moderate crest._ BACK,
+  LOINS, AND HIND QUARTERS. _Strong and well covered with muscle._
+
+
+
+
+THE CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORELAND PONIES.
+
+
+The ponies and galloways, for which the waste lands of these
+counties have long been known, appear to possess no distinguishing
+characteristics that would permit it to be said they form a distinct
+breed. An authority resident at Harrington who gives much information
+concerning the ponies of the heafs—fell-side holdings—and moors, states
+that there are several strains, and the appearance and character of
+each differs in various districts under the varying local influences
+of climate, feed, &c. Little or nothing is known of the origin of
+these ponies. The resemblance to “Shelties,” borne by those of certain
+localities until about the middle of the century, suggested that they
+were descended from a mixed stock of galloways and Shetland ponies;
+but some forty or fifty years ago endeavours were made to improve them
+by careful selection and mating; and the resemblance, which did not
+necessarily imply possession of the merits of the Shetland pony, has in
+great measure disappeared.
+
+They are generally good-tempered; so sure-footed that they can gallop
+down the steep hill-sides with surprising speed and fearlessness;
+but their paces on level ground are not fast. Their endurance has
+been remarked by many writers. Brown’s _Anecdotes and Sketches of the
+Horse_, published about sixty years ago, contains an account of an
+extraordinary performance by a galloway, at Carlisle, in 1701; when
+Mr. Sinclair, of Kirkby Lonsdale, for a wager of 500 guineas, rode the
+animal 1000 miles in 1000 hours.
+
+The ponies run in “gangs” on the holdings, the gang numbering from half
+a dozen to forty or even sixty individuals. In some cases a few ponies
+are taken up, broken and worked all the year round, carrying the farmer
+to market, drawing peat and hay, and ploughing. The stony nature of
+the heaf-lands requires only a light plough, which is easily drawn by
+one or two of the half-pony, half-horse nondescripts; the extent of
+arable land farmed by any one farmer is only from four to six acres.
+A stallion is sometimes used for the farm-work, and in such cases the
+neighbouring farmers bring mares to be served; some such stallions will
+serve from thirty to fifty mares in the season. In the larger gangs
+the stallion runs with the mares on the hills; a good breeding mare
+often lives and dies without knowing a halter, running practically
+wild from the day she is dropped on the fell-side till she dies. These
+unhandled ponies pick up their living on the hills, and during winter a
+little hay is brought out to them by the shepherds.
+
+The “Fell-siders,” as the holders of heafs are called locally, make no
+attempt to improve their wild pony stock; under the existing conditions
+the wild mares drop their foals, it may be without the knowledge of
+their owner. Farmers who bring their mares to a neighbour’s working
+stallion exercise no discrimination in their choice; the cheapest and
+most accessible horse receives their preference.
+
+Where skill and judgment have been brought to bear upon the improvement
+of the Fell ponies the result has been very marked. Mr. Christopher
+W. Wilson, of Rigmaden Park, Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmoreland, was the
+pioneer of an improved breed of ponies, and he has shown what can be
+done with the material at hand, having built upon that foundation a
+breed which at the present day stands unrivalled for shape and action.
+Having in the year 1872 taken the matter in hand, Mr. Wilson selected
+his breeding mares from among the best ponies of the districts, and put
+them to the pony stallion, Sir George, a Yorkshire-bred Hackney (by
+Sportsman (796) by Prickwillow, who was descended through Phenomenon
+from the Original Shales), which won for eight years the first prizes
+at the Shows of the Royal Agricultural Society. The female offspring
+were in due time mated with their sire, and threw foals which showed
+Hackney characteristics in far more marked degree than did their dams,
+as might be anticipated in animals three-parts instead of one-half bred.
+
+The chief difficulty Mr. Wilson had to contend against was the tendency
+of these ponies to exceed the 14 hands which is the limit of the pony
+classes at the shows. This was overcome by turning out the young
+stock after the first winter upon the rabbit warrens and moorlands of
+Rigmaden to find their own grazing among the sheep and rabbits as their
+maternal ancestors had done. This measure not only succeeded in its
+direct object, but went far to preserve that hardiness of constitution
+which is by no means the least valuable attribute of the mountain pony.
+
+This judicious system of breeding and management was maintained with
+the best results; the third direct cross from Sir George produced a
+mare in Georgina V. which had constitution and stamina, and also more
+bone than her dam or grand-dam. The breeder’s name has been given
+to the fruits of his wisely directed efforts, and the “Wilson pony”
+is now universally famous for its hunter-like shape and action, and
+for the numerous successes it has achieved at the principal shows at
+home and abroad. Mr. Wilson won the Queen’s Jubilee gold medals for
+both stallions and mares at the Royal Agricultural Society’s Show at
+Windsor, and sold the stallion for a large sum to go to America. On one
+occasion the R.A.S.E. Show included three classes for pony stallions
+and three prizes in each. Mr. Wilson entered nine ponies and won all
+these prizes; also 1st and 2nd prizes for pony brood mares.
+
+Sir Humphrey de Trafford, Bart., was also most successful in producing
+ponies from stock purchased from Mr. Christopher Wilson. At the Flordon
+Sale, Norfolk, held in September, 1895, Sir Humphrey disposed of his
+large stud, when some of the ponies realised prices which are worth
+quoting: Snorer II., a brown mare, 13.3, eight years old, by Sir
+George—Snorer—Sir George, 600 gs.; Georgina V., a bay mare, 14 hands,
+six years old, by Sir George—Georgina II., Sir George—Georgina—Sir
+George, 700 gs.; Dorothy Derby, a bay mare, 14 hands, eight years old,
+by Lord Derby II.—Burton Agnes, 600 gs.; Dorothy Derby II., a bay mare,
+14 hands, six years old, by Little Wonder II.—Dorothy Derby, 720 gs.;
+Snorter II., bay filly, two years old, by Cassius—Snorer II. by Sir
+George—Snorer—Sir George, 700 gs., and Miss Sniff, bay yearling filly,
+by Cassius—Snorer II., 900 gs.; the average for these six lots being no
+less than £756.
+
+It is true that Sir Humphrey had spared neither money nor labour in
+founding the Flordon stud, and the ponies were animals of exceptional
+merit. Their high quality had won them prizes at all the principal
+shows in England, and their fame was literally “world-wide.”
+
+Illustration:
+
+   _S. Clark, Hallgarth, Photo._
+
+  LITTLE WONDER II.]
+
+Twenty years ago, the late Rev. J. M. Lowther, rector of Boltongate,
+made an attempt on a modest scale to improve the ponies of the Caldbeck
+Fells by selecting sires and dams from among the best of  them.
+Two or three ponies of his breeding won prizes at Whitehaven and
+Carlisle; his best sire was a 13-hand pony named Mountain Hero. This
+little animal had splendid bone and was as hardy as the wildest of his
+kin. The picture here given is a portrait of LITTLE WONDER II., the
+property of the Marquis of Londonderry. He was bred by Mr. Christopher
+W. Wilson, his sire being Little Wonder I., and his dam Snorer by Sir
+George.
+
+Mr. William Graham, of Eden Grove, Kirkbythorpe, Penrith, writes:—
+
+  “Up to about twenty years ago great interest seems to have been
+  taken in pony or galloway cob breeding throughout the whole
+  district of the Eden valley in the villages and hamlets that
+  lie scattered all along the foot of the Pennine range of hills.
+  Previous to the days of railway transit the ponies and small
+  galloway cobs were employed in droves as pack horses, as well as
+  for riding, and many men now living can remember droves of from
+  twenty to thirty continually travelling the district, carrying
+  panniers of coal and other merchandise between the mines and
+  villages.
+
+  “The village of Dufton, in which the hill farm of Keisley is
+  situated, was quite a centre of pony breeding, and for many
+  generations the Fell-side farmers in this district have been noted
+  for their ponies; they bred them to the best Fell pony stallions,
+  most of which were trained trotters of great speed. Each of the
+  three mares originally purchased to found the stud at Keisley
+  were got from well-known locally bred dams and grand-dams, and
+  all were selected to match each other in character and style. The
+  mare from which two of them were bred was from a very old strain
+  by a stallion pony called Long Cropper, a record trotter; and all
+  the three mares were themselves by a pony called Blooming Heather,
+  another well-known pony stallion of a few generations younger.
+  These mares have been put to a stallion got by Mars from a pony
+  mare belonging to Col. Stirling, Kippendavie, and the present stud,
+  with the exception of two of the mares originally purchased, are
+  all by him. Last season, and this, a pony stallion by Little Wonder
+  II. has been in use, and five or six of the mares have foaled to
+  him, the end of May and beginning of June being quite early enough
+  for these mares to foal, as they are never under cover unless
+  broken-in, especially as they very readily stand to their service
+  at first season after foaling.
+
+  “When safe in foal they are turned out to the higher allotments
+  and the open fell with their foals, where they run from July to
+  November; save in exceptionally hard winters they get no hand
+  feeding in the shape of hay, as they thrive and do well in the
+  rough open allotments, to which they are generally brought down in
+  November to remain until the end of March.
+
+  “In height these ponies run from 12 to 13 hands, and with the
+  exception of two blacks all are of uniform rich dark bay colour
+  with black points. Just at first, when brought in wild to break,
+  they are a little nervous, but if kindly treated soon become very
+  docile and easily handled. They are very easily broken both for
+  riding and driving, and ponies comparatively quite small carry with
+  ease men of ordinary stature. They are the most useful means of
+  locomotion in crossing the mountain ranges and traversing the hilly
+  roads of the district. Although of no great size these ponies are
+  very muscular, their bones and joints are fine, hard and clean,
+  and, generally speaking, they have good middles. Some are perhaps a
+  little short in quarter, but with a fair shoulder, and their legs,
+  ankles and feet are all that can be desired. There certainly seems
+  to be very fair field in the district for breeding ponies, as they
+  are very cheaply and easily reared, and when fit to break in can be
+  disposed of for a very fairly good figure.”
+
+The Cumberland “Fell-siders” are wedded to the customs and usages of
+their ancestors, and endeavours to promote schemes for the general
+improvement of the ponies have met with small success. Colonel
+Green-Thompson, of Bridekirk, Cockermouth, in 1897, offered the farmers
+the opportunity of using an Arab stallion, but the chance of thus
+bettering their stock appears to have been neglected by the breeders.
+This is to be regretted, for the fells and dales offer thousands of
+acres of good, sound grazing land which might be far more profitably
+devoted to pony-breeding than given up to the few scattered flocks of
+Herdwick sheep which they now carry. The sheep farmers of Caldbeck
+and Matterdale in Cumberland pay some attention to the business,
+asserting that the ponies are less trouble and involve less risk than
+sheep. Their fillies are put to the horse at two years old, and they
+frequently obtain a second foal before sending the dam to market. The
+colts command a readier sale than the mares. The ordinary Fell pony,
+outside the district, is in demand for pit work, for which purpose
+suitable animals bring from £12 to £15.
+
+Mr. W. W. Wingate-Saul supplies the following description of the Fell
+ponies:—
+
+  “_A very powerful and compact cobby build, the majority
+  having a strong middle piece with deep chest and strong loin
+  characteristics, which, combined with deep sloping shoulders
+  and fine withers, make them essentially weight-carrying riding
+  ponies. The prevailing—indeed, the only—colours are black, brown,
+  bay, and, quite occasionally, grey. I do not remember ever having
+  seen a chestnut, and if I found one I should think it due to the
+  introduction of other blood. The four colours prevail in the order
+  named, the best animals often being get black and usually without
+  white markings, unless it be a small white star. The head is
+  pony-like and intelligent, with large bright eyes and well-placed
+  ears. The neck in the best examples being long enough to give a
+  good rein to the rider. The hind quarters are square and strong,
+  with a well-set-on tail. The legs have more bone than those of any
+  of our breeds; ponies under 14 hands often measuring 8-1/2 inches
+  below the knee. Their muscularity of arm, thigh and second thigh
+  is marvellous. Their habitat (having been bred for centuries on
+  the cold inhospitable Fells, where they are still to be found) has
+  caused a wonderful growth of hair, the winter coat being heavy and
+  the legs growing a good deal of fine hair, all of which, excepting
+  some at the point of the heel, is cast in summer. Constitutionally
+  they are hard as iron, with good all-round action, and are very
+  fast and enduring._”
+
+
+
+
+IRELAND—THE CONNEMARA PONY.
+
+
+Richard Berenger, Gentleman of the Horse to King George III. in his
+work, _The History and Art of Horsemanship_, 1771—says that—
+
+  “Ireland has for many centuries boasted a race of horses called
+  Hobbies, valued for their easy paces and other pleasing and
+  agreeable qualities, of a middling size, strong, nimble, well
+  moulded and hardy.... The nobility have stallions of great
+  reputation belonging to them, but choose to breed for the _Turf_
+  in preference to other purposes; for which, perhaps, their country
+  is not so well qualified, from the moisture of the atmosphere, and
+  other causes, which hinder it from improving that elastic force and
+  clearness of wind; and which are solely the gifts of a dry soil,
+  and an air more pure and refined. This country, nevertheless, is
+  capable of producing fine and noble horses.”
+
+The great stud maintained in England by Edward III. (1327-1377)
+included a number of Hobbies which were procured from Ireland. A
+French chronicler named Creton, who wrote a _Metrical History of the
+Deposition of Richard II._,[6] refers with great admiration to the
+Irish horses of the period. He evidently accompanied King Richard
+during his expedition to Ireland in the summer of 1399, for he says
+the horses of that country “scour the hills and vallies fleeter than
+deer;” and he states that the horse ridden by Macmore, an Irish
+chieftain, “without housing or saddle was worth 400 cows.”
+
+[6] See vol. xx. of _Archeologia_ for prose translation.
+
+At a much later date the character of this breed was changed by the
+introduction of Spanish blood. Tradition asserts that the ponies which
+inhabited the rough and mountainous tracts of Connemara, in the county
+Galway, were descended from several animals that were saved from the
+wreck of some ship of the Spanish Armada in 1588. It is, however,
+quite needless to invoke the aid of a somewhat too frequently employed
+tradition to explain the character which at one period distinguished
+these ponies. Spanish stallions were freely imported into England from
+the fourteenth to seventeenth centuries; and it is probable that the
+character of the Connemara pony was derived not from shipwrecked stock
+but in more prosaic fashion by importation of sires from England.
+
+The testimony of many old writers goes to prove the high esteem in
+which Spanish horses were held. The Duke of Newcastle, in his famous
+work on Horses and Horsemanship, written in 1658, says: “I have had
+Spanish horses in my own possession which were proper to be painted
+after, or fit for a king to mount on a public occasion. Genets have a
+fine lofty air, trot and gallop well. The best breed is in Andalusia,
+especially that of the King of Spain at Cordova.” The Spanish horse of
+those times owed much to the Barbs, which were originally introduced
+into the country by the Moors; and if the Connemara pony was permitted
+to revert to the original type, something was done to re-establish the
+Spanish—or, perhaps, it were more accurate to go a step further back
+and say the “Barb”—character in the early thirties.
+
+Mr. Samuel Ussher Roberts, C.B., in course of evidence given before
+the Royal Commission on Horse Breeding in Ireland (1897), stated that
+he lived for five-and-twenty years in the west of Galway, and when in
+that part of the country, “there was,” he said, “an extremely hardy,
+wiry class of pony in the district showing a great deal of the Barb
+or Arab blood. Without exception they were the best animals I ever
+knew—good shoulders, good hard legs, good action, and great stamina ...
+they were seldom over 14·2. I never knew one of them to have a spavin
+or splint, or to be in any respect unsound in his wind.... There was
+a strong trace of Arab blood which I always understood arose from the
+introduction into Connemara of the Barb or Arab by the Martin family
+many years ago—you could very easily trace it to the Connemara ponies
+at the time I speak of.” In answer to a subsequent question Mr. Ussher
+Roberts fixed the date of the introduction of the Barb or Arab blood by
+Colonel Martin at about 1833.
+
+The old stamp of Connemara pony was described by another witness, Mr.
+R. B. Begley, as “long and low with good rein, good back, and well
+coupled”; but the majority of witnesses from Galway, and those who had
+personal knowledge of the breed, shared Mr. Ussher Roberts’ opinion
+that it had greatly deteriorated since the middle of the century
+when the influence of the Barb or Arab sires had died out. The young
+animals, it was stated, were collected in droves when about six months
+old, and hawked about the country for sale, bringing prices ranging
+from thirty shillings to £3. Many of these were purchased for use in
+the English coal pits. Evidence was forthcoming to show that there
+are still some good specimens of the breed. Mr. John Purdon described
+a drove he had recently seen in Connemara: “They were beautiful mares,
+I never saw lovelier mares; about twenty in the drove, and foals with
+them. They were the perfect type of a small thoroughbred mare.” These
+animals were the property of Mr. William Lyons, who kept a special
+breed for generations.
+
+The falling off in quality was generally attributed to promiscuous
+breeding and to in-breeding. “In some parts of Connemara,” said Mr. H.
+A. Robinson, “they just turn a stallion out loose on the mountains,
+mongrels of the very worst description.” There is, however, another
+factor in the loss of quality, namely, the terrible straits to which
+the peasantry were reduced in the time of the famine. A correspondent
+informs me that in south-west Cork, in the fifties, nearly all the
+people had mare ponies; in west Galway in the sixties there was
+scarcely an ass in Connemara west of Spiddal and Oughterard; and the
+case in west Mayo was the same. When my informant visited the same
+districts fifteen or twenty years later, he observed a remarkable
+change. “Hard times” had come upon the people in the interim, and all
+the small holders had donkeys instead of ponies; poverty had obliged
+them to sell their mares; and when times improved they were too
+impoverished to buy new ponies, and replaced them with asses.
+
+Under such circumstances, of course, the better the mare owned by
+the peasant the more likely it was to find a purchaser; and little
+but the “rag, tag and bobtail” was left to perpetuate the species.
+However considerably the remainder depreciated in quality, they still
+retained their characteristic hardiness of constitution and the germs
+of those qualities which under better auspices gained the breed its
+reputation. Some of the witnesses who gave evidence before the Royal
+Commission mentioned experiments in cross breeding which prove how
+well and rapidly the Connemara pony responds to endeavour to improve
+it by the introduction of suitable fresh blood. Mr. Samuel Johnston
+stated that he had bred one of the best hunters he ever possessed out
+of a Connemara mare; and Mr. R. B. Begley described a mare got by
+the pure-bred Hackney sire Star of the West from a “mountainy pony.”
+This Hackney-Connemara cross could cover an English mile in three
+minutes; Mr. Begley had driven her fifty-six Irish (over seventy-one
+statute) miles in a day, and had repeatedly driven her twelve Irish
+(over fifteen statute) miles in an hour and ten minutes; he had won
+two prizes with her for action in harness at the Hollymount Show;
+and had hunted her with ten stone on her back. With hounds as in the
+shafts this really remarkable pony proved herself able to go and stay,
+performing well across country.
+
+These Connemara ponies stand from 12 hands to 14 hands or more. Like
+other breeds which run practically wild in mountainous country, they
+are above all things hardy, active and sure-footed: in response to
+the climatic conditions of their habitat—the climate of West Galway
+is the most humid of any spot in Europe—they grow a thick and shaggy
+coat which is very usually chestnut in colour betraying their descent.
+Although they have lost in size owing to the conditions of their
+existence and are rounder in the croup, they retain the peculiar
+ambling gait which distinguished their Spanish ancestors. Those with
+whose breeding care has been taken, such as the drove belonging to Mr.
+William Lyons, of Oughterard, show the characteristics implanted by
+the infusion of Barb blood in their blood-like heads and clean limbs.
+Even those which have suffered through promiscuous breeding conform in
+their ugliness and shortcomings to the original type.
+
+For some years past systematic endeavours to improve the breed have
+been in progress. The Congested Districts Board, under the Land
+Commission of Ireland, introduced small Hackney stallions whose
+substance, action and robust constitution render them particularly well
+adapted to correct the defects of weedy and ill-shaped mares without
+impairing their natural hardiness.
+
+
+
+
+THE PONIES OF SCOTLAND AND THE SHETLAND ISLANDS.
+
+
+The Scottish nation from early times have possessed a breed of horses
+which was held in great esteem; and, as in England, laws were passed
+from time to time prohibiting their export from the country. The second
+parliament of James I. in the year 1406 enacted (cap. 31) that no horse
+of three years old or under should be sent out of Scotland. In 1567,
+James VI. forbade the export of horses in an Act (Jac. VI., cap. 22)
+whose preface makes specific reference to Bordeaux, from which place
+there was a great demand for horses.
+
+In a curious old book entitled _The Horseman’s Honour_ or the _Beautie
+of Horsemanship_, published in the year 1620 by an anonymous writer, we
+find the following passage:—
+
+  “For the horses of Scotland they are much less than those of
+  England, yet not inferiour in goodnesse; and by reason of their
+  smallnesse they keep few stoned but geld many by which likwise
+  they retaine this saying ‘That there is no gelding like those
+  in Scotland,’ and they, as the English, are for the most part
+  amblers. Also in Scotland there are a race of small nagges which
+  they call galloways or galloway nagges, which for fine shape easie
+  pace, pure mettall and infinit toughnesse are not short of the
+  best nagges that are bred in any countrey whatsoever; and for
+  soundnesse in body they exceede the most races that are extant, as
+  dayly experience shews in their continuall travels journeyings and
+  forehuntings.”
+
+Berenger[7] says:—
+
+  “This kingdom (Scotland) at present encourages a fleet breed
+  of horses, and the nobility and gentry have many foreign and
+  other stallions of great value in their possession with which
+  they cultivate the breed and improve it with great knowledge and
+  success. Like the English they are fond of racing and have a
+  celebrated course at Leith which is honoured with a royal plate
+  given by his present Majesty [George III.]
+
+  “The wisdom and generosity likewise of the nobility and gentry have
+  lately erected a riding house in the City of Edinburgh at their own
+  expense and fixed a salary upon the person appointed to direct it.
+
+  “This kingdom has been famous for breeding a peculiar sort of
+  horses called Galloways. From the care and attention paid at
+  present to the culture of horses it is to be expected that it will
+  soon be able to send forth numbers of valuable and generous breeds
+  destined to a variety of purposes and equal to all: the country
+  being very capable of answering the wishes of the judicious breeder
+  who need only remember that colts require to be well nourished in
+  winter and sheltered from the severity of a rigorous and changeable
+  sky.”
+
+[7] “The History and Art of Horsemanship,” by Richard Berenger,
+published by Davies and Cadell, London, 1771.
+
+The Galloway, so called from the part of Scotland known by that name,
+is a diminutive horse resembling the Welsh cob, to  which the author
+of an _Encyclopædia of Agriculture_ compares it in a passage quoted on
+a former page. The breed gradually diminished in number as the advances
+of law and order deprived the mosstroopers and other predatory border
+men of a method of livelihood which involved the use of hardy and
+enduring horses.
+
+Before the commencement of the nineteenth century and during more
+recent years this animal, which cannot be described either as a horse
+or a pony, has played an active part in agricultural work on the low
+lands of Scotland. In localities where no roads existed, and wheeled
+traffic was impossible, galloways were used not only for riding but for
+the transport of agricultural produce; as they lacked the weight and
+strength to draw the two-horse plough, ploughing was done by oxen, but
+the sledges which held the place of carts and waggons were drawn by the
+galloways, which were also used to carry corn and general merchandise
+in pots and panniers.
+
+In height the original Galloway was generally under 14 hands.
+Youatt (second edition, 1846) describes it as from 13 to 14 hands,
+and sometimes more; it was a bright bay or brown, with black legs
+and small head. The purposes for which it was used indicated the
+desirability of increasing its height and strength, and with this end
+in view cross breeding was commenced in the early part of the century,
+and continued until so late a date as 1850. By consequence, the old
+Galloway has now almost disappeared from all parts of the mainland and
+survives only in such remote situations as the Island of Mull.
+
+About the end of the eighteenth century a Mr. Gilchrist employed on his
+farm in Sutherlandshire as many as ten “garrons” to carry peats from
+the hills and seaweed from the shore. These burdens were carried in
+crates or panniers:
+
+  “The little creatures do wonders; they set out at peep of day and
+  never halt till the work of the day be finished—going 48 miles.”[8]
+
+[8] _Husbandry in Scotland_, published by Creech, Edinburgh, 1784.
+
+At the present time the most conspicuous field of utility open to the
+Scottish pony is that offered by the grouse-moors and deer-forests,
+though in the close season general farm and draught work affords
+them employment. A pony of from 13 to 14 hands may be strong enough
+for a man of average  weight to ride on the grouse-moor; but for
+deer-stalking a sturdy cob of from 14 to 15 hands is necessary, a
+smaller animal is not equal to the task of carrying a heavy man or a
+17-stone stag over the rough hills and valleys among which his work
+lies.
+
+The origin of the “Sheltie,” like that of the other breeds considered
+in the foregoing pages, is unknown. Mr. James Goudie, whose essay
+on _The Early History of the Shetland Pony_ is published in the
+first volume of the _Shetland Pony Stud Book_ thinks there is every
+likelihood that it was brought to the islands from Scotland at some
+very early period. The “Bressay Stone,” a sculptured slab which was
+discovered in Bressay in 1864, bears, among other designs in low
+relief, the figure of a horse on which a human figure is seated. “As
+this monument is admitted by authorities on the subject to belong to a
+period before the Celtic Christianity of the islands disappeared under
+the shock of Norwegian invasion [A.D. 872], it may be inferred ...
+that the animal was known and probably found in the islands at this
+period.” Early writers state that the Scandinavian invaders introduced
+the foundation stock some time prior to the fifteenth century.
+Buchanan makes passing reference to the Orkney and Shetland ponies in
+his _History of Scotland_, written three centuries ago: but the first
+description which has completeness to recommend it is that of Brand,
+who visited the islands in 1700 and wrote _A Brief Description of
+Orkney, Zetland, Pightland, Firth and Caithness_, which was published
+at Edinburgh in the following year. This author writes:—
+
+  “They are of a less size than the Orkney Horses, for some will be
+  but 9, others 10 nives or hand-breadths high, and they will be
+  thought big Horses there if 11, and although so small yet they are
+  full of vigour and life, and some not so high as others often prove
+  to be the strongest.... Summer or winter they never come into an
+  house but run upon the mountains, in some places in flocks; and if
+  any time in Winter the storm be so great that they are straitened
+  for food they will come down from the Hills when the ebb is in the
+  sea and eat the sea-ware ... which Winter storms and scarcity of
+  fodder puts them out of ease and bringeth them so very low that
+  they recover not their strength till St. John’s Mass-day, the
+  24th of June, when they are at their best. They will live to a
+  considerable age, as twenty-six, twenty-eight or thirty years, and
+  they will be good riding horses in twenty-four, especially they’le
+  be the more vigorous and live the longer if they be four years old
+  before they be put to work. Those of a black colour are judged to
+  be the most durable and the pyeds often prove not so good; they
+  have been more numerous than they now are.”
+
+Bengie, in his _Tour in Shetland_ (1870), after remarking on their
+sure-footedness and hardiness of constitutions, suggests that the
+sagacity, spirit and activity for which they are remarkable may be due
+to the freedom of the life they live on the hills. “They are sprightly
+and active as terriers, sure-footed as mules and patient as donkeys.”
+They stand, he adds, at the head of the horse tribe as the most
+intelligent and faithful of them all; and he compares the intelligence
+of the Sheltie with that of the Iceland pony much to the advantage of
+the former. “Shorter in the leg than any other kind,” says Mr. Robert
+Brydon, of Seaham Harbour, “they are at the same time wider in the
+body and shorter in the back, with larger bones, thighs and arms; and
+therefore are comparatively stronger and able to do with ease as much
+work as average ponies of other breeds a hand higher.” The Shetland
+Stud Book Society will register no pony whose height exceeds 10 hands
+2 inches, and the average height may be taken as 10 hands: many do not
+exceed 9 hands, and a lady who wrote an account of a visit to Shetland
+in 1840 speaks of one reared by Mr. William Hay, of Hayfield, which was
+only 26 inches, or 6 hands 2 inches high! It is however, unusual to
+find a pony measuring less than 8 hands at the shoulder, and we may
+perhaps doubt whether the 26-inch specimen was full-grown.
+
+In colour the Shetlander varies: bays, browns and dullish blacks are
+most common: sometimes these hues are relieved by white markings and
+occasionally white specimens occur: piebalds are rare. The coat in
+winter is long, close and shaggy, fit protection against the inclemency
+of the weather the pony endures without cover or shelter: in spring the
+heavy winter coat is shed, and in the summer months the hair is short
+and sleek.
+
+In former times it was customary to hobble the ponies; but this
+practice, which must have done much to spoil their naturally good
+action, has been abandoned for many years.
+
+It is now usual to give the ponies a ration of hay in the winter months
+when the vegetation is covered deep with snow, and thus the losses by
+starvation, which formerly were heavy in severe winters, are obviated.
+Otherwise the Sheltie’s conditions of life to-day differ little from
+those that prevailed three centuries ago. Mr. Meiklejohn, of Bressay,
+states that in April, generally, the crofters turn their ponies out
+upon the common pasture lands, and leave them to their own devices. On
+common pastures where there are no stallions the mares are caught for
+service and tethered until the foal is born and can follow freely, when
+mother and child are turned out again.
+
+In autumn when crops have been carried the ponies come down from the
+hills to their own townships, where they feed on the patches of fresh
+grass which have been preserved round the cultivated areas. The nights
+being now cold, they remain in the low-lying lands sheltering under the
+lee of the yard walls; and “when winter has more fully set in the pony
+draws nearer his owner’s door, and in most cases is rewarded with his
+morning sheaf on which, with seaweed and what he continues to pick off
+the green sward, the hardy animal manages to eke out a living until the
+time rolls round again that he is turned on the hill pasture, never
+being under a roof in his life.”
+
+At one period the ponies were apparently regarded almost as public
+property; for, among the “Acts and Statutes of the Lawting Sheriff and
+Justice Courts of Orkney and Shetland,” was one passed in the year 1612
+and frequently renewed, which forbade the “ryding ane uther manis hors
+without licence and leave of the awner,” under penalty of fine; and
+also provided that “quhasoever sall be tryet or fund to stow or cut ane
+uther man’s hors taill sall be pwinischit as a theif at all rigour in
+exempill of utheris to commit the lyke.”
+
+The number of ponies on the islands has decreased in recent years
+by reason of the steadily growing demand from without. The latest
+available Government returns are those of 1891, and for the sake of
+comparison the returns of 1881 are given below:—
+
+                                                         1881    1891
+    Horses (including ponies) as returned by occupiers
+        of land used solely for agriculture               921     787
+
+    Unbroken horses and mares kept solely for breeding  4,323   4,016
+                                                        —————   —————
+                                                        5,244   4,803
+                                                        —————   —————
+
+The ponies are little used for farm work in the Shetlands; they carry
+loads of peat from the hills to the crofts, and apart from this are
+used only for riding; they are beyond question the most wonderful
+weight-carriers in the world, a 9-hand pony being able to carry with
+the greatest ease a full-grown man over bad ground and for long
+distances.
+
+They owe their value to the combination of minuteness and strength,
+which renders them peculiarly suitable for draught work in the coal
+mines. Many ponies will travel thirty miles a day, to and fro in the
+seams, drawing a load, tilt and coals included, of from 12 to 14
+cwt. The Sheltie’s lot underground is admittedly a hard one, but his
+tractable disposition usually ensures for him kindly treatment at the
+hands of the boy who has him in charge.
+
+These ponies, says Mr. Brydon, were first used in the coal pits of
+the North of England about the year 1850. Horse ponies from 3 to 5
+years old could then be purchased for £4 10s. each delivered at the
+collieries. Since that time prices have risen enormously, though for
+the smallest animals they fluctuate from time to time in sympathy with
+the price of coal. As the cause of the influence of the coal market
+upon the price of Shetland ponies is perhaps not quite obvious, it
+must be explained that the chief value of these little animals is
+their ability to work in the low galleries of thin-seamed pits; when
+the price of coal sinks to a certain point these thin seams cannot be
+profitably worked, the pits are “laid in,” or temporarily closed, and
+the ponies withdrawn. In 1891 the average yearling was worth £15 and
+a two-year-old £18, while full-grown ponies were scarcely procurable.
+In 1898 a four-year-old could be bought at from £15 to £21, owing to
+the depression in the price of coals and the suspension of work in
+thin-seamed pits.
+
+It will be understood that only small animals of the commoner sort
+suitable for pit work are affected by the coal market. Horse ponies
+of the right stamp with good pedigree and suitable for the stud still
+command from £30 to £50, and in some cases even more. Mare ponies of
+good pedigree also command high prices; at the last Londonderry sale,
+the mares, Mr. R. Brydon informs me, sold at an average of £19 per
+head; but the average obtained for second-class mares would little
+exceed six guineas per head.
+
+  The docility and good temper of the Shetland pony make him, above all,
+the best and most trustworthy mount for a child. Captain H. Hayes
+has remarked that “a comparatively high degree of mental (_i.e._,
+reasoning) power is not desirable in a horse, because it is apt to make
+him impatient of control by man.” The Shetland pony is the rule-proving
+exception; for he combines with the highest order of equine
+intelligence a disposition curiously free from vice or trickiness. Mr.
+Brydon has never known a Sheltie withdrawn from a pit as wicked or
+unmanageable; withdrawal for such reasons being very frequent with
+ponies of other breeds.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _Engraved by F. Babbage._
+
+  CHILD’S SHETLAND PONY.
+  The property of Sir WALTER GILBEY, Bart.]
+
+It may be observed that about the middle of the century there were a
+number of Shelties in Windsor Park, which were used to do various kinds
+of work.
+
+During recent years a demand for mares for breeding purposes has grown
+up in America, much to the advantage of the crofter, who finds a market
+in the colliery districts for horse ponies only.
+
+Many attempts have been made to increase the size of the Sheltie.
+About the middle of the last century Norwegian pony stallions were
+introduced into Dunrossness with the result that a distinct variety was
+established and still continues; this is called the Sumburgh breed;
+in size these ponies range from 12 hands to 13·2. Another variety
+known as the Fetlar breed owes its origin to the introduction by Sir
+Arthur Nicolson of a Mustang stallion named Bolivar over half a century
+ago; the Fetlar ponies run from 11 to 13 hands, and are described as
+remarkably handsome, swift and spirited, but less tractable than the
+pure Shetlander. The Sumburgh and Fetlar varieties deserve mention
+only as experiments; the result having been to increase the height of
+the pony, it follows, after what has been said on a former page, that
+these cross-bred animals are of comparatively small value.
+
+  Far more importance attaches to the efforts which have been made to
+improve the pure breed while preserving its diminutive size. The
+Marquis of Londonderry, some twenty-five years ago, acquired grazings
+on Bressay and Moss Islands; and having procured the best stock
+obtainable from all over the Shetlands, began breeding on judicious and
+methodical lines. Twelve or fifteen mares with a carefully selected
+stallion are placed in an enclosure, and the young stock, after
+weaning, are turned out on the hills; they are hand-fed in winter,
+but are never given the protection of a roof, whereby their natural
+hardiness is preserved. The Marquis of Zetland in Unst, and Mr. Bruce
+in Fair Isle, follow a somewhat similar method of mating and rearing.
+Messrs. Anderson & Sons have on Northmavine done much to promote the
+interests of the breed by purchasing good stallions, often at Lord
+Londonderry’s annual Seaham Harbour Sale, and distributing these over
+the common pastures. The benefits which have accrued from this policy
+are very marked; and though the crofters yield to the temptation of
+high prices, and sell their best animals for export, the endeavours of
+the gentlemen named above to maintain the quality of the breed in its
+native habitat cannot fail to largely counteract the evil results of
+such sales.
+
+Among the studs on the mainland the best known, perhaps, is that of the
+Countess of Hopetoun at Linlithgow. Her ladyship’s success has been due
+in no small measure to that beautiful little sire the Monster. This
+pony is a perfect example of the Shetland stallion, as may be gathered
+from his showyard record: he was first in the class for Shetland
+ponies under 10 hands 2 inches at the Royal Agricultural Society’s
+Show in 1895, at Darlington, and has been preferred by judges to Lord
+Londonderry’s Excellent and the Elsenham pony, Good Friday, Excellent
+having taken many first prizes, and Good Friday five firsts at the
+London shows.
+
+Mr. James Bruce has a drove of Shetland ponies at Inverquhomery,
+Longside, Aberdeenshire. These are descended from two mares and a
+stallion imported in the year
+
+1889. Three years ago Mr. Bruce replenished his breeding stock by the
+purchase of five more mares. A noteworthy feature of this stud is the
+colour, which in every case is chestnut, Mr. Bruce’s 1889 importations
+being of that rare colour among Shelties.
+
+Since the establishment of the _Shetland Pony Stud Book_, several
+studs have been founded in Scotland and England. The chief difficulty
+the owners have to contend with is the proneness towards increase of
+size due to milder climate and richer feed. This tendency can only be
+checked by the periodical importation of stock from the Shetland Isles.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _Drawn by J. Doyle._      _Engraved on wood by F. Babbage._
+
+  H.R.H. PRINCESS VICTORIA IN HER PONY PHAETON.]
+
+
+
+
+USES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PONY.
+
+
+It would be difficult to name a class of work in which the pony is not
+employed. He is used by all, from the sovereign to the peasant and
+costermonger. Pony racing has been recently re-established as a sport
+after temporary suspension, due to no shortcoming on the pony’s side.
+It is rare that a meet of hounds is not attended by a sprinkling of
+ponies carrying future sportsmen and women, and it is safe to assert
+that every master of hounds and every man who takes his own line across
+country served his apprenticeship to the saddle on the back of a pony.
+The reason is that few men who do not learn to ride in early boyhood,
+when a pony is the only possible mount, completely master the art in
+later life; hence we meet few good horsemen who do not receive their
+first riding lessons on a steady pony. There is no stamp of vehicle
+which is not drawn by ponies. Her Majesty, for many years, drove a
+pony in her garden-chair; in double or single harness we find the pony
+driven in victoria, dog-cart, governess cart, and Irish car; in the
+tradesman’s light van and in the market cart drawing wares of every
+description; in the itinerant fishmonger’s, coster’s and hawker’s
+nondescript vehicle.
+
+The country clergyman and doctor would be in sore straits without the
+thirteen hand pony, which does a horse’s work on one-half a horse’s
+feed, and requires no more stable attendance than the gardener or
+handy man can spare time to give him. As shown in the foregoing pages,
+his labours are not confined to saddle and harness; in some parts of
+the country he is still used for pack-work, carrying agricultural
+produce and peats from the hills and moorlands to the farmstead; and
+in the low seams of the coal-pits which the horse cannot enter he is
+indispensable. Large though our native stock of ponies is, we do not
+breed them in numbers nearly sufficient for our needs, and each year
+brings thousands of small cheap ponies to our ports from Norway, Sweden
+and Russia. These, like the gangs purchased from breeders on Exmoor
+and elsewhere, are driven from one fair to another, to be sold by twos
+and threes all over the country by persons who cannot afford to keep a
+horse, but are obliged to provide themselves with a cheap and useful
+beast for draught or carriage.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+  _Engraved by F. Babbage._
+
+  THE FIRST LEAP.
+
+  From the picture by Sir EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.]
+
+It is very generally admitted that the intelligence of the pony is of
+higher degree than that of the horse; and the fact, we cannot doubt, is
+attributable to the different conditions under which ponies and horses
+are reared. The former, foaled and brought up on the hills and wastes,
+develope ability, like other wild animals, to look after themselves,
+and the intelligence so evolved is transmitted to generations born
+in domestication. The horse, foaled and reared in captivity, with
+every precaution taken for his security, has no demands made upon
+his intelligence, and his mental faculties remain to a great extent
+undeveloped. The same causes operate to furnish the pony’s stronger
+constitution and greater soundness; greater soundness not only in limb
+but also organic; roaring and whistling are unknown in the pony, common
+as they are in the horse.
+
+This superiority of constitution accounts for the marked superiority
+of the pony over the horse in endurance. The small and compact horse
+is always a better stayer than the large, loosely-built animal, and
+in the pony we find the merits of compactness at their highest.
+Numberless instances of pony endurance might be quoted, but two or
+three will suffice. Reference has been made on p. 30 to Sir Charles
+Turner’s achievement of riding a pony ten miles and over thirty leaps
+in forty-seven minutes, and to the conveyance of news from Holyhead to
+London by relays of ponies at the rate of twenty miles an hour. Whyte,
+in his _History of the British Turf_, states that in April, 1754, a
+mare, 13 hands 3 inches high, belonging to Mr. Daniel Croker, travelled
+300 miles on Newmarket Heath in 64 hours 20 minutes; she had been
+backed to perform the journey in 72 hours, and therefore completed her
+task with seven hours and forty minutes to spare. Her best day’s work
+was done on Tuesday, April 23. Mr. Whyte gives the following details
+of this extraordinary performance:—“24 miles and baited; 24 miles and
+baited; 24 miles and baited; 36 miles without baiting; total 108 miles.
+On the Monday and Wednesday she covered 96 miles each day. She was
+ridden throughout by a boy who scaled 4 stone 1 lb. without reckoning
+saddle and bridle. Another performance worth citing as proof of pony
+endurance was Sir Teddy’s race with the London mail coach to Exeter, a
+distance of 172 miles. Sir Teddy, a twelve hand pony, was led between
+two horses all the way, and carried no rider himself. He performed the
+journey in 23 hours and 20 minutes, beating the coach by fifty-nine
+minutes.”
+
+ We generally find that great feats of endurance, involving capacity
+to thrive on poor and scanty food, have generally been performed by
+ponies.[9] In the Nile Campaign of 1885 the 19th Hussars were mounted
+on Syrian Arabs, averaging 14 hands, which had been purchased in Syria
+and Lower Egypt at an average price of £18. The weight carried was
+reduced as much as possible in view of the hard work required of the
+ponies, but each of the 350 on which the Hussars were mounted carried
+about 14 stone. Their march from Korti to Metammeh as part of a flying
+column showed what these little horses could do; between the 8th and
+20th of January, both days included, they travelled 336 miles; halting
+on the 13th. On the return March from Dongola to Wady Halfa, 250 miles,
+after nearly nine months’ hard work on poor food they averaged 16 miles
+a day, with one halt of two days. Colonel Burrow, in reviewing the
+work performed by these ponies, says: “Food was often very limited,
+and during the desert march, water was very scarce. Under these
+conditions I venture to think that the performances of the regiment
+on the Arab ponies will compare with the performance of any horsemen on
+record.”[10]
+
+[9] See _Small Horses in Warfare_. By Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. Vinton &
+Co., Ltd., 1900.
+
+[10] _The XIXth and Their Times_, Colonel John Biddulph. Murray, 1899.
+
+Captain Fred Burnaby, in his well-known work “A Ride to Khiva,” bears
+witness to the wonderful endurance of a fourteen-hand Tartar pony
+which he purchased with misgivings for £5, in default of any better
+mount. This pony, he tell us, was in such miserable condition, his men
+complained among themselves that it would not be worth _eating_, they
+looked upon the little beast as fore-doomed from the moment Captain
+Burnaby mounted it. Yet this pony, its ordinary diet supplemented by
+a few pounds of barley daily, carried its rider, who weighed twenty
+stone in his heavy sheepskin clothes, safely and well over 900 miles
+of bad roads, often through deep snow, and always in bitterly cold
+weather, the thermometer being frequently many degrees below zero. On
+the concluding day of the return journey this pony galloped the last 17
+miles in 1 hour and 25 minutes. It would be easy to multiply examples
+of pony endurance; but we forbear.
+
+The greater stamina of the pony is evidenced in another direction,
+namely, length of life. Instances in which ponies have attained to
+a great age are more numerous than those recorded of horses, and
+further the pony lives longer. Mr. Edmund F. Dease, of Gaulstown, Co.
+Westmeath, lost a pony in December, 1894, which had reached the age
+of 39 years; in 1896, Mrs. Pratt, of Low Pond House, Bedale, Yorks,
+lost a pony mare aged 45 years; on Christmas Day, 1863, there died
+at Silworthy, near Clovelly in North Devon, a pony which had arrived
+within a few weeks of his sixtieth year. Accounts of ponies which
+lived, and in some cases worked, until they reached 40, 38, 37, and 35
+years also recur to mind.
+
+There is a degree of cold beyond which the horse cannot exist; and as
+he approaches the latitude where the limit prevails, the effect of
+climate is apparent in his conformation.
+
+The frozen and ungenial country of Lapland has its small ponies; they
+are employed in drawing sledges over the snow and transporting forage
+and merchandise, which in summer are conveyed in boats. In Iceland he
+is dwarfed to a Liliputian size, and thriving in the comparatively mild
+climate of the Shetlands we find a pony smaller than any other in the
+British Islands.
+
+It would seem from the facts it has been possible to collect that the
+New Forest, Welsh, Exmoor and Dartmoor, Fell and Connemara breeds
+of ponies are in their natural state of small value to man, though
+they owe to the natural conditions under which they exist qualities
+which may be turned to very valuable account by judicious crossing
+with breeds of a recognised stamp. Improvement must involve partial
+sacrifice of qualities such as ability to withstand exposure and
+cold on insufficient food, sure-footedness, and the sagacity which
+avoids bog and treacherous ground. These qualities, in their highest
+development, are indispensable to a wild animal; but the improved pony
+obtained by crossing is not destined for a wild life on the hills and
+wastes, and is less dependent upon them.
+
+Partial loss of such attributes, therefore, is a price well worth
+paying for the increased size and better conformation which render
+the produce suitable for man’s service with the more artificial and
+luxurious conditions of life inseparable from complete domesticity. The
+remarkable soundness of limb and constitution, developed by centuries
+of free life on the hills, are enduring qualities which appear in
+generation after generation of stock descended on one side from the
+half-wild breeds; and these are the qualities which above all it is
+desirable to breed into our horses of all sizes and for all purposes.
+The advantage to be gained by systematic improvement of these wild
+breeds of ponies is therefore not by any means advantageous to one side
+only.
+
+The Polo Pony Society at their meeting of 7th December, 1898, resolved
+to set apart a section of their Stud Book for the registration of
+Welsh, Exmoor, New Forest and other breeds of ponies; and with
+reference to this step Lord Arthur Cecil, in his Introduction to the
+fifth (1899) volume of the Polo Pony Stud Book, says:—
+
+  “It is in the limit of height that the greatest difficulty of
+  the Society lies. Could we be certain of breeding every animal
+  between 14 hands and 14 hands 2 inches our course would be
+  tolerably clear.... There is always, however, the danger that
+  the best-looking and best-nourished of our young stock will, if
+  some means be not found to prevent it, exceed this limit. The
+  remedy is more or less within our reach by utilising the hardy
+  little stocks of ponies which are to be found almost indigenous
+  in those districts of the British Isles where there are large
+  tracts of mountain or moorland ground. I refer to such ponies as
+  those found in North and South Wales, the New Forest, Exmoor,
+  Dartmoor, and the hills of the north of England and west coast
+  of Scotland.... Perhaps it may not be out of place to mention
+  that the present is not an inappropriate time for upholding the
+  breeding of ponies on hill lands. The keeping of hill sheep is not
+  so remunerative as of yore, the price of wool being so low and
+  the demand for four-year-old mutton not being anything like what
+  it was a few years ago; whereas, on the other hand, the demand
+  for ponies, especially good ones, is likely to increase, and if
+  farmers will only give them a fair chance they will amply repay
+  them for their keep up to three years old. It is hoped that by
+  careful consideration of their various characteristics, and by
+  registering such of them as are likely to breed riding ponies, and
+  by periodically going back to this fountain head of all ponies, we
+  may be able to regulate the size of our higher-class riding ponies
+  to the desired limit, while at the same time we shall infuse into
+  their blood the hardiness of constitution and endurance, combined
+  with a fiery yet even temper, so pre-eminently characteristic of
+  the British native breeds.”
+
+The Shetland pony stands upon a different footing. In him we have
+a pony whose characteristics are equally valuable to it as a wild
+animal and as one in a state of domestication. It is the only one of
+our half-wild breeds which gains nothing from an infusion of alien
+blood; its value depends upon the careful preservation of distinctive
+peculiarities of size and make, which fit it above all others for
+special purposes.
+
+
+
+
+BREEDING POLO PONIES.
+
+
+With only the limited experience in breeding ponies for Polo possessed
+by all who breed stock, remarks hazarded under this heading must
+necessarily be guided by general principles of breeding, and readers
+must be left to take them for what they may be worth.
+
+The steadily increasing popularity of the game of Polo has naturally
+produced an increased demand for suitable ponies; and Polo players
+being as a rule wealthy men, to whom a really good animal is cheap at
+almost any price, the value of first-rate ponies has risen to a level
+which compels attention to their breeding as a probably remunerative
+branch of industry. It was difficult to find ponies when an elastic
+14-hand limit was the rule; and if we may judge from the prices which
+have been paid since the regulation height was raised to 14 hands 2
+inches, the greater latitude thus afforded players in selecting mounts
+has done little or nothing towards solving the difficulty.
+
+What is this Polo Pony for which a fancy price is so readily
+forthcoming? In the first place, it is not a pony at all, but a small
+horse; we may let that pass, however. The modern Polo Pony must be
+big and powerful, at once speedy, sound, handy and docile, having
+also courage, power to carry weight, and staying power. And, as the
+necessary speed and courage are rarely to be found apart from blood, it
+has become an article of faith with players that the first-class pony
+must have a preponderance of racehorse blood in his veins.
+
+Hence a serious difficulty faces the breeder at the outset. For
+generations we have devoted all our care to increasing the height of
+the racehorse, and with such success that in 200 years we have raised
+his average stature by nearly 2 hands. The great authority Admiral
+Rous, writing in the year 1860, said that the English racehorse had
+increased in height an inch in every twenty-five years since the year
+1700. We now regard a thoroughbred as under size if he stand less than
+15 hands 3 inches. This is an important point to bear in mind; for if
+we are to breed blood ponies of 14 hands 2 inches to meet the demand
+which has recently arisen, it is plain that we must undo most that our
+fathers and ancestors have done.
+
+A Polo Pony to command a price must be able to carry from 12 to 14
+stone, and must be sound. Nine stone seven lb. is nowadays considered
+a crushing burden for a racehorse of 16 hands to carry a mile and a
+quarter. Never are the weights for a handicap published but the air
+grows thick with doubts and forebodings as to whether this horse or
+that can possibly stand the strain required by the handicapper’s
+impost, or whether it is worth risking his valuable legs under such a
+weight at all. And yet, to a certain extent, it is among small blood
+horses, no better endowed with bone and no sounder than the big ones,
+that we seek animals capable of carrying 12 or 14 stone in first-class
+Polo.
+
+The strain of playing a single “period” in a tournament match, in which
+the pony is required to make incessant twists, turns, sudden starts at
+speed, is continually being pulled up short, and is sent short bursts
+of hard galloping, takes far more out of the pony than does a race out
+of a racehorse, or an average day’s hunting out of the hunter. The
+marvel is, not that fast and well-bred ponies capable of doing this
+should command fancy prices, but that such should be obtainable at any
+figure.
+
+Under existing conditions, a small blood horse that looks like making
+a Polo Pony is neither more nor less than an accidental deviation from
+the normal. It is an accident that his height at five years does not
+exceed the regulation 14 hands 2 inches; it is an accident—unhappily,
+a rare one—that he has bone to carry weight; and before the trainer
+can make a Polo Pony of him he must be fast, handy, kind, and
+docile—another set of accidents; we might, indeed, almost call the
+first-rate Polo Pony a phenomenal chapter of accidents. For let us bear
+in mind that when we have found our 14 hands 2 inches endowed with the
+needful make and shape we have not by any means necessarily got our
+Polo Pony. Only the smallest percentage of the thousands of racehorses
+foaled annually prove good enough to pay their trainers’ bills; and
+when we reflect upon the nature of the work required on the polo
+ground, the sterling good qualities demanded of a pony for first-class
+Polo, we should indeed be sanguine did we look for high and uniform
+merit in the race of animals we hope to found upon a basis of pure
+blood! The clean thoroughbred, except in very rare instances, has not
+the power needful to enable him to stop quickly and turn sharply at the
+gallop. Speed he has, but he lacks the strong hind-quarters essential
+to carry 12 or 13 stone.
+
+The pony possessing the needful qualifications of make and shape has
+yet to be “made;” and only a trainer of experience could tell us what
+proportion of the likely-looking animals that come into his hands turn
+out worth the trouble of educating. Herein we find the reason for the
+vast difference in value which exists between a pony that is untrained
+and one which has gone through the various stages of stick-and-ball
+practice, the bending courses, practice games, and has finally been
+proven in matches. In the raw state the best-looking 14-hands 2-inch
+pony is worth £25 to £50; when trained—when he has proved to his
+exacting trainer’s satisfaction that he is a Polo Pony, and does
+not merely look like one—he is worth, as we know, any sum up to 750
+guineas, and there is no reason to suppose that this figure marks the
+limit which enthusiastic players are prepared to pay; on the contrary,
+the tendency is to go further.
+
+Such ponies as Mr. George Miller’s Jack-in-the-Box, Lord Kensington’s
+Sailor, Captain Renton’s Matchbox, Mr. Buckmaster’s Bendigo, the late
+Mr. Dryborough’s Mademoiselle, Mr. Walter Jones’s Little Fairy, have
+acquired their fancy value through their amenability to the training
+which has fitted them for the game. As to the breeding of these
+ponies, it is doubtful if their respective owners know as a certainty
+whether they were got by a thoroughbred pony sire or by an Eastern
+sire; in the case of many high-class ponies nothing is known of their
+breeding. All probably have a strong strain of pure blood in them, but
+in the absence of certain knowledge concerning their pedigrees they
+are of comparatively little use to us as object lessons in Polo Pony
+breeding. Whether, in view of the extremely “accidental” character of
+the Polo Pony already referred to, that knowledge would be helpful if
+available is another matter.
+
+And while we make the English Turf pony which can carry weight our
+ideal, we acknowledge the difficulty of procuring it by seeking
+ready-made ponies in every corner of the horse-breeding world. Arabs
+and their near allies—Egyptian, Syrian and Barb ponies; Australian,
+Argentine, Canadian and Cossack ponies; ponies from the Tarbes district
+of France; ponies from Texas, Wyoming and Montana—all these have
+been imported and are played on English Polo grounds, and though not
+considered equal in speed, bottom, and courage to the English pony,
+the best of them when “made” are good enough to command high, if not
+extravagant, prices.
+
+The great object, it is granted once for all, is to get a pony as
+nearly thoroughbred as possible, for none other is good enough to play
+in the best class of game. At the same time, a large and representative
+proportion of players, while heartily granting the superiority of the
+well-bred pony when it can be obtained, consider it wiser to look the
+situation squarely in the face and admit that the supply of such ponies
+cannot be depended on to meet the demand.
+
+If it be a choice between an utterly inadequate supply of English-bred
+ponies with blood, speed, stamina and weight-carrying power, to be
+bought only at prices which reserve them to the wealthiest, and a
+sufficiency of ponies with a strain of alien blood, somewhat less
+speedy, courageous and enduring, the latter must be chosen; and as
+already said the Polo Pony Stud Book Society has recognised this by
+opening sections of their Stud Book for suitable individuals among our
+Forest and Moorland breeds, with a view of obtaining foundation stock.
+
+We may take it as an axiom in our endeavour to produce a breed of
+14-hands 2-inch Polo Ponies that the sire must be a small thoroughbred,
+or, if not a thoroughbred, an Arab. The reader may be reminded that
+adoption of this alternative involves no departure from the principle
+of a pure blood basis. It was the Arab that laid the foundation of our
+thoroughbreds in England, and the best horses on the Turf of to-day may
+be traced to one of the three famous sires—the Byerly Turk, imported in
+1689, the Darley Arabian in 1706, and the Godolphin Arabian in 1730;
+all of them, it may be remarked, horses under 14 hands 1 inch.
+
+There is, indeed, much to be said in favour of the policy of returning
+to the original Eastern stock to find suitable sires for our proposed
+breed of 14-hands 2-inch ponies. While we have been breeding the
+thoroughbred for speed, and speed only, Arab breeders have continued to
+breed for stoutness, endurance, and good looks. By going to Arab stock
+for our sires we might at the beginning, sacrifice some measure of
+speed; but what was lost in that respect would be more than compensated
+by the soundness of constitution and limb which are such conspicuous
+traits in the Eastern horse. Furthermore, the difficulty of size, which
+first of all confronts us in the thoroughbred sire, is much diminished
+if we adopt the Arab as our foundation sire.
+
+[Illustration: ARAB HORSE MESAOUD—14.2 hands.
+
+  The property of Mr. WILFRED SCAWEN BLUNT.]
+
+We need not consider the game as played by Orientals. The Manipuris,
+whose national game it is, and from whom Europeans first learned it,
+use ponies which do not often exceed 12 hands in height. The game was
+introduced into India proper in 1864,[11] and was first played in
+England by the officers of the 10th Hussars in the year 1872, on their
+return from service in India.
+
+[11] “_Recollections of my Life._” By Sir Joseph Fayrer, Bart. 1900.
+
+In India, where the game of Polo was first played by Englishmen, the
+Arab is thought the perfect pony, the more so because the height
+of ponies played under the Indian Polo Association’s code of rules
+must not exceed 13 hands 3 inches. The extensive operations of the
+Civil Veterinary Department have proved again the truth that no sire
+impresses more certainly and more markedly his likeness upon his stock
+than the Arab, a fact which is due to the high antiquity, and therefore
+“fixed” character of the breed.
+
+If, therefore, we find the stock got by the thoroughbred sire too prone
+to outgrow the limit of height, we may, without self-reproach, turn for
+assistance to the Eastern stock, from which we have evolved the modern
+racehorse, as in doing so we shall simply be going a step farther
+back, and thereby avoid in great measure the difficulty of stature
+which our fathers and ancestors have created for us in our endeavour to
+breed a small compact horse from the pure strain.
+
+The next point that presents itself is, On what sort of animal would it
+be most advisable to cross our thoroughbred or Arab? In the absence of
+any long-continued series of experiments, which alone could have led to
+definite results in the production of a fixed type of pony, or a stamp
+of pony worth trying to perpetuate as a fixed type, the answer must be
+conjectural; we can only deal in probabilities.
+
+We may not be able to establish a breed of which a specimen exceeding
+14 hands 2 inches shall be something quite abnormal; on the contrary,
+the whole course of experience in breeding horses of whatever class
+goes to prove the impossibility of ensuring that the progeny of any
+given sire and dam shall attain to a specified height, neither less
+nor more. Nevertheless, there seems no reason why skill and care in
+breeding should not in course of time produce an animal whose _average_
+height at maturity shall be the desired 14 hands 2 inches.
+
+There are, it must be repeated, several essential points to be kept
+clearly in view in our endeavour to develop a Polo Pony on the
+foundation of Thoroughbred or Arab blood. We have primarily to guard
+against the tendency to exceed the regulation height, and we must seek
+means to obtain the bone and stamina which are so necessary. Our Forest
+and Moorland mares suggest themselves as the material at once suitable
+for the purpose and easily obtainable. In these ponies we have the
+small size which will furnish the needful corrective to overgrowth,
+and we have also that hardiness of constitution and soundness of limb
+which are invaluable in laying the foundation of our proposed breed of
+14-hands 2-inch ponies.
+
+Many attempts have been made from time to time to improve these breeds;
+indeed, some have been so frequently crossed with outside blood that
+the purity of the strain has nearly disappeared; this is believed to be
+the case with the Dartmoor pony. At the same time these infusions of
+blood have done nothing to impair the value of the ponies in respect of
+their intrinsic qualities of hardiness and soundness.
+
+That small thoroughbred and Arab blood blends well with the Forest
+and Moorland strains has been abundantly proved; Marske, the sire of
+Eclipse, who was under 14 hands 2 inches, as is well known, stood at
+service in the New Forest district for three or four seasons from about
+the year 1765, and produced upon the New Forest breed a beneficial
+effect which remained in evidence for many years. The late Prince
+Consort sent a grey Arab stallion to stand at New Park, which did much
+good in improving the stamp of pony; and in 1889 as before mentioned
+Her Majesty lent two Arab sires, which remained respectively for two
+and three seasons and produced a marked effect on the Forest breed.
+One of the Dongola Arabs or Barbs which Mr. Knight used gave the best
+results on the Exmoor ponies, and the use of the thoroughbred horses,
+Pandarus by Whalebone, and Canopus, grandson of Velocipede, also
+improved the breed in point of size.
+
+Some of the best hunters in the West of England trace their descent on
+the dam’s side to the Welsh Mountain pony, the sire of some of the best
+horses, however, being a horse with a stain in his pedigree, viz., Mr.
+John Hill’s Ellesmere by New Oswestry. In this connection it may be
+remarked that Bright Pearl, winner in the class for unmade Polo Ponies
+at the Crystal Palace Pony Show, held in July, 1899, was got by the
+thoroughbred Pearl Diver out of a Welsh Hill Pony mare whose wonderful
+jumping powers had gained her many prizes.
+
+The fact that the Forest and Moorland breeds owe their small size to
+the rigorous conditions of a natural free life and the spare diet
+accessible must not be lost sight of, for their tendency to increase
+in size when taken up, sheltered and well fed is very marked. The fact
+is of importance, because we could not expect that foals got by a
+thoroughbred or Arab sire would possess the stamina that enables the
+Forest or Moorland pony to withstand exposure. It is true that the
+stock got by Marske throve under the comparatively mild rigours of New
+Forest life; but the thoroughbred of 135 years ago was a stouter and
+hardier animal than is his descendant of to-day. It would therefore
+be necessary to choose between losing the young half-bred stock
+altogether, and of rearing it under more or less artificial conditions
+with the certainty of rearing an animal which would respond to those
+conditions by increased stature.
+
+The same remarks apply equally to stock got from Forest or Moorland
+mares by an Arab sire which flourishes in a high temperature, but is
+not adapted to endure continuous cold and damp.
+
+Judgment and care might do something to obviate the tendency to
+overgrowth; the happy medium to adopt would be to allow the dams
+with their half-bred youngsters as much liberty as varying climatic
+conditions indicated the well-being of the latter could withstand.
+
+It has been suggested that the mares which have finished their active
+career of four or five seasons on the Polo ground might with advantage
+be used for breeding purposes, being mated with a small Forest or
+Moorland stallion. This suggestion does not commend itself to the
+practical breeder, who is well aware that a big mare throws a big foal
+even to a small horse. Were increase of size the object in view the
+worn-out Polo Pony mares might be used thus with every prospect of
+success; the reverse being our aim, it is to be feared that experiments
+conducted on these lines would lead to failure.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+   _From a sketch by H. F. Lucas Lucas._
+
+  POLO PONY SAILOR.]
+
+It is reasonable to think that a breed of small horses can be
+established by the judicious intermingling of our Forest or
+Moorland mares with small Thoroughbred or Arab sires, but past
+experience in stock-raising has taught breeders that the creation of a
+new and improved strain, whether of horses, cattle, or other domestic
+animals, is a slow process. Failures must be corrected and errors
+retrieved by gradual and cautious steps before we can hope to succeed
+in creating a breed of ponies true to the required type. That it can
+be done with patience and skilled judgment there need be no doubt;
+but the evolution of the animal required, whether on the thoroughbred
+foundation or on the original progenitor of the thoroughbred, the Arab,
+will be a matter of time. It may be that the present generation will
+lay the foundation of a breed of 14-hands 2-inch Polo Ponies, and that
+posterity will build the edifice and enjoy the benefits.
+
+To summarise briefly what has been said in this chapter, the position
+is this:—
+
+(1) Ponies with blood, speed, courage, and the many qualities essential
+to make a first-class Polo Pony are rare.
+
+(2) (_a_) They command fancy prices when trained, but (_b_) it is only
+when trained and _proven_ that they command high prices.
+
+(3) The difficulty of producing a breed of blood ponies is due (_a_) to
+the long-maintained and successful endeavour to increase the size of
+the thoroughbred, and (_b_) to the fact that racehorses are bred for
+speed only, whereas speed is but one of the many qualities essential to
+the Polo Pony.
+
+(4) To avoid this difficulty—
+
+  (_a_) The sire chosen for the foundation stock should be a small
+  and compact Thoroughbred or an Arab.
+
+  (_b_) The dam used for foundation stock should be chosen from the
+  best of our Forest or Moorland ponies.
+
+  (5) The tendency to undue increase in height should be counteracted—
+
+  (_a_) In the individual, by a free and natural life as far as
+  climate permits.
+
+  (_b_) In the breed, by recourse to further infusion of Forest or
+  Moorland blood when necessary.
+
+
+
+
+WORKS BY SIR WALTER GILBEY, BART.
+
+
+ Animal Painters of England
+  from the year 1650. Illustrated. Two vols.,
+  quarto, cloth gilt, Two Guineas net on subscription. Prospectus free.
+
+ Harness Horses
+  The scarcity of Carriage Horses and how to breed them. 3rd Edition.
+  Twenty-one Chapters. Seven full-page Illustrations. Octavo, cloth gilt,
+  2s.; by post, 2s. 3d.
+
+ Horses Past and Present
+  A sketch of the History of the Horse in England from the earliest
+  times. Illustrated. Octavo, cloth gilt, 2s.; by post, 2s. 3d.
+
+ Life of George Stubbs, R.A.
+  Ten Chapters. Twenty-six Illustrations and Head-pieces. Quarto, whole
+  Morocco, gilt, price £3 3s.
+
+ Ponies Past and Present
+  The breeds of the British Islands, New Forest, Welsh, Exmoor, Dartmoor,
+  Westmoreland, Cumberland, Scottish, Shetland, Connemara. With
+  Illustrations. Octavo, cloth gilt, 2s.; by post, 2s. 3d.
+
+ Small Horses in Warfare
+  Arguments in favour of their use for light cavalry and mounted
+  infantry. Illustrated, 2s.; by post, 2s. 2d.
+
+ The Great Horse or War Horse
+  From the Roman Invasion till its development into the Shire Horse. New
+  and Revised Edition, 1899. Seventeen Illustrations. Octavo, cloth gilt,
+  price 2s.; by post, 2s. 3d.
+
+ Young Race Horses—suggestions
+  for rearing, feeding and treatment. Twenty-two Chapters. With
+  Frontispiece and Diagrams. Octavo, cloth gilt, price 2s.; by
+  post, 2s. 2d.
+
+
+ VINTON & Co.,
+ 9, NEW BRIDGE STREET, LONDON, E.C.
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75401 ***
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+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75401 ***</div>
+
+
+<div class="transnote">
+<h2>Transcriber’s Note</h2>
+
+<p><a href="#Page_51"> Page 51 — </a>precints changed to <strong>precincts</strong></p>
+<p><a href="#Page_72"> Page 72 — </a>atttention changed to <strong>attention</strong></p>
+<p> Illustration labelled ‘H. F. Lucas Lucas’<a href="#Page_110"> Page 110 — </a>is left
+  as printed.</p>
+<p>The Footnotes have been changed from alpha to numeric.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="max-width: 600px" id="i-cover">
+ <img src="images/i-cover.jpg" alt="" width="1579" height="2560">
+</div>
+
+
+<h1>PONIES
+PAST AND PRESENT</h1>
+
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-003">
+<img src="images/i-003.jpg" alt="" width="495" height="650">
+<p class="caption center"><em>Painted by A. Cooper, R.A.</em>&nbsp; &nbsp; <em>Engraved on wood by F. Babbage.</em></p>
+<p class="caption center">THE SHOOTING PONY.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-titlepage">
+<img src="images/i-titlepage.jpg" alt="" width="421" height="650">
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+<div class="title-page">
+<p class="center">PONIES
+PAST AND PRESENT</p>
+
+<p class="center">BY
+SIR WALTER GILBEY, <span class="smcap">Bart.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">ILLUSTRATED</p>
+
+<p class="center">VINTON &amp; CO., <span class="smcap">Ltd.</span>,
+9, NEW BRIDGE STREET, LONDON, E.C.</p>
+
+<p class="center">1900
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<table><tr>
+<th class="cht"></th>
+<th class="pag"><small><small>PAGE</small></small></th>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="cht"><span class="allsmcap">INTRODUCTION </span></td>
+<td class="pag"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht">The New Forest Pony</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht">The Welsh Pony</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht">The Exmoor and Dartmoor Ponies</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht">The Cumberland and Westmoreland Ponies</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht">Ireland—The Connemara Pony</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_63">63</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht">The Ponies of Scotland and The Shetland Islands</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht">Uses and Characteristics of the Pony</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="cht">Breeding Polo Ponies</td>
+  <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="ILLUSTRATIONS">ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+</div>
+
+<table class="toi">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl"> The Shooting Pony</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#i-003">Frontispiece</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="chn"></td>
+<td class="tdr p80"><em>To face page</em></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">The Pony Hack</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Little Wonder <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>. </td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Child’s Shetland Pony</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_82">82</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">“Princess Victoria in her Pony Phaeton” </td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_87">87</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">The First Leap</td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Arab “Mesaoud” </td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td>
+</tr><tr>
+  <td class="tdl">The Polo Pony “Sailor” </td>
+  <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<em>The increasing attention which during the last few years has been
+devoted to breeding ponies for various purposes, more especially for
+polo, suggested the collection of facts relating to our half-wild races
+of ponies. It will be seen from the following pages that we possess
+large supplies of small but strong and sound constitutioned horses
+which may be turned to far more valuable account than has been done
+hitherto. The Polo Pony Society set the example of drawing attention
+to the possibilities of utilising profitably the Moorland and Forest
+Mares, and it is hoped that these pages may be of some interest to
+those who are giving attention to pony breeding whether for polo or for
+any other purpose.</em>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="figright1" id="i-07">
+<img src="images/i-07.jpg" alt="signature of Walter Gilbey" width="65" height="74">
+</div>
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<em>Elsenham Hall, Essex,<br>
+August, 1900.</em><br>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="PONIES_PAST_AND_PRESENT">PONIES PAST AND PRESENT</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>In another volume, <cite>Horses Past and
+Present</cite>, brief reference has been made to
+the early subjugation of the horse in Eastern
+countries by man; and it is unnecessary
+here to further touch upon that phase of our
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>The early history of the horse in the
+British Islands is obscure. The animal is
+not indigenous to the country, and it is
+supposed that the original stock was brought
+to England many centuries before the
+Christian era by the Phœnician navigators
+who visited the shores of Cornwall to procure
+supplies of tin. However that may be,
+the first historian who rendered any account
+of our islands for posterity found here horses
+which he regarded as of exceptional merit.
+Julius Cæsar, when he invaded Britain in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span>
+the year 55 <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, was greatly impressed with
+the strength, handiness, and docility of the
+horses which the ancient Britons drove in
+their war chariots; his laudatory description
+of their merits includes no remark concerning
+their size, and from this omission we may
+infer that they were not larger than the
+breeds of horses with which Cæsar’s travels
+and conquests had already made him acquainted.</p>
+
+<p>There can be no doubt but that these
+chariot horses were small by comparison
+with their descendants—the modern Shire
+horses;<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> they probably did not often exceed
+14 hands, and were therefore much on a par
+in point of height with the horses Cæsar had
+seen in Spain and elsewhere. It is unlikely
+that so shrewd an observer would have
+refrained from comment on the point had
+the British horses been superior in size, as
+they were in qualities, to the breeds he
+already knew. It is doubtful indeed
+whether the horses of Britain gained in
+stature to any material extent until the
+Saxons and Danes introduced horses from
+the Continent. These being for military
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span>purposes would have been stallions without
+exception, and being larger than the British
+breed must have done something to produce
+increase of height when crossed with our
+native mares.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> See “The Great Horse or War Horse.” By Sir Walter
+Gilbey, Bart. 3rd edition, 1899. Vinton &amp; Co., Ltd.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>This being the case, we are confronted
+with the difficulty of distinguishing between
+the horses and ponies of these early times;
+the chroniclers do not attempt to differentiate
+between “horse” and “pony” as we understand
+the terms. The process of developing
+a big horse was necessarily a slow one, from
+the system, or want of system, which remained
+in vogue until the fifteenth century,
+and was still in existence in some parts of
+England in Henry <abbr title="the eighth">VIII</abbr>.’s time. During
+the long period the greater portion of the
+country lay under forest and waste, it was
+the practice to let those mares which were
+kept solely for breeding purposes run at
+large in the woodlands, unbroken and unhandled.
+Doomsday Book contains frequent
+mention of <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">equæ silvestres</i>, <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">equæ silvaticæ</i>, or
+<i lang="la" xml:lang="la">equæ indomitæ</i> when enumerating the live
+stock on a manor; and there is evidence to
+show that these animals (always mares, it will
+be observed) were under a modified degree
+of supervision. They were branded to
+prove their ownership, and during the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span>
+summer selected mares appear to have been
+“rounded up” to an enclosure in the forest
+for service. Apart from this they ranged
+the country at large, strangers alike to collar
+and bridle. It would be unreasonable to
+suppose that the mares which were employed
+in agricultural work were not also used for
+breeding; the surroundings of the farmer’s
+mare in those days were not luxurious, but
+she undoubtedly enjoyed shelter from the
+rigours of winter and more nourishing food
+than her woodland sister. Hence it is probable
+that the first differences in size, make
+and shape among English horses may be
+traced to their domestic or woodland ancestry
+on the dam’s side.</p>
+
+<p>The life led by these <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">equæ indomitæ</i> made
+for hardiness of constitution, soundness of
+limb, surefootedness, and small stature; and
+we venture to think that the half-wild ponies
+England possesses to-day in the New
+Forest, Exmoor, Wales and the Fell country
+are (or were, until comparatively modern
+endeavours were made to improve them) the
+lineal descendants of the woodland stock
+which is frequently referred to in ancient
+records, and which in 1535 and 1541 Henry
+<abbr title="the eighth">VIII</abbr>. made vigorous attempts to exterminate.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span></p>
+
+<p>The law of 1535 (26 Henry <abbr title="the eighth">VIII</abbr>.)
+declares:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“For that in many and most places of this realm,
+commonly little horses and nags of small stature and
+value be suffered to depasture, and also to cover
+mares and felys of very small stature, by reason
+whereof the breed of good and strong horses of this
+realm is now lately diminished, altered and decayed,
+and further is likely to decay if speedy remedy be not
+sooner provided in that behalf.</p>
+
+<p>“It is provided that all owners or fermers of parks
+and enclosed grounds of the extent of one mile in
+compass shall keep two mares, apt and able to bear
+foals of the altitude or height of 13 handfuls at least,
+upon pain of 40s.</p>
+
+<p>“A penalty of 40s. is imposed on the Lords,
+Owners, and Fermers of all parks and grounds enclosed,
+as is above rehearsed, who shall willingly
+suffer any of the said mares to be covered or kept
+with any Stoned Horse under the stature of 14
+handfuls.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This Act applied only to enclosed areas,
+and therefore would not affect the wild
+ponies in any appreciable degree: but six
+years later another Act was passed (32
+Henry <abbr title="the eighth">VIII</abbr>., c. 13) which provided that—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“No person shall put in any forest, chase, moor,
+heath, common, or waste (where mares and fillies
+are used to be kept) any stoned horse above the age
+of two years, not being fifteen hands high within
+the Shires and territories of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge,
+Buckingham, Huntingdon, Essex, Kent,
+South Hampshire, North Wiltshire, Oxford, Berkshire,
+Worcester, Gloucester, Somerset, South
+Wales, Bedford, Warwick, Northampton, Yorkshire,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</span>
+Cheshire, Staffordshire, Lancashire, Salop,
+Leicester, Hereford and Lincoln. And furthermore,
+be it enacted, that if in any of the said drifts there
+shall be found any mare, filly, foal, or gelding that
+then shall be thought not to be able nor like to grow
+to be able to bear foals of reasonable stature or not
+able nor like to grow to be able to do profitable
+labours by the discretions of the drivers aforesaid
+or of the more number of them, then the same driver
+or drivers shall cause the same unprofitable beasts
+... every of them to be killed, and the
+bodies of them to be buried in the ground, as no
+annoyance thereby shall come or grow to the people,
+those near inhabiting or thither resorting.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This enactment was of a more far-reaching
+character than its forerunner. The
+“shires and territories” enumerated were
+those in which greatest attention was paid
+to the breeding of Great Horses; “profitable
+labours,” in those times, could only
+mean military service, agricultural work,
+and perhaps pack transport, for any of
+which purposes the woodland ponies were
+useless. How far the law proved effectual
+is another matter: laws more nearly affecting
+the welfare of the subject were less
+honoured in the observance than the breach
+in the remoter parts of the kingdom in
+those times.</p>
+
+<p>In 1566, when Elizabeth was on the
+throne, Thomas Blundeville, of Newton
+Flotman, wrote a book on <cite>Horses and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>
+Riding</cite>; and prefaced it by an “Epistle
+dedicatorie” to Robert Lord Dudley,
+Master of the Horse, which begins:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“It would be the means that the Queen may not
+only cause such statutes touching the breeding of
+Horses upon Commons to be put in execution: but
+also that all such parks within the Realme as be in
+Her Highnesse hands and meet for that purpose
+might not wholly be employed to the keeping of Deer
+(which is altogether without profit), but partly to the
+necessary breeding of Horses for service [<em>i.e.</em>, military
+service] whereof this Realme of all others at this
+instant hath greatest need.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It would appear, therefore, that Henry’s
+laws had become a dead letter, or something
+very like it, within twenty-five years of its
+finding place on the Statute Book. It
+was afterwards repealed in respect of certain
+counties by Queen Elizabeth and James <abbr title="the first">I</abbr>.
+(for particulars see p. 26 and p. 33, “Horses
+Past and Present.”)</p>
+
+<p>These various early edicts no doubt produced
+some result in the more central parts
+of England, though, as we gather from
+Blundeville’s “Epistle,” those charged with
+their administration failed to enforce them in
+areas more remote. A certain amount of
+driving and killing no doubt was done, but
+probably no more than enough to make the
+herds wilder than before and send them in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span>
+search of safety to the most inaccessible
+districts. The natural result of this would
+be to preserve the breeds in greater purity
+than would have been the case had they
+been allowed to intermingle with horses
+which, after the harvest was carried, were
+turned out to graze at will over the unfenced
+fields and commons. It is worth
+glancing at these items of horse legislation
+to discover that the half-wild ponies have
+survived, not by grace of man’s aid or protection,
+but in defiance of his endeavours
+to stamp them out.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly a century later (1658) the Duke
+of Newcastle published his work on the
+<cite>Feeding, Dressing and Training of Horses
+for the Great Saddle</cite> and therein, urged
+strongly the desirability of discouraging the
+breeding of ponies. The records of subsequent
+reigns show occasional endeavour to
+improve by legislation the breeds of horses
+needed for military purposes, tournaments,
+racing and sport, but until we come to the
+time of George <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>. we find no <em>positive</em>
+attempt to discourage the breeding of
+ponies. An Act passed in 1740 was definite
+enough in the purpose it sought to attain.
+This was the suppression of races by
+“poneys” and other small or weak horses.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span></p>
+
+<p>Under this law matches for prizes under
+£50 were forbidden, save at Newmarket
+and Black Hambleton, and the weights to
+be carried by horses were fixed at 10 st.
+for a five-year-old, 11 st. for a six-year-old
+and 12 st. for a seven-year-old horse. This
+statute had two-fold intention: it was framed
+“not only to prevent the encouragement of
+a vile and paltry breed of horses, but likewise
+to remove all temptation from the
+lower class of people who constantly attend
+these races, to the great loss of time and
+hindrance of labour, and whose behaviour
+still calls for stricter regulations to curb their
+licentiousness and correct their manners.”</p>
+
+<p>During the present century organised
+effort to improve these breeds has followed
+recognition of their possibilities for usefulness,
+and in few localities, if any, does the
+original stock remain pure. In Devonshire,
+Hampshire, Wales, Cumberland, the
+Highlands, Shetland, and in the West of
+Ireland, the original strains have been intermingled
+and alien blood introduced. Small
+Thoroughbred, Arab and Hackney sires
+have produced new and improved breeds
+less fitted to withstand the rigours of winter
+and the effects of scanty food contingent
+on independent and useless existence, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>
+infinitely better calculated to serve the interests
+of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>Before the establishment of the Hackney
+Horse Society in 1883 the dividing line
+between the horse and the pony in England
+was vague and undefined. It was
+then found necessary to distinguish clearly
+between horses and ponies, and accordingly
+all animals measuring 14 hands or under
+were designated “ponies,” and registered
+in a separate part of the Stud Book.
+This record of height, with other particulars
+as to breeding, &amp;c., serves to direct
+breeders in their choice of sires and dams.
+The standard of height established by the
+Hackney Horse Society was accepted and
+officially recognised by the Royal Agricultural
+Society in 1889, when the prize list
+for the Windsor Show contained pony
+classes for animals not exceeding 14 hands.
+The altered Polo-rule which fixes the limit
+of height at 14 hands 2 inches may be productive
+of some little confusion; but for all
+other purposes 14 hands is the recognised
+maximum height of a pony. Prior to 1883
+small horses were called indifferently galloways
+hobbies, cobs, or ponies, irrespective
+of their height.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">THE NEW FOREST PONY.</p>
+
+<p>The New Forest in Hampshire now cover
+some 63,000 acres of which about 42,000 acres
+are common pasture, the remaining 21,000
+acres having been enclosed in 1851 for the
+growth of timber. The greater portion of
+the common land is poor and boggy moor,
+and on these areas ponies have been bred
+in a semi-wild state from the earliest times.
+It is considered more than probable that the
+New Forest ponies are the survival of the
+stock which, before the time of Canute
+(1017-1035), was found in the district formerly
+called Ytene, and which was afforested
+in the year 1072 by the Conqueror.<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Mr. W. J. C. Moens, in a pamphlet printed for private
+circulation.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Henry <abbr title="the third">III</abbr>. (1216-1272), on 15th March,
+1217, ordered the Warden of the pony
+stud kept in the New Forest to give to
+the Monks of Beaulieu all the profits
+accruing from the droves from that date
+till November, 1220, this donation being
+for the benefit of the soul of his late
+father, King John. Thus it is evident that
+the New Forest ponies of the thirteenth
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>century were numerous enough to form a
+source of revenue to the Crown.</p>
+
+<p>The remote history of the breed need not
+concern us; for it was not until comparatively
+recent times that any endeavour was
+made towards the improvement of the
+“forester,” as it is called. The first infusion
+of alien blood likely to be beneficial seems to
+have been made about 1766; and the circumstances
+under which this fresh blood
+was introduced are interesting. In 1750,
+H.R.H. the Duke of Cumberland acquired
+by exchange a thoroughbred foal from his
+breeder, Mr. John Hutton. The animal was
+named Marske, and was run at Newmarket:
+achieving no great success on the turf, he
+was put to the stud, but up to the time of
+the Duke’s death his progeny had done
+nothing to win reputation for their sire.
+When the Duke died, in 1765, his horses
+were sold at Tattersall’s, and Marske was
+knocked down “for a song” to a Dorsetshire
+farmer. The farmer kept him in the New
+Forest district, and here Marske the sire
+of Eclipse served mares at a fee of half-a-guinea,
+till his famous son achieved celebrity.
+Eclipse was foaled in 1764, won his
+first race on 3rd April, 1769, at Epsom,
+and made his name in a single season on
+the turf.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span></p>
+
+<p>For four years at least, therefore (until
+Mr. Wildman ferreted out “the sire of
+Eclipse” and bought him for £20 to go to
+Yorkshire), the New Forest breed of ponies
+were being improved by the very best
+thoroughbred blood, the effects of which
+continued to be apparent for many years
+after Marske had left the district.</p>
+
+<p>It is at least probable that Marske ran in
+the Forest during the lifetime of the Duke
+of Cumberland; for that prince was Warden
+of the New Forest, and evidence is forthcoming
+to show that he made a systematic
+attempt to better the stamp of pony.</p>
+
+<p>For many decades after this infusion of
+thoroughbred blood nothing was done to
+maintain the improvement made. On the
+contrary, the demand for New Forest ponies
+increased, and the commoners took advantage
+of the higher prices obtainable to sell
+the best of their young stock; thus the
+breed steadily degenerated, until the late
+Prince Consort sent a grey Arab stallion to
+stand at New Park. The effects of this
+fresh strain of blood were soon evident;
+but history, as exemplified by the beneficial
+results of Marske’s service, repeated itself;
+the commoners were too ready to sell
+the pick of the young animals, whereby<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>
+the benefits which should have accrued were
+heavily discounted.</p>
+
+<p>It must be explained that the large
+breeders have running in the Forest a hundred
+ponies, or even more; many breeders
+possess forty or fifty, while the small
+occupiers own as many as they can keep
+during the winter. Their sole responsibility
+to the Crown in respect of the ponies is the
+“marking fee” (raised in 1897 from eighteen
+pence to two shillings per head), which
+goes to the Verderer’s Court. The marking
+system enables the Court to know how
+many ponies are running in the Forest, and
+the latest census showed about 3,000 animals,
+of which it was estimated some 1,800 were
+breeding mares.</p>
+
+<p>From spring to autumn the droves range
+the Forest at will, affecting, of course, the
+best pasturage, or, in the heat of summer,
+the shadiest localities; in winter about 1800
+ponies are taken into pastures, the remaining
+1200 being left at large.</p>
+
+<p>It is to be observed that the most profitable
+animals are the hardy ones, which run in
+the Forest all the year round. The majority
+of the young animals are handled only for
+the purpose of marking, and are never, if
+possible, driven off their own ground. Thus,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>
+unless strange stallions are used, it is very
+difficult to change the blood, the forest-born
+stallion remaining in his own locality and
+collecting his own harem around him. “In-and-in”
+breeding is therefore inevitable.
+Besides these 3,000 it is estimated that
+about the Forest neighbourhood some 2,000
+ponies are worked in light carts and other
+vehicles, and, as many of these ponies are
+used for breeding purposes, it will be seen
+what an important source of pony supply we
+have in the New Forest district.</p>
+
+<p>When the influence of the Arab sire sent
+by the Prince Consort ceased to be felt,
+degeneration again set in, the decreased
+prices brought by ponies at the fairs proving
+conclusively how the breed was deteriorating.
+To combat the evil the Court of Verderers
+in 1885 hired four well-bred stallions, which
+were kept by the “Agisters,” or markers of
+ponies, for the service of commoners’ mares
+at nominal fees. Two seasons’ experience
+proved that funds would not bear the strain,
+and the horses were sold; with the less
+hesitation because it was found that in the
+absence of any inducement to the breeders
+to retain promising young stock, good foals
+and bad were alike sent for sale to the fairs.
+Moreover, the wild mares were not of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>
+course covered by these stallions, and the
+majority of the New Forest stock obtained
+no benefit from their presence in the district.
+The “ponies in hand,” nevertheless, were
+more than sufficiently numerous to be considered,
+and in 1889 it was arranged to
+provide the necessary inducement to keep
+promising youngsters by giving premiums at
+a stallion show in April of each year, winners
+of premiums to run in the Forest till the
+following August; and this scheme has been
+productive of very marked results in the way
+of keeping good stock to reproduce their
+kind. Her Majesty in 1889 lent two Arab
+stallions, Abeyan and Yirassan, for use
+in the district, and these, remaining for
+two and three seasons respectively, did
+much good. A son of the former, out of
+a Welsh mare, now stands in the district.
+His owner, Mr. Moens, states that his
+produce show great improvement, and his
+services are in eager demand among the
+commoners. The general improvement in
+the Forest ponies since 1890 is very striking.</p>
+
+<p>Lack of funds has seriously handicapped
+the New Forest Pony Association in its
+work, and the burden of carrying out the
+programme has fallen upon the shoulders
+of a few. Conspicuous among those who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>
+have borne the lion’s share of the task is
+Lord Arthur Cecil, who now turns out no
+fewer than twenty-two stallions for the
+benefit of the commoners generally. For
+many years past Lord Arthur has interested
+himself in the improvement of the breed;
+he has been using with much success
+stallions of a distinct and pure breed from
+the Island of Rum off the West coast of
+Scotland. These are the original Black
+Galloways which were found in a wild state
+on the island in 1840 by the late Marquis
+of Salisbury, and were always kept pure.
+Lord Arthur secured the whole stock in the
+year 1888. I cannot do better than give,
+practically in its entirety, his interesting
+letter on the subject of the ponies which for
+the last ten years have been increasingly
+used in the New Forest so much to the
+advantage of the breed:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“The Rum ponies which were much thought of
+by my father seem to be quite a type of themselves,
+having characteristics which would almost enable
+one to recognise them anywhere. Every one of those
+I bought in 1888 had <em>hazel</em>, not <em>brown</em> eyes; and
+though only a small boy in 1862, when six or seven
+of those ponies came to Hatfield, I can remember that
+they also had the hazel eye. They have, almost
+without exception, very good hind-quarters, with the
+tail well set up; and it is in this respect that I hope
+they will do good in the New Forest. On the other<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>
+hand, they have big plain heads which are not liked
+by the commoners. This defect, however, is rapidly
+disappearing with good keep, as it does with all
+breeds of ponies.</p>
+
+<p>“After I bought the ponies in 1888 and began
+breeding I was at a loss to know how to continue
+the breed, as I could not well use the stallion which
+accompanied the mares to his own progeny. I
+remembered having seen at the Highland and Agricultural
+Society’s Show, in 1883, a stallion which
+had interested me very much, being exactly like the
+ponies I remembered coming to Hatfield. I enclose
+... copy of a letter<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> received from his breeder.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> “The pony, Highland Laddie ... was bred by us at
+Coulmore, Ross-shire; being the youngest, I think, of seven foals
+thrown by the black mare, Polly, to Allan Kingsburgh (Lord
+Lovat’s stallion) ... and, as far as I know, Polly was
+never covered by any other horse. Most of her foals, if not all,
+were shown by us and won prizes at country and the Highland
+Agricultural Society’s Meetings in the North. Her third foal,
+Glen, a jet-black stallion, took 2nd prize in his class at the
+Aberdeen Show in 1880 (I think), and again took the medal for
+pony stallions at Perth in 1881 or 1882. At the same show Polly’s
+second foal, Blackie, took second prize in the gelding class, and
+her fourth foal (the eldest of the bay mares), shown at Inverness by
+McKenzie of Kintail, would easily have taken a prize in her class
+but for an accident on the railway or ferry ... which
+lamed her for the meeting. Your pony has, of course, the same
+pedigree as those.... The Rum ponies were always supposed
+to be pure, as the Marquis of Salisbury was known to take a
+great interest in the breed ... though not sure, I believe
+a pony stallion of another strain, a dun with black mane and tail
+(Lord Ronald) was sold by my father to go to Rum.... Allan
+Kingsburgh and Polly were both bred by my father.... Allan’s
+dam was a bay mare, Polly’s was a grey named Maria. I know
+the stock from which both came: it was brought long ago from
+Glenelg and bred and kept pure by my grandfather and ancestors
+who lived in Glenelg when that Barony belonged to the MacLeod
+of MacLeods. I am not sure of the sires of either Allan or Polly,
+but know they were both pure Highland. One, I think, was Lord
+Ronald which I formerly mentioned, and the other a pony belonging
+to a Mr. Stewart in Skye (a known breeder of Highland
+cattle).”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="no-indent"> ... It is curious that I should have thus dropped
+on to exactly the same kind of thing that my father
+is supposed to have used; he used the same blood
+years ago in Lord Ronald.</p>
+
+<p>“I think what first interested me so much in these
+ponies was that, as long ago as I can remember anything,
+I heard my father describing them to old Lord
+Cowley and the Duke of Wellington. He told them
+how like the Spanish horses he had thought the
+ponies in 1845; and mentioned how he had turned
+down a stallion on the island and a Spanish jackass—some
+of the mules are still (1889) at Hatfield. He
+also said that he saw no reason why they should not
+be descended from some of the Spanish Armada
+horses which were wrecked on that coast. When
+the ponies—most of them stallions—came to Hatfield
+in 1862, I remember some of them broke out of the
+station; it took several days to catch them again.
+They were almost unbreakable, but my brother,
+Lionel, and I managed to get two of them sufficiently
+quiet for <em>us</em> to ride, though they would not have
+been considered safe conveyances for an elderly
+gentleman. We were never quite sure of their age,
+but they must have been nearly thirty when they
+died. I believe my father had intended these ponies
+to be kept entire, but they were so hopelessly savage
+they had to be cut. They could trot twelve miles
+in fifty-five minutes after they were twenty years old,
+and could gallop and jump anything in the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>“My father’s theory about the Spanish Armada
+receives curious corroboration in the well-known fact
+that a galleon lies sunk in Tobermory Bay; while, in
+the “Armada” number of the <em>Illustrated London News</em>
+which was published in 1888 (the same year that I
+bought the ponies), there was a small map which
+showed the storms off the North and West of Scotland,
+which are almost exactly coincident with the
+occurrence of this particular type of pony, though no
+place was so favourable for breeding a type as a
+remote island like Rum.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“When my mother visited Rum the people of the
+adjacent island of Canna gave her a pony mare which
+I also remember, very old, at Hatfield. She was a
+rich cream colour; she threw a foal which had all
+the characteristics, the hazel eye, long croup and big
+head.</p>
+
+<p>“I have noticed all the deer-stalking ponies I
+could see on the look-out for some of these characteristics;
+but, with the exception of the hazel eye and
+a somewhat strong inclination towards blackness in
+colour, I cannot say that I have seen much trace of
+the same kind of pony on the mainland in Scotland.
+This, however, is no doubt rather through crossing
+with other strains than because they have not some
+of the original blood; and I feel sure that the Galloway
+of olden days was of the same type, though
+that term has now come to mean something quite
+different and in no way connected with the district
+on the West Coast of Scotland.</p>
+
+<p>“The hazel eye is not uncommon on Exmoor, and
+occurs in the Welsh pony. It would be a very interesting
+study to try and trace the tendency to show
+that colour; it would, I think, throw light on the
+ancestry of many horses and ponies; or, at least, it
+would reveal many curious instances of <em>reversion</em>.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Lord Arthur, in conclusion, deprecates the
+susceptibility of pony breeders generally to
+the influence of fashion; he is of opinion
+that efforts made in some districts to increase
+size, while efforts elsewhere are directed to
+its reduction, cannot in the long run be
+beneficial; whereas, if Nature were allowed
+to determine the size of pony suitable for
+each locality, valuable results might be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>
+obtained by crossing the different breeds.
+It is quite certain that the perpetuation of
+a breed larger than the character of the
+country and pasture can support can only be
+secured by the constant introduction of alien
+blood, which in course of time will completely
+alter the local stamp, and not
+necessarily for the better.</p>
+
+<p>The Hon. Gerald Lascelles, Deputy
+Surveyor of the New Forest, has said of
+this locality: “You have a magnificent run
+for your ponies. Your mares might breed
+from ponies of almost any quality....
+Ponies running out all winter in the mountains
+of Ireland and of Wales, on Exmoor,
+in Cornwall, and on the Cumberland and
+Yorkshire fells, have a far worse climate to
+face than that of the New Forest, and no
+better pasture. Such ponies would laugh
+at the hardships of the New Forest.” The
+New Forest pony is perhaps less hardy than
+some of the hill breeds, but his constitution
+is quite robust enough to be one of his most
+valuable attributes; and opinions are not
+unnaturally divided as to the desirability of
+increasing his size, if gain of inches mean
+sacrifice of hardiness. Thirteen hands was
+the height the Forest breeders formerly
+admitted to be the maximum desirable; but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>
+of recent years their views on this point have
+been somewhat enlarged.</p>
+
+<p>The close resemblance of the Rum ponies
+to the native of the New Forest marks
+out these stallions as peculiarly suitable for
+crossing purposes. For this reason, and also
+because their number must exercise strong
+and speedy influence upon the wild Forest
+mares, the foregoing particulars have been
+given in detail.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Arthur believes that the Welsh
+pony stallion of about 13·1 or 13·2 would
+be as good a cross for the New Forest pony
+as any now obtainable.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Ebrington, who bought Exmoor and
+the Simonsbath stud of improved Exmoor
+ponies, lent one of his stallions to the New
+Forest Association in the summer of 1898,
+and this sire has done good service among
+the wild mares.</p>
+
+<p>When broken the New Forest ponies are
+generally far more spirited than the ordinary
+run of British ponies. The practice of using
+the “ponies in hand” for driving the wild
+mobs to be branded, &amp;c., teaches them to
+turn quickly and gallop collectedly on rough
+ground; they thus acquire great cleverness.</p>
+
+<p>As regards their market value, the following
+letter from Mr. W. J. C. Moens, a most<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>
+energetic member of the Council of the
+Association, gives the best idea.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“At the last Ringwood Fair, December 11th, 1897,
+there was a larger outside demand for suckers than
+ever experienced; buyers coming from Kent, Sussex,
+Surrey, Essex, Somersetshire and Dorsetshire. The
+prices ran from £4 to £6 10s.; the larger dealers
+buying about fifty to sixty each, which they trucked
+(25 to 30 in a truck) away by rail. One lot of
+about 55 were sold at once by auction at Brighton,
+and realised £6, £7 and £8 each, one fetching £10.
+The foals improve enormously on good keep. Our
+Forest feed is hardly good enough; on richer lands
+the ponies grow nearly a hand higher and get more
+substance. Since our Association has improved the
+breed, of late years, very many have gone to the Kent
+Marshes, where they are highly thought of, very
+much more so than the Dartmoor ponies. Yearlings
+at last Lyndhurst Pony Fair, in August, fetched
+£5 to £8, but the average was spoiled by two large
+sales by auction of ‘lane haunters’—old mares and
+other cast-offs—which realised small prices....
+I have seen some of our improved ponies at Hastings
+and elsewhere, broken in, and about five years old.
+They are much valued and sell for about £25....
+The general improvement since 1889 or 1890 is very
+marked; and, though there was some opposition
+to the idea of bettering ‘the real Forester’ at first,
+now all admit the benefit of the work.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>For the information of those interested
+in this breed, the following description, furnished
+to the Polo Pony Society for their
+Stud Book (vol. v.) by the New Forest
+Local Committee, may be quoted:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><em>For the New Forest pony it is difficult to give any exact
+description, but the best class of them are from 12 hands to
+13 hands 2 inches high according to the portion of the
+Forest on which they are reared. If taken off the Forest
+when they are weaned and well kept during the first two
+winters, they are said very often to attain the size of 14
+hands 1 inch. There is sometimes an apparent deficiency of
+bone, but what there is should be of the very best quality.
+The feet are wide and well formed. They are often considered
+goose-rumped, but their hocks should be all that could
+be desired. In colour they may be said to range through
+every variety, though there are not many duns, and few if
+any piebalds left. The flea-bitten greys which are still very
+numerous on the Forest show strong traces of an Arab cross.
+The shoulders, though not always what might be desired in
+point of depth, are almost invariably fine and well laid. It
+is a great characteristic of the New Forest pony to be always
+gay and alert, and, though they are extremely good-tempered
+and docile when fairly broken, they are quite indomitable
+until they are completely cornered. The true Forester is
+never sulky.</em></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-034">
+<img src="images/i-034.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="530">
+<p class="caption center">A PONY HACK.</p>
+<p class="caption right"><em>Engraved on wood by F. Babbage.</em></p>
+<p class="caption center">A pony well-known on Newmarket Heath and North Country
+racecourses about 1828.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_WELSH_PONY">THE WELSH PONY.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>At the period when Wales was an independent
+kingdom live stock was protected
+by a singularly comprehensive series of laws.
+These were originally codified by Howel
+Dda (the Good), a prince who reigned
+from <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 942 to 948, and at a somewhat
+later period they were embodied in three
+distinct legal codes, the Venedotian, Dimetian
+and Gwentian, applicable respectively to
+North, South and South-eastern Wales, conforming
+to the local customs which prevailed
+in each area. Under these laws no Welsh
+serf was permitted to sell a stallion without
+the permission of his lord. The value of a
+horse (or, accurately speaking, pony, as the
+hill ponies were the only equine stock the
+country possessed in those days) was laid
+down without regard to individual merit till
+he reached his third year. A foal until a
+fortnight old was worth four pence; from the
+fifteenth day of his age till one year old, 24
+pence; when a year and one day old he was
+worth 48 pence, and stood at that value till
+he began his third year when he was valued
+at 60 pence. When in his third year he was
+broken in, and his value depended on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>
+work he was fitted for. A palfrey or sumpter
+horse was valued at 120 pence, and a working
+horse to draw cart or harrow 60 pence. It
+was not permissible to use horses, mares or
+cows for ploughing for fear of injury; oxen
+only might be employed for such labour.
+Any entire male animal was worth three
+females; thus a wild stallion was worth nine
+score pence to the mare’s value of three
+score pence.</p>
+
+<p>If a horse were sold he was to be
+warranted against staggers for three nights,
+against “black strangles”<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> for three months,
+and against farcy for a year. He was to
+be warranted against restiveness until the
+purchaser should have ridden him three
+times “amid concourse of men and horses;”
+and if he proved restive the seller had to
+refund one third of the price he had received.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> The commentators believe the disease so termed to be
+glanders; but inasmuch as the warranty against farcy held
+good for twelve months, perhaps we should accept this
+reading with reserve.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The value of each part of the horse was
+strictly specified by these laws; the worth
+of his foot was equal to his full value; each
+eye was esteemed worth one third of his
+full value. For every blemish in a horse
+one third of the total worth was to be
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>returned, his ears and tail included: a not
+obscure hint that cropping and docking were
+practised in Wales at this period, and that
+opinions varied concerning the desirability
+of the operations. That docking was in
+vogue is certain, for a special clause makes
+the “tail of a filly for common work” worth
+the total value of the animal. The peculiar
+value of the tail of a “filly for common
+work” lay in the fact that the harrow was
+often secured to the tail, as was the practice
+in parts of Ireland and Scotland until near
+the end of the last century. In Wales, as
+in other parts of Britain, the mare was
+preferably used for draught and pack work,
+horses being reserved for military service.
+The mane and bridle were worth the same
+amount, viz., four pence; the forelock and
+halter were also coupled as worth one penny
+each.</p>
+
+<p>Howel Dda’s “Law of Borrowing” was
+equally comprehensive. The man who
+borrowed a horse and fretted the hair on
+his back was to pay four pence; if he broke
+the skin to the flesh eight pence; and if skin
+and flesh were broken to the bone sixteen
+pence. Borrowing without the owner’s leave
+was expensive: the borrower had to pay
+four pence for mounting, and four pence for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>
+each rhandir (supposed to be a league) he
+rode the horse. He also had to pay a fine
+to the owner’s lord.</p>
+
+<p>If a hired horse fell lame or was injured
+by accident the owner had to furnish the
+hirer with one equally good until the injured
+horse recovered.</p>
+
+<p>The laws which regulated compensation
+for trespass show that it was customary to
+fetter or clog the horses when they were
+turned out to graze. Trespass in corn by
+a clogged horse was to be compensated by
+payment of one penny by day and two pence
+by night. Trespass by a horse free of
+restraint was recompensed by half those
+sums. In this connection it must be noted
+that stallions were “privileged;” and though
+a broken-in entire ran at large for three
+seasons (season from mid April to mid May
+and the month of October), he did not lose
+the privilege which relieved his owner from
+fine for any damage he might do in the
+standing crops.</p>
+
+<p>The Welsh pony is more numerous than
+any other breed. He wanders over the
+hills and waste lands in all the twelve counties
+of the Principality, and also on the borders
+of Shropshire, Herefordshire and Monmouth;
+whereas his congeners are limited to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>
+areas insignificant by comparison. The distribution
+is of course very unequal, the
+strength and number of droves varying with
+the character of the country; there are no
+statistics in existence nor has there been
+made any estimate of their number.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the common lands which were
+once open to the Welsh pony have been
+enclosed of recent years; but in spite of his
+exclusion from the better pastures and the
+warfare waged against him by shepherds
+and their dogs in the interests of grazing for
+sheep, he thrives marvellously. There are
+thousands of acres of wet and boggy lands
+whose grasses “rot” sheep, but which afford
+the hardy pony nourishing diet. In some
+districts he is kept on the move almost as
+unceasingly as are the deer in Scotland or
+on Exmoor; and the life he leads has done
+much to develope his instincts of self-preservation.
+Accustomed from earliest foalhood
+to the roughest ground, he is sure-footed as
+the goat, and neither punishment nor persuasion
+will induce him to venture upon
+unsafe bog. He has good shoulders, strong
+back, neat head and most enduring legs and
+feet; he is, in short, a strong, sound and
+useful animal. Some of the stoutest and
+best hunters bred on the borders of Wales<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>
+trace their descent from the Welsh pony
+mare crossed with the thoroughbred sire;
+and the same may be said of some of the
+best modern steeplechasers.</p>
+
+<p>J. C. Loudon, in his work, <cite>An Encyclopedia
+of Agriculture</cite>, published in 1825,
+writes:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“The Welsh horse bears a near resemblance in
+point of size to the best native breed of the Highlands
+of Scotland. It is too small for the two-horse
+ploughs; one that I rode for many years, which, to
+the last, would have gone upon a pavement by choice,
+in preference to a softer road.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Again, the celebrated sporting writer,
+“Nimrod” (C. J. Appleby), in his book
+<cite>The Horse and the Hound</cite>, published in
+1842, writes of this breed as follows:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“They are never lame in the feet, or become
+roarers; they are also very little susceptible of
+disease in comparison with other horses, and as a
+proof also of their powers of crossing a country, the
+fact may be stated of the late Sir Charles Turner
+riding a pony ten miles in forty-seven minutes, and
+taking thirty leaps in his course, for a wager of 1,000
+guineas, with the late Duke of Queensberry....
+The Earl of Oxford had a mare pony, got by the
+Clive Arabian, her dam by the same horse, out
+of a Welsh mare pony, which could beat any of his
+racers four miles at a feather-weight; and during the
+drawing of the Irish lottery the news was conveyed
+express from Holyhead to London chiefly by ponies,
+at the rate of nearly twenty miles an hour.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span></p>
+
+<p>Endeavours have been made from time
+to time to improve the breed, but these
+efforts have been made by individuals, and
+the benefits, when any followed, were local
+and temporary. The first recorded introduction
+of superior alien blood occurred in
+the first quarter of the eighteenth century,
+when that famous little horse, Merlin, was
+turned out to summer on the Welsh hills
+after his retirement from the Turf. The
+small horses which George <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>.’s Act (p.
+8) sought to banish from the race-course
+were not all worthless; “vile and
+paltry” they may have been as a class, but
+there were some good ones among them,
+and Merlin was the best. This little horse,
+who owed his name to the smallest of
+British hawks, beat every animal that started
+against him, and enjoyed a career of uninterrupted
+success until he broke down;
+he was then purchased by a Welsh gentleman,
+said to have been an ancestor of Sir
+Watkin Williams Wynn, and turned out
+to run with the droves on the hills. So
+remarkable was the improvement wrought
+upon the breed by this one stallion that in
+course of a few years the value of the ponies
+in that locality greatly increased. The
+name of the sire was applied to his stock<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>
+and their descendants, which became famous
+as “Merlins”; and the certificate that
+proved an animal one of the true Merlin
+breed made all the difference in the market.</p>
+
+<p>That usually accurate authority, Richard
+Berenger, in his <cite>History and Art of Horsemanship</cite>,
+says, the Welsh breed, “once so
+abundant, is now [1771] nearly extinct;” but
+in this he must have been mistaken, as there
+is evidence from the district to show that
+twenty-six years later it was very far from
+extinct. “A Farmer” writes to the <cite>Gentleman’s
+Magazine</cite> of July, 1797, complaining
+of the “injurious increase of the smallest
+breed of ponies, which are no kind of use,”
+and which, he says, do an immense amount
+of mischief to the growing corn. He ventured
+to assert that for one cow found
+trespassing ten ponies would be seen, and
+strongly urged that an Act of Parliament
+should be passed forbidding right of common
+to horses under 14 hands high.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of the present century, when
+fast-trotting animals for harness and saddle
+were in great demand, it was thought desirable
+to see what could be done with the
+Welsh pony, and accordingly Comet, Fire-away,
+Alonzo the Brave, and other fast-stepping
+small-sized Hackney sires were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span>
+brought from Norfolk into Cardiganshire
+and Breconshire to cross with the native
+ponies. Such a cross could have hardly
+failed to result in a strong, fast-trotting
+and useful pony.</p>
+
+<p>The Report issued by the recent Royal
+Commission on Land in Wales and Monmouthshire
+contains some remarks on the
+subject which must be reproduced here:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“With regard to cobs and ponies, breeding in this
+direction is a much larger factor in the farming of
+Wales. There is plenty of material to make use of,
+and the breeding of ponies might be made much
+more profitable than it is at present. In the counties
+of Radnor and Brecon there has been some
+systematic attempts to encourage the breeding of
+cobs, with satisfactory results. On the mountains of
+North Wales, which were formerly famous for wild
+herds of ‘Merlins,’ little has, however, been done.
+Lord Penrhyn purchased an excellent stallion,
+Caradoc, who might have done much good had he
+been more patronised. The fault seems to lie in the
+careless treatment of the herds of ponies, which are
+allowed to ramble at will, winter and summer, to
+live or starve as nature may please. No attention
+whatever is paid to the breeding, the herds being
+wild to all intents and purposes. It seems a pity
+that such waste should be allowed. The stoutness
+and endurance of the Welsh pony is proverbial, and
+if attention were paid to selection in breeding, separation
+of the sexes, and feeding and shelter in the
+winter, an exceedingly valuable addition to the
+mountain farmer’s profits might be found at a small
+cost.</p>
+
+<p>“Turning to the evidence upon this subject: Mr.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>
+J. E. Jones, who appeared before us at Tregaron,
+gave it as his opinion that the breed of cobs was
+deteriorating; while Mr. Bowen Woosnam, of Tynygraig,
+near Builth, himself a successful breeder,
+stated that not nearly as much attention was paid
+to breeding cobs as formerly. Mr. Woosnam also
+said: If Welsh farmers were to have a portion of
+their money invested in ponies and cobs which are
+suitable to the farms that they are occupying, they
+would derive proportionately a larger income from
+them than they would from the cattle or sheep that
+they are rearing.... I do not mean to say
+that their stock should exclusively consist of ponies
+and cobs, but that they should have a few on every
+suitable farm. There is the greatest difficulty at
+the present time in getting good ponies and cobs.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Commissioners were evidently unaware
+of the work which has been done
+by the Church Stretton Hill Pony Improvement
+Society. This society was formed
+to encourage and assist the farmers in
+the work of improving the ponies which
+they only too generally neglect. The plan
+followed was to take up the best of the
+native stallions for service: those of the
+truest type only were used, and the improvement
+in the young stock got by these
+selected sires was marked: they showed
+more compactness of build, better bone and
+greater spirit than their promiscuously bred
+brethren of the wilds. There can be no
+doubt but that continuance of work on these<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span>
+lines would do much towards converting the
+scarcely saleable raw material of the Hills
+into profitable stock.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. John Hill, of Marshbrook House,
+Church Stretton, in his endeavours to breed
+polo ponies has shown that a valuable riding
+and harness animal can be obtained by
+judicious crossings on the Welsh pony.
+Running more or less wild on the hills in
+the immediate neighbourhood of Church
+Stretton are ponies closely allied to and
+very similar to the Welsh mountain breed.
+These usually range from 10 hands to 11
+hands 2 inches in height, 12 hands 2 inches
+being considered the outside limit. About
+the year 1891 Mr. Hill purchased several of
+the best and most typical mares, wild and
+unbroken, from the hills: these mares, which
+averaged only 10 hands, were put to an
+Arab. His stock were handsome, compact
+and hardy, and grew to an average height
+of 13 hands. The fillies of this cross when
+two years old were put to the best Welsh
+pony procurable, a 14-hand 1-inch stallion
+with riding shoulders and showing bone and
+quality. These mares were subsequently
+put to a small thoroughbred, and to him
+threw foals full of quality and in every
+way promising. Mr. Hill’s breeding experiments<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>
+have all been made with the
+14-hand 2-inch polo pony in view: and he
+has shown that Welsh ponies judiciously
+crossed with suitable alien blood produce
+stock for which a ready market should be
+found.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. W. J. Roberts, the Hon. Secretary
+of the Church Stretton Hill Pony Society,
+states that he has tried the Arab cross,
+but “the offspring is useless on the hills.”
+A half-bred Arab is not the animal to successfully
+withstand the hardships and exposure
+of half-wild existence on the Welsh
+hills. The object sought in improving the
+Welsh or any other of these breeds is not
+to fit it for a life of semi-wildness but to
+make it more serviceable to man.</p>
+
+<p>For the information of those interested
+in this breed, the following descriptions, furnished
+to the Polo Pony Society for their
+Stud Book (vol. v.) by the Local Committees,
+may be quoted:</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="center">(NORTH WALES DIVISION.)</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Height.</span> <em>Not to exceed 12·2 hands.</em> <span class="smcap">Colour.</span> <em>Bay
+or brown preferred; grey or black allowable; but dun,
+chestnut, or broken colour considered objectionable.</em> <span class="smcap">Action.</span>
+<em>Best described as that of the hunter; low “daisy-cutting”
+action to be avoided. The pony should move quickly and
+actively, stepping out well from the shoulder, at the same
+time flexing the hocks and bringing the hind legs well under<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>
+the body when going.</em> <span class="smcap">General Character.</span> <em>The pony
+should show good “pony” character and evidence of robust
+constitution, with the unmistakable appearance of hardiness
+peculiar to mountain ponies, and at the same time have a
+lively appearance.</em> <span class="smcap">Head.</span> <em>Should be small, well chiselled
+in its outline and well set on; forehead broad, tapering
+towards nose.</em> <span class="smcap">Nostrils.</span> <em>Large and expanding.</em> <span class="smcap">Eyes.</span>
+<em>Bright, mild, intelligent and prominent.</em> <span class="smcap">Ears.</span> <em>Neatly
+set, well-formed and small.</em> <span class="smcap">Throat and Jaws.</span> <em>Fine,
+showing no signs of coarseness or throatiness.</em> <span class="smcap">Neck.</span> <em>Of
+proportionate length; strong, but not too heavy, with a
+moderate crest in the case of the stallion.</em> <span class="smcap">Shoulders.</span>
+<em>Good shoulders most important: should be well laid back
+and sloping, but not too fine at the withers nor loaded at the
+points. The pony should have a good long shoulder-blade.</em>
+<span class="smcap">Back and Loins.</span> <em>Strong and well covered with muscle.</em>
+<span class="smcap">Hind Quarters.</span> <em>Long, and tail well carried, as much
+like the Arab as possible, springing well from the top of the
+back.</em> <span class="smcap">Hocks.</span> <em>Well let down, clean cut, with plenty of
+bone below the joint. They should not be “sickled” or
+“cow-hocked.”</em> <span class="smcap">Forelegs.</span> <em>Well placed; not tied in
+any way at the elbows; good muscular arm, short from the
+knee to the fetlock joints; flat bone; pasterns sloping but
+not too long; feet well developed and open at the heel; hoof
+sound and hard.</em></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">(SOUTH WALES DIVISION.)</p>
+
+<p><em>The South Wales hill pony seldom exceeds 13 hands, and
+in a pure state is about 12 hands. His attributes are a
+quick, straight action and sure-footedness; he is low in
+the withers, short in his forehand, and with faulty hind
+quarters as far as appearance goes, his tail being set on low
+and his hocks sickled, but his forelegs and feet are good.
+His head and eye show breed, courage and sense, and his
+constitution is strong or he could not live where he does. Of
+late years he has been crossed with the Cardiganshire cob
+to some extent; and half-bred two-year-old shire colts have
+been allowed access to the hills in summer in some places,
+much to the detriment of the breed. In colour, bays and
+brown prevail.</em></p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_EXMOOR_AND_DARTMOOR_PONIES">THE EXMOOR AND DARTMOOR PONIES.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>It is certain that ponies have run in these
+districts for many centuries in a practically
+wild state, and probably have always supplied
+the tillers of the soil with beasts of
+burden. In times when these localities were
+without roads of any kind and wheeled traffic
+was impossible, the sled and the pack-horse
+were used for transporting agricultural produce.
+The sleds were drawn by oxen and
+small horses; and ponies were employed to
+carry corn, &amp;c., in pots and panniers; the
+ponies used for this purpose being the animals
+which ran at large upon the wastes.
+As recently as 1860 packhorses might still
+be met with in the western and southern
+districts. They were the larger ponies of
+the Dartmoor and Exmoor breed, and were
+indispensable to the farmers whose holdings
+at that time lay beyond the region of roads
+in secluded districts. The practice of taking
+up a few of the best mares for breeding
+purposes and keeping them in enclosed
+pasture is no doubt an old one; but the
+vast majority of the droves have always
+been left to their own devices. They bred
+and interbred without let or hindrance, and
+by consequence the weakly died off, leaving<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>
+the fittest, <em>i.e.</em>, the hardiest and the best able
+to withstand the rigours of exposure.</p>
+
+<p>Carew, in his <cite>History of Cornwall</cite>, which
+was written in the early part of the reign
+of James <abbr title="the first">I</abbr>. (1603-1625), says:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“The Cornish horses are hardly bred, coarsely fed,
+and so low in stature that they were liable to be
+seized on as unstatutable, according to the statute of
+Henry <abbr title="the eighth">VIII</abbr>., by anyone who caught them depasturing
+the commons.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the year 1812 Exmoor was disforested
+by George <abbr title="the third">III</abbr>., and a commission was appointed
+to survey and value the lands. The
+total acreage was found to be 18,810 acres,
+of which 10,262 acres were adjudged the
+property of the Crown. In 1820 Mr. John
+Knight purchased the Crown allotment;
+at a later date he acquired Sir Thomas
+Acland’s portion, and Sir Arthur Chichester’s
+property of Brendon which adjoined it,
+the total area so acquired being over 16,000
+acres. Sir Thomas Acland had bred
+ponies, and when Mr. Knight bought the
+land he applied himself to the task of improving
+the ponies, which for some years
+previously had been fetching only from £4
+to £6. The low prices obtainable, we infer,
+were due in a measure to the ease with
+which the local shepherds “took liberal tithe”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>
+of the ponies, which, despite the anchor-brand
+they bore to prove ownership, were readily
+purchased in Wiltshire.</p>
+
+<p>The only pure Exmoor ponies now existing,
+so far as enquiry has disclosed, are those
+bred by Sir T. Dyke Acland, Bart., of Holnicote,
+Taunton. When Sir Thomas Acland
+sold his Exmoor property to Mr. Knight
+he removed his original uncrossed stock to
+Winsford Hill, near Dulverton; these ponies
+alone preserve the full characteristics of the
+old strain; they run from 11·2 hands to 12·2
+hands, are dark-brown with black points, and
+have the mealy tan muzzle. It is stated
+that only about a dozen mares were left in
+their old quarters.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Knight and some other gentlemen
+were attracted by the accounts of the Dongola
+Arab horses given by the great traveller
+Bruce, and after considerable delay a number
+of stallions and mares were procured
+through the British Consul in Egypt. They
+proved to be black, short-backed animals
+with lean heads, and rather Roman noses.
+Their hind quarters were good, but, unlike
+the typical Arab, they had “flattish
+ribs.” Mr. Knight became the owner
+of two sires and three mares, which he
+brought to Simonsbath. One of these Dongola<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>
+stallions was mated with a number
+of 12-hand Exmoor mares; the foals generally
+grew to about 14 hands 2 inches, and
+though they followed their dams in the
+colour of coat, the distinctive mealy muzzle
+disappeared. There was a desire to retain
+as much of the Exmoor character as was
+compatible with improvement in the breed;
+hence those half-bred mares by the Dongola
+horse which did not retain as much
+as possible of the native type were drafted
+from the stud.</p>
+
+<p>The thoroughbred horse Pandarus, a 15-hand
+son of Whalebone, succeeded the
+Dongola horse; foals of his get retained
+the original colour, but were smaller, ranging
+from 13 hands to 13·2. Another thoroughbred,
+Canopus, a grandson of Velocipede,
+followed Pandarus at the stud, and with
+equally satisfactory results in respect of improved
+size and conformation; but, as might
+have been expected, these cross-bred ponies
+proved incapable of enduring the hardships
+of moorland life when turned out. Hence,
+about 1844, Mr. Knight gave up the use of
+alien blood and used his own stallion ponies;
+the only exceptions being Hero, a sturdy
+chestnut out of a Pandarus mare, and Lillias,
+a grey of nearly pure Acland strain.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span></p>
+
+<p>After Mr. Knight’s death, which event
+occurred in 1850, the practice of selling the
+ponies by private contract was abandoned
+in favour of an annual auction, held at
+Simonsbath. The comparative inaccessibility
+of the spot, however, soon indicated the
+need of change, and in 1854 the sale was
+first held at Bampton fair. The system on
+which the ponies were kept was also changed
+in the later fifties; some 130 acres of
+pasture were set apart, and on this the foals
+were wintered instead of remaining at large
+on the bleak hill-sides. The effect thus
+produced upon the size and development of
+the young stock was very marked. In 1863
+the ponies mustered about four hundred
+strong, nearly one hundred of which were
+brood mares, young and old. Much of the
+land which in former days was given up to
+the droves has been reclaimed during recent
+years, and improved methods of cultivation
+have made it capable of growing various
+crops and of grazing cattle and sheep.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Robert Smith, of Emmett’s Grange,
+also devoted attention to the improvement
+of the Exmoor breed. The “Druid,” who
+described a visit to Devonshire about the
+year 1860 or 1861, remarks that “the
+original colour of the Exmoor seems to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>
+have been a buffy bay, with a mealy nose,
+and it is supposed to have preserved its
+character ever since the Phœnicians brought
+it over when they visited the shores of
+Cornwall to trade in tin and metals.” Enquiry
+into the ground for supposing that
+the original stock was introduced by the
+Phœnicians would perhaps produce results
+hardly commensurate with the labour of
+research.</p>
+
+<p>When the “Druid” paid his visit to the
+district in 1860 or 1861, only 250 acres of
+moorland remained unenclosed, and the
+breeding stock on Mr. Smith’s holding
+consisted of “some twenty-five short-legged
+brood mares of about 13 hands 2 inches.”
+These passed the better part of the year on
+the hills and were wintered in the paddocks
+furnished with open sheds for shelter.</p>
+
+<p>After experimenting with thoroughbreds,
+Mr. Smith procured a 14-hand pony sire
+named Bobby, by Round Robin out of an
+Arab mare, and used him with the most encouraging
+results for two seasons. Bobby’s
+stock were almost invariably bays. At a sale
+held at Bristol, in 1864, twenty-nine cobs
+galloways and ponies, nearly all of which
+were Bobby’s get, made an average price
+of 23 guineas a head, several realising over<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>
+30 guineas. The highest price (figure not
+recorded) was paid for a bay stallion, five
+years old and 13 hands high.</p>
+
+<p>Whether Youatt refers to the improved
+breed or not it is impossible to say: but that
+authority states that about the year 1860 a
+farmer who weighed 14 stone rode an
+Exmoor pony from Bristol to South Molton,
+a distance of 86 miles, beating the coach
+which travelled the same road. This feat
+proves the pony to have been both fast and
+enduring.</p>
+
+<p>A most competent authority who a couple
+of years ago paid a visit to Simonsbath to
+inspect the ponies of the district, describes
+the “Acland” as a wonderfully thoroughbred
+looking and handsome pony with fine
+lean head, intelligent eye and good limbs.
+The only fault he had to find was in the
+matter of size: he considered it a shade too
+small for general purposes.</p>
+
+<p>The “Knights” were described as larger
+than the “Aclands”: they also retain the
+thoroughbred look derived from the Arab
+and other alien blood introduced by Mr.
+Knight in the second quarter of the century.
+My informant remarks that one of the most
+interesting sights he witnessed was the display
+of jealousy by the stallions when two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>
+droves of ponies were brought up for inspection.
+Each kept his harem crowded
+together apart from the other, “rounding
+in” his mares with the greatest fire. Needless
+to say the little horses would show at
+their very best under such conditions.</p>
+
+<p>Among the gentlemen who have endeavoured
+to improve the Exmoor pony,
+mention must also be made of the Earl of
+Carnarvon, Viscount Ebrington and Mr.
+Nicholas Snow, of Oare, who have breeding
+studs; but their strains, like those of
+the farmers’ who rear a few each, are larger
+than the representative “Aclands.”</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Herbert Watney, of Buckhold, near
+Pangbourne, until recently possessed herds
+of Exmoor and Arab-Exmoor ponies; their
+numbers have quite lately been greatly reduced
+by the sale of mares and young stock,
+Dr. Watney holding the writer’s view that
+ground in time becomes staled if grazed by
+numerous horses.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Dr. Watney laid the
+foundations of his herd by the purchase of
+about a dozen mares of the Knight and
+Ackland strains, and to serve them he
+acquired the 13·2 Exmoor stallion Katerfelto,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>winner of the first prize for pony
+stallions at the Devon County Show, and
+first prize in his class at the “Royal” in
+1890. The stallion runs with the mares, and
+the herd lead on the Berkshire downs exactly
+the same free life they led on Exmoor;
+they are never brought under cover, and
+only when snow buries the herbage in severe
+winters do they receive a daily ration of
+hay. The richer grazing and their exclusive
+service by Katerfelto has resulted in
+distinct increase of size, the ponies ranging
+from 11·3 to 13·3 in height, yet retaining
+all the characteristics of the Exmoor native
+stock.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> See “Young Racehorses” (Suggestions for Rearing), by
+Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart., Vinton &amp; Co., Ltd.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Dr. Watney drafted off a number of the
+best mares to form a herd for service by the
+Arab pony stallion Nejram, a bay standing
+14·1, bred by Mr. Wilford Blunt at Crabbet
+Park. Nejram’s stock show in marked
+degree the distinctive character of their
+sire in the high set and carriage of the
+tail, full barrel, blood-like head and the
+long pastern; but at the same time they
+inherit from their dams the wonderful sure-footedness
+of the Exmoor pony. These
+ponies run from about 13 hands to 13·3.
+Half a dozen of these Arab-Exmoors, three
+years old, handled but unbroken, were sold<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>
+in the year 1898 at an average price of over
+£14 14s. each. Twelve pure Exmoors by
+Katerfelto, also handled but unbroken, three
+years old, brought an average of over
+£16 16s.</p>
+
+<p>Bampton Fair, held in October, is now
+the great rendezvous for Exmoor ponies.
+Every fair brings several hundred animals
+in from the moors for sale. Like other
+horses and ponies, the Exmoors are suffering
+from the competition of the bicycle, but
+good prices are still obtained under the
+hammer. They are much used for children,
+and the less desirable find ready sale
+to coster-mongers and hawkers. Newly-weaned
+suckers of five or six months old
+fetch from £3 to £6; exceptionally promising
+youngsters command a higher figure.</p>
+
+<p>The Dartmoor pony’s good points are a
+strong back and loin, and substance. For
+generations past the farmers appear to have
+been in the habit of taking up a few mares
+for riding and breeding purposes; to these
+11 or 12-hand dams—they rarely reach
+13 hands—a small Welsh cart stallion is
+put, and the result is an animal hardy and
+serviceable enough for ordinary farm work.
+Even these would seem to form a small
+minority. For the most part the Dartmoor<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>
+ponies still run wild, shaggy and unkempt,
+on the waste lands on which they breed uncontrolled,
+on which they are foaled and
+live and die; often without having looked
+through a bridle. Those taken up for riding
+purposes or for breeding are of course the
+pick of the droves, and thus we find an
+active force at work which is calculated to
+lower the average standard of quality among
+the wild ponies.</p>
+
+<p>In considering the various efforts which
+from time to time have been made in the
+direction of improvement by the introduction
+of fresh blood, we must bear in mind
+that the mares on which such experiments
+have been made are those which have been
+taken up by farmers and kept within fences.
+We cannot find that stallions of alien blood
+have ever been turned out to run on the
+moors, and in view of the conditions under
+which the moor ponies exist it is highly
+improbable that a stallion boasting such
+blood as would produce beneficial results
+on the native breed would long enough
+survive the exposure and scanty food to
+make any appreciable mark thereon. The
+endeavours, more or less continuous and
+successful, to improve the breed have been
+confined to the few, and have, therefore,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span>
+produced little effect or none on the main
+stock.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the present century Mr. Willing,
+of Torpeak, made successful experiments in
+crossing the Exmoor pony with the smaller
+variety peculiar to the Dartmoor “tors.”
+Mr. Wooton, of Woodlands, says a writer
+in the <cite>Field</cite> of 9th October, 1880, was in
+the habit of purchasing mares of this cross
+from Mr. Willing from about the year 1820,
+and possessed a considerable number of
+them. He used to put these to small
+thoroughbred horses standing in the district.
+The names of Trap, Tim Whiffler, Rover,
+and Glen Stuart are mentioned, and about
+1860 he sent some of his Exmoor-Dartmoor
+mares to a small Arab belonging to Mr.
+Stewart Hawkins, of Ivybridge. Mr. Wooton’s
+endeavours to improve the Dartmoor
+breed are the first that were made on any
+considerable scale, so far as it is possible
+to discover.</p>
+
+<p>About 1879 a resident who devoted much
+attention to the improvement of the Dartmoor
+breed introduced a brown stallion by
+Mr. Christopher Wilson’s Sir George out
+of Windsor Soarer, and as his mares—a
+selected lot, 12·2 to 13 hands, either brown
+or chestnut—came in use, put them to this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span>
+pony with the object of getting early foals.
+The young stock thus got were carefully
+weeded out, the best stallions and mares
+only being retained. The colt foals were
+kept apart and at two years old put to
+the mares got by their sire. The experiment
+was very successful, browns, black-browns
+and chestnuts being the colours
+of this improved breed, which sold well.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. S. Lang, of Bristol, some years prior
+to 1880 sent down two good stallions,
+Perfection and Hereford, for use in the district,
+but it is stated that these ponies were
+little patronised by the farmers. Hereford,
+a pure thoroughbred pony only 13 hands
+high, left a few beautiful foals behind him.</p>
+
+<p>A description of Exmoor and Dartmoor
+ponies exhibited at the Newton Abbott
+Agricultural Show in May, 1875, may have
+had reference to these improved ponies.
+The following is quoted from the <cite>Field</cite> of
+29th May in that year:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“Instead of deteriorating the stock improves
+yearly, and the care which is now taken to infuse
+pure blood without harming the essential characteristics
+of the original denizen of the moor has
+succeeded in producing an animal of superlative
+merit, fitted for any kind of work, whether for the
+field, the road, or the collar. It must be observed
+that the word ‘moor’ should apply to Exmoor and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>
+the Bodmin wastes as well as the Forest of Dartmoor,
+Dartmoor Forest itself being within the precincts
+of the Duchy of Cornwall. The moor pony
+or galloway of 14 hands is often in reality a little
+horse; and when it is stated that Tom Thumb, the
+well-known hunter of Mr. Trelawny, was a direct
+descendant of the celebrated Rough Tor pony of
+Landue, and that Foster by Gainsborough, belonging
+to the late Mr. Phillips, of Landue, carrying for
+many years fifteen stone and upwards in the first
+flight, was from a moor pony near Ivybridge, the
+assertion is not made without bringing strong collateral
+proof of the validity of the statement. Moreover,
+a host of other examples could be added.
+These animals possess many of the properties of the
+thorough-bred—speed, activity, any amount of stay,
+with legs of steel; they can jump as well as the
+moor sheep, and much after the same fashion, for no
+hedge fence can stop either one or the other.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>For the information of those interested
+in this breed the following descriptions furnished
+to the Polo Pony Society for their
+Stud Book (vol. v.) by Local Committees
+may be quoted:</p>
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="center">(THE EXMOOR DIVISION.)</p>
+
+<p><em>The Exmoor pony should average 12 hands and never be
+above 13 hands; moorland bred; generally dark bay or
+brown with black points, wide forehead and nostril; mealy
+nose; sharp ears; good shoulders and back; short legs,
+with good bone and fair action.</em></p>
+
+<p><em>There are a few grey ponies in Sir Thomas Acland’s
+herd, but no chestnuts.</em></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span></p>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="center">(THE DARTMOOR DIVISION.)</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The official description of points is identical
+with that given for the North Wales
+pony, with the following amendments and
+additions:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Height.</span> <em>Not exceeding 14 hands for stallions, 13·2
+for mares.</em> <span class="smcap">Colour.</span> <em>Brown, black, or bay preferred;
+grey allowable, other colours objectionable.</em> <span class="smcap">Head.</span> <em>Should
+be small, well set on, and blood-like.</em> <span class="smcap">Neck.</span> <em>Strong but
+not too heavy, and neither long nor short; and, in case of a
+stallion, with moderate crest.</em> <span class="smcap">Back, Loins, and Hind
+Quarters.</span> <em>Strong and well covered with muscle.</em></p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_CUMBERLAND">THE CUMBERLAND
+AND WESTMORELAND PONIES.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The ponies and galloways, for which the
+waste lands of these counties have long
+been known, appear to possess no distinguishing
+characteristics that would permit it
+to be said they form a distinct breed. An
+authority resident at Harrington who gives
+much information concerning the ponies of
+the heafs—fell-side holdings—and moors,
+states that there are several strains, and
+the appearance and character of each differs
+in various districts under the varying local
+influences of climate, feed, &amp;c. Little or
+nothing is known of the origin of these
+ponies. The resemblance to “Shelties,”
+borne by those of certain localities until
+about the middle of the century, suggested
+that they were descended from a mixed
+stock of galloways and Shetland ponies;
+but some forty or fifty years ago endeavours
+were made to improve them by careful
+selection and mating; and the resemblance,
+which did not necessarily imply possession
+of the merits of the Shetland pony, has in
+great measure disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>They are generally good-tempered; so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>
+sure-footed that they can gallop down the
+steep hill-sides with surprising speed and
+fearlessness; but their paces on level ground
+are not fast. Their endurance has been
+remarked by many writers. Brown’s <em>Anecdotes
+and Sketches of the Horse</em>, published
+about sixty years ago, contains an account
+of an extraordinary performance by a galloway,
+at Carlisle, in 1701; when Mr.
+Sinclair, of Kirkby Lonsdale, for a wager
+of 500 guineas, rode the animal 1000 miles
+in 1000 hours.</p>
+
+<p>The ponies run in “gangs” on the holdings,
+the gang numbering from half a dozen
+to forty or even sixty individuals. In some
+cases a few ponies are taken up, broken
+and worked all the year round, carrying the
+farmer to market, drawing peat and hay,
+and ploughing. The stony nature of the
+heaf-lands requires only a light plough,
+which is easily drawn by one or two of
+the half-pony, half-horse nondescripts; the
+extent of arable land farmed by any one
+farmer is only from four to six acres. A
+stallion is sometimes used for the farm-work,
+and in such cases the neighbouring farmers
+bring mares to be served; some such stallions
+will serve from thirty to fifty mares
+in the season. In the larger gangs the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span>
+stallion runs with the mares on the hills;
+a good breeding mare often lives and dies
+without knowing a halter, running practically
+wild from the day she is dropped on
+the fell-side till she dies. These unhandled
+ponies pick up their living on the hills, and
+during winter a little hay is brought out to
+them by the shepherds.</p>
+
+<p>The “Fell-siders,” as the holders of heafs
+are called locally, make no attempt to improve
+their wild pony stock; under the
+existing conditions the wild mares drop
+their foals, it may be without the knowledge
+of their owner. Farmers who bring their
+mares to a neighbour’s working stallion
+exercise no discrimination in their choice;
+the cheapest and most accessible horse
+receives their preference.</p>
+
+<p>Where skill and judgment have been
+brought to bear upon the improvement of
+the Fell ponies the result has been very
+marked. Mr. Christopher W. Wilson, of
+Rigmaden Park, Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmoreland,
+was the pioneer of an improved
+breed of ponies, and he has shown what can
+be done with the material at hand, having
+built upon that foundation a breed which at
+the present day stands unrivalled for shape
+and action. Having in the year 1872 taken<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>
+the matter in hand, Mr. Wilson selected
+his breeding mares from among the best
+ponies of the districts, and put them to
+the pony stallion, Sir George, a Yorkshire-bred
+Hackney (by Sportsman (796) by
+Prickwillow, who was descended through
+Phenomenon from the Original Shales),
+which won for eight years the first prizes
+at the Shows of the Royal Agricultural
+Society. The female offspring were in due
+time mated with their sire, and threw foals
+which showed Hackney characteristics in
+far more marked degree than did their
+dams, as might be anticipated in animals
+three-parts instead of one-half bred.</p>
+
+<p>The chief difficulty Mr. Wilson had to
+contend against was the tendency of these
+ponies to exceed the 14 hands which is
+the limit of the pony classes at the shows.
+This was overcome by turning out the young
+stock after the first winter upon the rabbit
+warrens and moorlands of Rigmaden to find
+their own grazing among the sheep and
+rabbits as their maternal ancestors had
+done. This measure not only succeeded
+in its direct object, but went far to preserve
+that hardiness of constitution which is by
+no means the least valuable attribute of
+the mountain pony.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span></p>
+
+<p>This judicious system of breeding and
+management was maintained with the best
+results; the third direct cross from Sir
+George produced a mare in Georgina <abbr title="the fifth">V</abbr>.
+which had constitution and stamina, and also
+more bone than her dam or grand-dam.
+The breeder’s name has been given to the
+fruits of his wisely directed efforts, and the
+“Wilson pony” is now universally famous
+for its hunter-like shape and action, and
+for the numerous successes it has achieved
+at the principal shows at home and abroad.
+Mr. Wilson won the Queen’s Jubilee gold
+medals for both stallions and mares at the
+Royal Agricultural Society’s Show at Windsor,
+and sold the stallion for a large sum
+to go to America. On one occasion the
+R.A.S.E. Show included three classes for
+pony stallions and three prizes in each. Mr.
+Wilson entered nine ponies and won all these
+prizes; also 1st and 2nd prizes for pony
+brood mares.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Humphrey de Trafford, Bart., was
+also most successful in producing ponies
+from stock purchased from Mr. Christopher
+Wilson. At the Flordon Sale, Norfolk,
+held in September, 1895, Sir Humphrey
+disposed of his large stud, when some of
+the ponies realised prices which are worth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>
+quoting: Snorer <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>., a brown mare, 13.3,
+eight years old, by Sir George—Snorer—Sir
+George, 600 gs.; Georgina <abbr title="the fifth">V</abbr>., a bay mare,
+14 hands, six years old, by Sir George—Georgina
+<abbr title="the second">II</abbr>., Sir George—Georgina—Sir
+George, 700 gs.; Dorothy Derby, a
+bay mare, 14 hands, eight years old, by
+Lord Derby <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>.—Burton Agnes, 600 gs.;
+Dorothy Derby <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>., a bay mare, 14 hands,
+six years old, by Little Wonder <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>.—Dorothy
+Derby, 720 gs.; Snorter <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>., bay
+filly, two years old, by Cassius—Snorer <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>.
+by Sir George—Snorer—Sir George, 700
+gs., and Miss Sniff, bay yearling filly,
+by Cassius—Snorer <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>., 900 gs.; the
+average for these six lots being no less
+than £756.</p>
+
+<p>It is true that Sir Humphrey had spared
+neither money nor labour in founding the
+Flordon stud, and the ponies were animals
+of exceptional merit. Their high quality
+had won them prizes at all the principal
+shows in England, and their fame was
+literally “world-wide.”</p>
+
+<p class="p4"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-070">
+<img src="images/i-070.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="491">
+<p class="caption left"><em>S. Clark, Hallgarth, Photo.</em></p>
+<p class="caption center">LITTLE WONDER <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Twenty years ago, the late Rev. J. M.
+Lowther, rector of Boltongate, made an
+attempt on a modest scale to improve the
+ponies of the Caldbeck Fells by selecting
+sires and dams from among the best of <span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>
+them. Two or three ponies of his breeding
+won prizes at Whitehaven and Carlisle; his
+best sire was a 13-hand pony named
+Mountain Hero. This little animal had
+splendid bone and was as hardy as the
+wildest of his kin. The picture here given
+is a portrait of <span class="smcap">Little Wonder <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>.</span>, the property
+of the Marquis of Londonderry. He
+was bred by Mr. Christopher W. Wilson,
+his sire being Little Wonder <abbr title="the first">I</abbr>., and his dam
+Snorer by Sir George.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. William Graham, of Eden Grove,
+Kirkbythorpe, Penrith, writes:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“Up to about twenty years ago great interest
+seems to have been taken in pony or galloway cob
+breeding throughout the whole district of the Eden
+valley in the villages and hamlets that lie scattered all
+along the foot of the Pennine range of hills. Previous
+to the days of railway transit the ponies and small
+galloway cobs were employed in droves as pack
+horses, as well as for riding, and many men now
+living can remember droves of from twenty to thirty
+continually travelling the district, carrying panniers
+of coal and other merchandise between the mines and
+villages.</p>
+
+<p>“The village of Dufton, in which the hill farm of
+Keisley is situated, was quite a centre of pony breeding,
+and for many generations the Fell-side farmers in
+this district have been noted for their ponies; they
+bred them to the best Fell pony stallions, most of
+which were trained trotters of great speed. Each of
+the three mares originally purchased to found the
+stud at Keisley were got from well-known locally<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>
+bred dams and grand-dams, and all were selected to
+match each other in character and style. The mare
+from which two of them were bred was from a very
+old strain by a stallion pony called Long Cropper, a
+record trotter; and all the three mares were themselves
+by a pony called Blooming Heather, another
+well-known pony stallion of a few generations
+younger. These mares have been put to a stallion
+got by Mars from a pony mare belonging to Col.
+Stirling, Kippendavie, and the present stud, with the
+exception of two of the mares originally purchased,
+are all by him. Last season, and this, a pony stallion
+by Little Wonder <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>. has been in use, and five or six
+of the mares have foaled to him, the end of May and
+beginning of June being quite early enough for
+these mares to foal, as they are never under cover
+unless broken-in, especially as they very readily stand
+to their service at first season after foaling.</p>
+
+<p>“When safe in foal they are turned out to the higher
+allotments and the open fell with their foals, where
+they run from July to November; save in exceptionally
+hard winters they get no hand feeding in the
+shape of hay, as they thrive and do well in the rough
+open allotments, to which they are generally brought
+down in November to remain until the end of March.</p>
+
+<p>“In height these ponies run from 12 to 13 hands,
+and with the exception of two blacks all are of
+uniform rich dark bay colour with black points. Just
+at first, when brought in wild to break, they are a
+little nervous, but if kindly treated soon become very
+docile and easily handled. They are very easily
+broken both for riding and driving, and ponies comparatively
+quite small carry with ease men of
+ordinary stature. They are the most useful means
+of locomotion in crossing the mountain ranges and
+traversing the hilly roads of the district. Although
+of no great size these ponies are very muscular, their
+bones and joints are fine, hard and clean, and,
+generally speaking, they have good middles. Some<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>
+are perhaps a little short in quarter, but with a fair
+shoulder, and their legs, ankles and feet are all that
+can be desired. There certainly seems to be very
+fair field in the district for breeding ponies, as they
+are very cheaply and easily reared, and when fit to
+break in can be disposed of for a very fairly good
+figure.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Cumberland “Fell-siders” are wedded
+to the customs and usages of their ancestors,
+and endeavours to promote schemes for the
+general improvement of the ponies have
+met with small success. Colonel Green-Thompson,
+of Bridekirk, Cockermouth, in
+1897, offered the farmers the opportunity
+of using an Arab stallion, but the chance of
+thus bettering their stock appears to have
+been neglected by the breeders. This is
+to be regretted, for the fells and dales offer
+thousands of acres of good, sound grazing
+land which might be far more profitably
+devoted to pony-breeding than given up to
+the few scattered flocks of Herdwick sheep
+which they now carry. The sheep farmers
+of Caldbeck and Matterdale in Cumberland
+pay some attention to the business, asserting
+that the ponies are less trouble and involve
+less risk than sheep. Their fillies are put
+to the horse at two years old, and they
+frequently obtain a second foal before sending<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>
+the dam to market. The colts command
+a readier sale than the mares. The ordinary
+Fell pony, outside the district, is in demand
+for pit work, for which purpose suitable
+animals bring from £12 to £15.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. W. W. Wingate-Saul supplies the
+following description of the Fell ponies:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“<em>A very powerful and compact cobby build, the majority
+having a strong middle piece with deep chest and strong loin
+characteristics, which, combined with deep sloping shoulders
+and fine withers, make them essentially weight-carrying
+riding ponies. The prevailing—indeed, the only—colours
+are black, brown, bay, and, quite occasionally, grey. I do
+not remember ever having seen a chestnut, and if I found
+one I should think it due to the introduction of other blood.
+The four colours prevail in the order named, the best
+animals often being get black and usually without white
+markings, unless it be a small white star. The head is
+pony-like and intelligent, with large bright eyes and well-placed
+ears. The neck in the best examples being long
+enough to give a good rein to the rider. The hind quarters
+are square and strong, with a well-set-on tail. The legs
+have more bone than those of any of our breeds; ponies
+under 14 hands often measuring 8-1/2 inches below the knee.
+Their muscularity of arm, thigh and second thigh is
+marvellous. Their habitat (having been bred for centuries
+on the cold inhospitable Fells, where they are still to be found)
+has caused a wonderful growth of hair, the winter coat
+being heavy and the legs growing a good deal of fine hair,
+all of which, excepting some at the point of the heel, is cast
+in summer. Constitutionally they are hard as iron, with
+good all-round action, and are very fast and enduring.</em>”</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="IRELAND-THE_CONNEMARA_PONY">IRELAND—THE CONNEMARA PONY.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Richard Berenger, Gentleman of the
+Horse to King George <abbr title="the third">III</abbr>. in his work,
+<cite>The History and Art of Horsemanship</cite>,
+1771—says that—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“Ireland has for many centuries boasted a race of
+horses called Hobbies, valued for their easy paces
+and other pleasing and agreeable qualities, of a
+middling size, strong, nimble, well moulded and
+hardy.... The nobility have stallions of great
+reputation belonging to them, but choose to breed for
+the <em>Turf</em> in preference to other purposes; for which,
+perhaps, their country is not so well qualified, from
+the moisture of the atmosphere, and other causes,
+which hinder it from improving that elastic force
+and clearness of wind; and which are solely the gifts
+of a dry soil, and an air more pure and refined. This
+country, nevertheless, is capable of producing fine
+and noble horses.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The great stud maintained in England by
+Edward <abbr title="the third">III</abbr>. (1327-1377) included a number
+of Hobbies which were procured from Ireland.
+A French chronicler named Creton,
+who wrote a <cite>Metrical History of the Deposition
+of Richard <abbr title="the second">II</abbr>.</cite>,<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> refers with great
+admiration to the Irish horses of the period.
+He evidently accompanied King Richard
+during his expedition to Ireland in the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>summer of 1399, for he says the horses of
+that country “scour the hills and vallies
+fleeter than deer;” and he states that the
+horse ridden by Macmore, an Irish chieftain,
+“without housing or saddle was worth
+400 cows.”</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> See vol. xx. of <cite>Archeologia</cite> for prose translation.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At a much later date the character of
+this breed was changed by the introduction
+of Spanish blood. Tradition asserts that
+the ponies which inhabited the rough and
+mountainous tracts of Connemara, in the
+county Galway, were descended from several
+animals that were saved from the wreck
+of some ship of the Spanish Armada in
+1588. It is, however, quite needless to
+invoke the aid of a somewhat too frequently
+employed tradition to explain the
+character which at one period distinguished
+these ponies. Spanish stallions were freely
+imported into England from the fourteenth
+to seventeenth centuries; and it is probable
+that the character of the Connemara pony
+was derived not from shipwrecked stock
+but in more prosaic fashion by importation
+of sires from England.</p>
+
+<p>The testimony of many old writers goes
+to prove the high esteem in which Spanish
+horses were held. The Duke of Newcastle,
+in his famous work on Horses and Horsemanship,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>
+written in 1658, says: “I have
+had Spanish horses in my own possession
+which were proper to be painted after, or
+fit for a king to mount on a public occasion.
+Genets have a fine lofty air, trot and gallop
+well. The best breed is in Andalusia,
+especially that of the King of Spain at
+Cordova.” The Spanish horse of those
+times owed much to the Barbs, which were
+originally introduced into the country by
+the Moors; and if the Connemara pony
+was permitted to revert to the original
+type, something was done to re-establish
+the Spanish—or, perhaps, it were more
+accurate to go a step further back and say
+the “Barb”—character in the early thirties.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Samuel Ussher Roberts, C.B., in
+course of evidence given before the Royal
+Commission on Horse Breeding in Ireland
+(1897), stated that he lived for five-and-twenty
+years in the west of Galway, and
+when in that part of the country, “there
+was,” he said, “an extremely hardy, wiry
+class of pony in the district showing a
+great deal of the Barb or Arab blood.
+Without exception they were the best
+animals I ever knew—good shoulders, good
+hard legs, good action, and great stamina
+... they were seldom over 14·2. I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span>
+never knew one of them to have a spavin
+or splint, or to be in any respect unsound
+in his wind.... There was a strong
+trace of Arab blood which I always understood
+arose from the introduction into
+Connemara of the Barb or Arab by the
+Martin family many years ago—you could
+very easily trace it to the Connemara
+ponies at the time I speak of.” In answer
+to a subsequent question Mr. Ussher
+Roberts fixed the date of the introduction
+of the Barb or Arab blood by Colonel
+Martin at about 1833.</p>
+
+<p>The old stamp of Connemara pony was
+described by another witness, Mr. R. B.
+Begley, as “long and low with good rein,
+good back, and well coupled”; but the
+majority of witnesses from Galway, and
+those who had personal knowledge of the
+breed, shared Mr. Ussher Roberts’ opinion
+that it had greatly deteriorated since the
+middle of the century when the influence
+of the Barb or Arab sires had died out.
+The young animals, it was stated, were
+collected in droves when about six months
+old, and hawked about the country for sale,
+bringing prices ranging from thirty shillings
+to £3. Many of these were purchased for
+use in the English coal pits. Evidence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span>
+was forthcoming to show that there are
+still some good specimens of the breed. Mr.
+John Purdon described a drove he had
+recently seen in Connemara: “They were
+beautiful mares, I never saw lovelier mares;
+about twenty in the drove, and foals with
+them. They were the perfect type of a
+small thoroughbred mare.” These animals
+were the property of Mr. William Lyons,
+who kept a special breed for generations.</p>
+
+<p>The falling off in quality was generally
+attributed to promiscuous breeding and to
+in-breeding. “In some parts of Connemara,”
+said Mr. H. A. Robinson, “they just turn
+a stallion out loose on the mountains,
+mongrels of the very worst description.”
+There is, however, another factor in the
+loss of quality, namely, the terrible straits
+to which the peasantry were reduced in
+the time of the famine. A correspondent
+informs me that in south-west Cork, in the
+fifties, nearly all the people had mare ponies;
+in west Galway in the sixties there was
+scarcely an ass in Connemara west of
+Spiddal and Oughterard; and the case in
+west Mayo was the same. When my informant
+visited the same districts fifteen
+or twenty years later, he observed a remarkable
+change. “Hard times” had come<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>
+upon the people in the interim, and all the
+small holders had donkeys instead of ponies;
+poverty had obliged them to sell their mares;
+and when times improved they were too
+impoverished to buy new ponies, and replaced
+them with asses.</p>
+
+<p>Under such circumstances, of course, the
+better the mare owned by the peasant the
+more likely it was to find a purchaser; and
+little but the “rag, tag and bobtail” was
+left to perpetuate the species. However
+considerably the remainder depreciated in
+quality, they still retained their characteristic
+hardiness of constitution and the germs of
+those qualities which under better auspices
+gained the breed its reputation. Some of
+the witnesses who gave evidence before the
+Royal Commission mentioned experiments
+in cross breeding which prove how well and
+rapidly the Connemara pony responds to
+endeavour to improve it by the introduction
+of suitable fresh blood. Mr. Samuel Johnston
+stated that he had bred one of the best
+hunters he ever possessed out of a Connemara
+mare; and Mr. R. B. Begley
+described a mare got by the pure-bred
+Hackney sire Star of the West from a
+“mountainy pony.” This Hackney-Connemara
+cross could cover an English mile<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span>
+in three minutes; Mr. Begley had driven
+her fifty-six Irish (over seventy-one statute)
+miles in a day, and had repeatedly driven
+her twelve Irish (over fifteen statute) miles
+in an hour and ten minutes; he had won
+two prizes with her for action in harness at
+the Hollymount Show; and had hunted her
+with ten stone on her back. With hounds as
+in the shafts this really remarkable pony
+proved herself able to go and stay, performing
+well across country.</p>
+
+<p>These Connemara ponies stand from 12
+hands to 14 hands or more. Like other
+breeds which run practically wild in mountainous
+country, they are above all things
+hardy, active and sure-footed: in response
+to the climatic conditions of their habitat—the
+climate of West Galway is the most
+humid of any spot in Europe—they grow a
+thick and shaggy coat which is very usually
+chestnut in colour betraying their descent.
+Although they have lost in size owing to
+the conditions of their existence and are
+rounder in the croup, they retain the peculiar
+ambling gait which distinguished their
+Spanish ancestors. Those with whose
+breeding care has been taken, such as the
+drove belonging to Mr. William Lyons, of
+Oughterard, show the characteristics implanted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>
+by the infusion of Barb blood in
+their blood-like heads and clean limbs.
+Even those which have suffered through promiscuous
+breeding conform in their ugliness
+and shortcomings to the original type.</p>
+
+<p>For some years past systematic endeavours
+to improve the breed have been
+in progress. The Congested Districts
+Board, under the Land Commission of
+Ireland, introduced small Hackney stallions
+whose substance, action and robust constitution
+render them particularly well adapted
+to correct the defects of weedy and ill-shaped
+mares without impairing their
+natural hardiness.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_PONIES_OF_SCOTLAND_AND">THE PONIES OF SCOTLAND AND
+THE SHETLAND ISLANDS.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>The Scottish nation from early times have
+possessed a breed of horses which was held
+in great esteem; and, as in England, laws
+were passed from time to time prohibiting
+their export from the country. The second
+parliament of James <abbr title="the first">I</abbr>. in the year 1406
+enacted (cap. 31) that no horse of three
+years old or under should be sent out of
+Scotland. In 1567, James <abbr title="the sixth">VI</abbr>. forbade the
+export of horses in an Act (Jac. <abbr title="the sixth">VI</abbr>., cap.
+22) whose preface makes specific reference
+to Bordeaux, from which place there was
+a great demand for horses.</p>
+
+<p>In a curious old book entitled <cite>The Horseman’s
+Honour</cite> or the <cite>Beautie of Horsemanship</cite>,
+published in the year 1620 by an
+anonymous writer, we find the following
+passage:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“For the horses of Scotland they are much less
+than those of England, yet not inferiour in goodnesse;
+and by reason of their smallnesse they keep few
+stoned but geld many by which likwise they retaine
+this saying ‘That there is no gelding like those in
+Scotland,’ and they, as the English, are for the most
+part amblers. Also in Scotland there are a race
+of small nagges which they call galloways or galloway
+nagges, which for fine shape easie pace, pure
+mettall and infinit toughnesse are not short of the
+best nagges that are bred in any countrey whatsoever;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>
+and for soundnesse in body they exceede the
+most races that are extant, as dayly experience
+shews in their continuall travels journeyings and
+forehuntings.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Berenger<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> says:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“This kingdom (Scotland) at present encourages
+a fleet breed of horses, and the nobility and gentry
+have many foreign and other stallions of great value
+in their possession with which they cultivate the
+breed and improve it with great knowledge and
+success. Like the English they are fond of racing
+and have a celebrated course at Leith which is
+honoured with a royal plate given by his present
+Majesty [George <abbr title="the third">III.</abbr>]</p>
+
+<p>“The wisdom and generosity likewise of the
+nobility and gentry have lately erected a riding house
+in the City of Edinburgh at their own expense and
+fixed a salary upon the person appointed to direct it.</p>
+
+<p>“This kingdom has been famous for breeding a
+peculiar sort of horses called Galloways. From the
+care and attention paid at present to the culture of
+horses it is to be expected that it will soon be able
+to send forth numbers of valuable and generous
+breeds destined to a variety of purposes and equal
+to all: the country being very capable of answering
+the wishes of the judicious breeder who need only
+remember that colts require to be well nourished in
+winter and sheltered from the severity of a rigorous
+and changeable sky.”</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> “The History and Art of Horsemanship,” by Richard
+Berenger, published by Davies and Cadell, London, 1771.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The Galloway, so called from the part of
+Scotland known by that name, is a diminutive
+horse resembling the Welsh cob, to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span>
+which the author of an <cite>Encyclopædia of
+Agriculture</cite> compares it in a passage quoted
+on a former page. The breed gradually
+diminished in number as the advances of
+law and order deprived the mosstroopers and
+other predatory border men of a method of
+livelihood which involved the use of hardy
+and enduring horses.</p>
+
+<p>Before the commencement of the nineteenth
+century and during more recent years
+this animal, which cannot be described either
+as a horse or a pony, has played an active
+part in agricultural work on the low lands of
+Scotland. In localities where no roads
+existed, and wheeled traffic was impossible,
+galloways were used not only for riding
+but for the transport of agricultural produce;
+as they lacked the weight and strength to
+draw the two-horse plough, ploughing was
+done by oxen, but the sledges which held
+the place of carts and waggons were drawn
+by the galloways, which were also used to
+carry corn and general merchandise in pots
+and panniers.</p>
+
+<p>In height the original Galloway was
+generally under 14 hands. Youatt (second
+edition, 1846) describes it as from 13 to 14
+hands, and sometimes more; it was a bright
+bay or brown, with black legs and small<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>
+head. The purposes for which it was used
+indicated the desirability of increasing its
+height and strength, and with this end in
+view cross breeding was commenced in the
+early part of the century, and continued until
+so late a date as 1850. By consequence,
+the old Galloway has now almost disappeared
+from all parts of the mainland and
+survives only in such remote situations as
+the Island of Mull.</p>
+
+<p>About the end of the eighteenth century
+a Mr. Gilchrist employed on his farm in
+Sutherlandshire as many as ten “garrons”
+to carry peats from the hills and seaweed
+from the shore. These burdens were carried
+in crates or panniers:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“The little creatures do wonders; they set out at
+peep of day and never halt till the work of the day
+be finished—going 48 miles.”<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+</div>
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> <cite>Husbandry in Scotland</cite>, published by Creech, Edinburgh,
+1784.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>At the present time the most conspicuous
+field of utility open to the Scottish pony is
+that offered by the grouse-moors and deer-forests,
+though in the close season general
+farm and draught work affords them employment.
+A pony of from 13 to 14 hands may
+be strong enough for a man of average <span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>
+weight to ride on the grouse-moor; but for
+deer-stalking a sturdy cob of from 14 to 15
+hands is necessary, a smaller animal is not
+equal to the task of carrying a heavy man
+or a 17-stone stag over the rough hills and
+valleys among which his work lies.</p>
+
+<p>The origin of the “Sheltie,” like that of
+the other breeds considered in the foregoing
+pages, is unknown. Mr. James Goudie,
+whose essay on <cite>The Early History of the
+Shetland Pony</cite> is published in the first
+volume of the <cite>Shetland Pony Stud Book</cite>
+thinks there is every likelihood that it was
+brought to the islands from Scotland at some
+very early period. The “Bressay Stone,” a
+sculptured slab which was discovered in
+Bressay in 1864, bears, among other designs
+in low relief, the figure of a horse on which
+a human figure is seated. “As this monument
+is admitted by authorities on the
+subject to belong to a period before the
+Celtic Christianity of the islands disappeared
+under the shock of Norwegian
+invasion [<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 872], it may be inferred ...
+that the animal was known and probably
+found in the islands at this period.” Early
+writers state that the Scandinavian invaders
+introduced the foundation stock some time
+prior to the fifteenth century. Buchanan<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span>
+makes passing reference to the Orkney
+and Shetland ponies in his <cite>History of Scotland</cite>,
+written three centuries ago: but the
+first description which has completeness to
+recommend it is that of Brand, who visited
+the islands in 1700 and wrote <cite>A Brief
+Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pightland,
+Firth and Caithness</cite>, which was published
+at Edinburgh in the following year. This
+author writes:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“They are of a less size than the Orkney Horses,
+for some will be but 9, others 10 nives or hand-breadths
+high, and they will be thought big Horses
+there if 11, and although so small yet they are full of
+vigour and life, and some not so high as others often
+prove to be the strongest.... Summer or
+winter they never come into an house but run upon
+the mountains, in some places in flocks; and if any
+time in Winter the storm be so great that they are
+straitened for food they will come down from the
+Hills when the ebb is in the sea and eat the sea-ware
+... which Winter storms and scarcity of
+fodder puts them out of ease and bringeth them so
+very low that they recover not their strength till
+St. John’s Mass-day, the 24th of June, when they
+are at their best. They will live to a considerable
+age, as twenty-six, twenty-eight or thirty years, and
+they will be good riding horses in twenty-four, especially
+they’le be the more vigorous and live the
+longer if they be four years old before they be put to
+work. Those of a black colour are judged to be the
+most durable and the pyeds often prove not so good;
+they have been more numerous than they now are.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Bengie, in his <cite>Tour in Shetland</cite> (1870),<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span>
+after remarking on their sure-footedness and
+hardiness of constitutions, suggests that the
+sagacity, spirit and activity for which they
+are remarkable may be due to the freedom
+of the life they live on the hills. “They are
+sprightly and active as terriers, sure-footed
+as mules and patient as donkeys.” They
+stand, he adds, at the head of the horse
+tribe as the most intelligent and faithful of
+them all; and he compares the intelligence
+of the Sheltie with that of the Iceland pony
+much to the advantage of the former.
+“Shorter in the leg than any other kind,”
+says Mr. Robert Brydon, of Seaham Harbour,
+“they are at the same time wider in the
+body and shorter in the back, with larger
+bones, thighs and arms; and therefore are
+comparatively stronger and able to do with
+ease as much work as average ponies of
+other breeds a hand higher.” The Shetland
+Stud Book Society will register no pony
+whose height exceeds 10 hands 2 inches,
+and the average height may be taken as
+10 hands: many do not exceed 9 hands, and
+a lady who wrote an account of a visit to
+Shetland in 1840 speaks of one reared by
+Mr. William Hay, of Hayfield, which was
+only 26 inches, or 6 hands 2 inches high!
+It is however, unusual to find a pony<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span>
+measuring less than 8 hands at the shoulder,
+and we may perhaps doubt whether the
+26-inch specimen was full-grown.</p>
+
+<p>In colour the Shetlander varies: bays,
+browns and dullish blacks are most common:
+sometimes these hues are relieved by white
+markings and occasionally white specimens
+occur: piebalds are rare. The coat in
+winter is long, close and shaggy, fit protection
+against the inclemency of the
+weather the pony endures without cover
+or shelter: in spring the heavy winter coat
+is shed, and in the summer months the hair
+is short and sleek.</p>
+
+<p>In former times it was customary to
+hobble the ponies; but this practice, which
+must have done much to spoil their naturally
+good action, has been abandoned for
+many years.</p>
+
+<p>It is now usual to give the ponies a
+ration of hay in the winter months when
+the vegetation is covered deep with snow,
+and thus the losses by starvation, which
+formerly were heavy in severe winters, are
+obviated. Otherwise the Sheltie’s conditions
+of life to-day differ little from those
+that prevailed three centuries ago. Mr.
+Meiklejohn, of Bressay, states that in April,
+generally, the crofters turn their ponies out<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>
+upon the common pasture lands, and leave
+them to their own devices. On common
+pastures where there are no stallions the
+mares are caught for service and tethered
+until the foal is born and can follow freely,
+when mother and child are turned out again.</p>
+
+<p>In autumn when crops have been carried
+the ponies come down from the hills to
+their own townships, where they feed on the
+patches of fresh grass which have been
+preserved round the cultivated areas. The
+nights being now cold, they remain in the
+low-lying lands sheltering under the lee of
+the yard walls; and “when winter has
+more fully set in the pony draws nearer his
+owner’s door, and in most cases is rewarded
+with his morning sheaf on which, with seaweed
+and what he continues to pick off
+the green sward, the hardy animal manages
+to eke out a living until the time rolls round
+again that he is turned on the hill pasture,
+never being under a roof in his life.”</p>
+
+<p>At one period the ponies were apparently
+regarded almost as public property; for,
+among the “Acts and Statutes of the Lawting
+Sheriff and Justice Courts of Orkney
+and Shetland,” was one passed in the year
+1612 and frequently renewed, which forbade
+the “ryding ane uther manis hors without<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span>
+licence and leave of the awner,” under
+penalty of fine; and also provided that
+“quhasoever sall be tryet or fund to stow
+or cut ane uther man’s hors taill sall be
+pwinischit as a theif at all rigour in exempill
+of utheris to commit the lyke.”</p>
+
+<p>The number of ponies on the islands has
+decreased in recent years by reason of the
+steadily growing demand from without. The
+latest available Government returns are
+those of 1891, and for the sake of comparison
+the returns of 1881 are given
+below:—</p>
+
+<table>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" colspan="2"><strong>1881</strong></td>
+<td class="right"><strong>1891</strong></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="hang">
+Horses (including ponies) as returned by occupiers of land
+used solely for agriculture</td>
+<td class="right">921</td>
+<td class="right">787</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="hang">Unbroken horses and mares kept solely for breeding</td>
+<td class="right">4,323</td>
+<td class="right">4,016</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" colspan="2">———</td>
+<td class="right">———</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" colspan="2">5,244</td>
+<td class="right">4,803</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="right" colspan="2">———</td>
+<td class="right">———</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The ponies are little used for farm work
+in the Shetlands; they carry loads of peat
+from the hills to the crofts, and apart from
+this are used only for riding; they are
+beyond question the most wonderful weight-carriers
+in the world, a 9-hand pony being
+able to carry with the greatest ease a full-grown
+man over bad ground and for long
+distances.</p>
+
+<p>They owe their value to the combination
+of minuteness and strength, which renders
+them peculiarly suitable for draught work in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span>
+the coal mines. Many ponies will travel
+thirty miles a day, to and fro in the seams,
+drawing a load, tilt and coals included, of
+from 12 to 14 cwt. The Sheltie’s lot underground
+is admittedly a hard one, but his
+tractable disposition usually ensures for him
+kindly treatment at the hands of the boy
+who has him in charge.</p>
+
+<p>These ponies, says Mr. Brydon, were first
+used in the coal pits of the North of
+England about the year 1850. Horse
+ponies from 3 to 5 years old could then be
+purchased for £4 10s. each delivered at the
+collieries. Since that time prices have risen
+enormously, though for the smallest animals
+they fluctuate from time to time in sympathy
+with the price of coal. As the cause of the
+influence of the coal market upon the price
+of Shetland ponies is perhaps not quite
+obvious, it must be explained that the chief
+value of these little animals is their ability
+to work in the low galleries of thin-seamed
+pits; when the price of coal sinks to a certain
+point these thin seams cannot be profitably
+worked, the pits are “laid in,” or temporarily
+closed, and the ponies withdrawn. In 1891
+the average yearling was worth £15 and a
+two-year-old £18, while full-grown ponies
+were scarcely procurable. In 1898 a four-year-old<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span>
+could be bought at from £15 to
+£21, owing to the depression in the price
+of coals and the suspension of work in thin-seamed
+pits.</p>
+
+<p>It will be understood that only small
+animals of the commoner sort suitable for
+pit work are affected by the coal market.
+Horse ponies of the right stamp with good
+pedigree and suitable for the stud still command
+from £30 to £50, and in some cases
+even more. Mare ponies of good pedigree
+also command high prices; at the last
+Londonderry sale, the mares, Mr. R. Brydon
+informs me, sold at an average of £19 per
+head; but the average obtained for second-class
+mares would little exceed six guineas
+per head.</p>
+
+<p>The docility and good temper of the
+Shetland pony make him, above all, the
+best and most trustworthy mount for a child.
+Captain H. Hayes has remarked that “a
+comparatively high degree of mental (<em>i.e.</em>,
+reasoning) power is not desirable in a horse,
+because it is apt to make him impatient of
+control by man.” The Shetland pony is
+the rule-proving exception; for he combines
+with the highest order of equine intelligence
+a disposition curiously free from vice or
+trickiness. Mr. Brydon has never known
+a Sheltie withdrawn from a pit as wicked
+or unmanageable; withdrawal for such
+reasons being very frequent with ponies of
+other breeds.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-095">
+<img src="images/i-095.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="572">
+<p class="caption right"><em>Engraved by F. Babbage.</em></p>
+<p class="caption center">CHILD’S SHETLAND PONY.</p>
+<p class="caption center">The property of Sir WALTER GILBEY, Bart.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span></p>
+
+<p>It may be observed that about the middle
+of the century there were a number of Shelties
+in Windsor Park, which were used to do
+various kinds of work.</p>
+
+<p>During recent years a demand for mares
+for breeding purposes has grown up in
+America, much to the advantage of the
+crofter, who finds a market in the colliery
+districts for horse ponies only.</p>
+
+<p>Many attempts have been made to increase
+the size of the Sheltie. About the
+middle of the last century Norwegian pony
+stallions were introduced into Dunrossness
+with the result that a distinct variety was
+established and still continues; this is called
+the Sumburgh breed; in size these ponies
+range from 12 hands to 13·2. Another
+variety known as the Fetlar breed owes its
+origin to the introduction by Sir Arthur
+Nicolson of a Mustang stallion named
+Bolivar over half a century ago; the
+Fetlar ponies run from 11 to 13 hands, and
+are described as remarkably handsome, swift
+and spirited, but less tractable than the pure
+Shetlander. The Sumburgh and Fetlar<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span>
+varieties deserve mention only as experiments;
+the result having been to increase
+the height of the pony, it follows, after what
+has been said on a former page, that these
+cross-bred animals are of comparatively
+small value.</p>
+
+<p>Far more importance attaches to the
+efforts which have been made to improve
+the pure breed while preserving its diminutive
+size. The Marquis of Londonderry,
+some twenty-five years ago, acquired grazings
+on Bressay and Moss Islands; and
+having procured the best stock obtainable
+from all over the Shetlands, began breeding
+on judicious and methodical lines. Twelve
+or fifteen mares with a carefully selected
+stallion are placed in an enclosure, and the
+young stock, after weaning, are turned out
+on the hills; they are hand-fed in winter,
+but are never given the protection of a roof,
+whereby their natural hardiness is preserved.
+The Marquis of Zetland in Unst,
+and Mr. Bruce in Fair Isle, follow a somewhat
+similar method of mating and rearing.
+Messrs. Anderson &amp; Sons have on Northmavine
+done much to promote the interests
+of the breed by purchasing good stallions,
+often at Lord Londonderry’s annual Seaham
+Harbour Sale, and distributing these over<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span>
+the common pastures. The benefits which
+have accrued from this policy are very
+marked; and though the crofters yield to
+the temptation of high prices, and sell their
+best animals for export, the endeavours of
+the gentlemen named above to maintain
+the quality of the breed in its native habitat
+cannot fail to largely counteract the evil
+results of such sales.</p>
+
+<p>Among the studs on the mainland the
+best known, perhaps, is that of the Countess
+of Hopetoun at Linlithgow. Her ladyship’s
+success has been due in no small measure
+to that beautiful little sire the Monster.
+This pony is a perfect example of the Shetland
+stallion, as may be gathered from his
+showyard record: he was first in the class
+for Shetland ponies under 10 hands 2 inches
+at the Royal Agricultural Society’s Show in
+1895, at Darlington, and has been preferred
+by judges to Lord Londonderry’s Excellent
+and the Elsenham pony, Good Friday,
+Excellent having taken many first prizes,
+and Good Friday five firsts at the London
+shows.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. James Bruce has a drove of Shetland
+ponies at Inverquhomery, Longside, Aberdeenshire.
+These are descended from two
+mares and a stallion imported in the year<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>
+1889. Three years ago Mr. Bruce replenished
+his breeding stock by the purchase
+of five more mares. A noteworthy feature
+of this stud is the colour, which in every
+case is chestnut, Mr. Bruce’s 1889 importations
+being of that rare colour among
+Shelties.</p>
+
+<p>Since the establishment of the <cite>Shetland
+Pony Stud Book</cite>, several studs have been
+founded in Scotland and England. The chief
+difficulty the owners have to contend with
+is the proneness towards increase of size
+due to milder climate and richer feed. This
+tendency can only be checked by the
+periodical importation of stock from the
+Shetland Isles.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-102">
+<img src="images/i-102.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="444">
+<p class="caption center"><em>Drawn by J. Doyle.</em>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <em>Engraved on wood by F. Babbage.</em></p>
+<p class="caption center">H.R.H. PRINCESS VICTORIA IN HER PONY PHAETON.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="USES_AND_CHARACTERISTICS_OF_THE">USES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
+PONY.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>It would be difficult to name a class of
+work in which the pony is not employed.
+He is used by all, from the sovereign to the
+peasant and costermonger. Pony racing has
+been recently re-established as a sport after
+temporary suspension, due to no shortcoming
+on the pony’s side. It is rare that a meet
+of hounds is not attended by a sprinkling
+of ponies carrying future sportsmen and
+women, and it is safe to assert that every
+master of hounds and every man who takes
+his own line across country served his
+apprenticeship to the saddle on the back
+of a pony. The reason is that few men
+who do not learn to ride in early boyhood,
+when a pony is the only possible mount,
+completely master the art in later life; hence
+we meet few good horsemen who do not
+receive their first riding lessons on a steady
+pony. There is no stamp of vehicle which
+is not drawn by ponies. Her Majesty, for
+many years, drove a pony in her garden-chair;
+in double or single harness we find
+the pony driven in victoria, dog-cart,
+governess cart, and Irish car; in the tradesman’s
+light van and in the market cart<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span>
+drawing wares of every description; in the
+itinerant fishmonger’s, coster’s and hawker’s
+nondescript vehicle.</p>
+
+<p>The country clergyman and doctor would
+be in sore straits without the thirteen hand
+pony, which does a horse’s work on one-half
+a horse’s feed, and requires no more
+stable attendance than the gardener or
+handy man can spare time to give him.
+As shown in the foregoing pages, his
+labours are not confined to saddle and
+harness; in some parts of the country he
+is still used for pack-work, carrying agricultural
+produce and peats from the hills
+and moorlands to the farmstead; and in the
+low seams of the coal-pits which the horse
+cannot enter he is indispensable. Large
+though our native stock of ponies is, we
+do not breed them in numbers nearly sufficient
+for our needs, and each year brings
+thousands of small cheap ponies to our
+ports from Norway, Sweden and Russia.
+These, like the gangs purchased from
+breeders on Exmoor and elsewhere, are
+driven from one fair to another, to be sold
+by twos and threes all over the country
+by persons who cannot afford to keep a
+horse, but are obliged to provide themselves
+with a cheap and useful beast for
+draught or carriage.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-106">
+<img src="images/i-106.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="554">
+<p class="caption right"><em>Engraved by F. Babbage.</em></p>
+<p class="caption center">THE FIRST LEAP.</p>
+<p class="caption center">From the picture by Sir EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span></p>
+
+<p>It is very generally admitted that the
+intelligence of the pony is of higher degree
+than that of the horse; and the fact, we
+cannot doubt, is attributable to the different
+conditions under which ponies and horses
+are reared. The former, foaled and brought
+up on the hills and wastes, develope ability,
+like other wild animals, to look after themselves,
+and the intelligence so evolved is
+transmitted to generations born in domestication.
+The horse, foaled and reared in
+captivity, with every precaution taken for
+his security, has no demands made upon his
+intelligence, and his mental faculties remain
+to a great extent undeveloped. The same
+causes operate to furnish the pony’s stronger
+constitution and greater soundness; greater
+soundness not only in limb but also organic;
+roaring and whistling are unknown in the
+pony, common as they are in the horse.</p>
+
+<p>This superiority of constitution accounts
+for the marked superiority of the pony over
+the horse in endurance. The small and
+compact horse is always a better stayer than
+the large, loosely-built animal, and in the
+pony we find the merits of compactness at
+their highest. Numberless instances of pony
+endurance might be quoted, but two or three
+will suffice. Reference has been made on<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span>
+p. 30 to Sir Charles Turner’s achievement
+of riding a pony ten miles and over thirty
+leaps in forty-seven minutes, and to the conveyance
+of news from Holyhead to London
+by relays of ponies at the rate of twenty
+miles an hour. Whyte, in his <cite>History of
+the British Turf</cite>, states that in April, 1754,
+a mare, 13 hands 3 inches high, belonging
+to Mr. Daniel Croker, travelled 300 miles
+on Newmarket Heath in 64 hours 20 minutes;
+she had been backed to perform the
+journey in 72 hours, and therefore completed
+her task with seven hours and forty minutes
+to spare. Her best day’s work was done on
+Tuesday, April 23. Mr. Whyte gives the
+following details of this extraordinary performance:—“24
+miles and baited; 24 miles
+and baited; 24 miles and baited; 36 miles
+without baiting; total 108 miles. On the
+Monday and Wednesday she covered 96
+miles each day. She was ridden throughout
+by a boy who scaled 4 stone 1 lb. without
+reckoning saddle and bridle. Another performance
+worth citing as proof of pony
+endurance was Sir Teddy’s race with the
+London mail coach to Exeter, a distance of
+172 miles. Sir Teddy, a twelve hand pony,
+was led between two horses all the way, and
+carried no rider himself. He performed the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>
+journey in 23 hours and 20 minutes, beating
+the coach by fifty-nine minutes.”</p>
+
+<p>We generally find that great feats of
+endurance, involving capacity to thrive on
+poor and scanty food, have generally been
+performed by ponies.<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> In the Nile Campaign
+of 1885 the 19th Hussars were mounted on
+Syrian Arabs, averaging 14 hands, which
+had been purchased in Syria and Lower
+Egypt at an average price of £18. The
+weight carried was reduced as much as
+possible in view of the hard work required
+of the ponies, but each of the 350 on which
+the Hussars were mounted carried about
+14 stone. Their march from Korti to
+Metammeh as part of a flying column
+showed what these little horses could do;
+between the 8th and 20th of January, both
+days included, they travelled 336 miles;
+halting on the 13th. On the return March
+from Dongola to Wady Halfa, 250 miles,
+after nearly nine months’ hard work on poor
+food they averaged 16 miles a day, with
+one halt of two days. Colonel Burrow, in
+reviewing the work performed by these
+ponies, says: “Food was often very limited,
+and during the desert march, water was
+very scarce. Under these conditions I venture<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span> 
+to think that the performances of the regiment
+on the Arab ponies will compare with
+the performance of any horsemen on record.”<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> See <cite>Small Horses in Warfare</cite>. By Sir Walter Gilbey,
+Bart. Vinton &amp; Co., Ltd., 1900.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> <cite>The <abbr title="the nineteenth">XIXth</abbr> and Their Times</cite>, Colonel John Biddulph.
+Murray, 1899.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Captain Fred Burnaby, in his well-known
+work “A Ride to Khiva,” bears witness to
+the wonderful endurance of a fourteen-hand
+Tartar pony which he purchased with misgivings
+for £5, in default of any better
+mount. This pony, he tell us, was in such
+miserable condition, his men complained
+among themselves that it would not be worth
+<em>eating</em>, they looked upon the little beast as
+fore-doomed from the moment Captain
+Burnaby mounted it. Yet this pony, its
+ordinary diet supplemented by a few pounds
+of barley daily, carried its rider, who weighed
+twenty stone in his heavy sheepskin clothes,
+safely and well over 900 miles of bad roads,
+often through deep snow, and always in
+bitterly cold weather, the thermometer being
+frequently many degrees below zero. On
+the concluding day of the return journey this
+pony galloped the last 17 miles in 1 hour and
+25 minutes. It would be easy to multiply
+examples of pony endurance; but we forbear.</p>
+
+<p>The greater stamina of the pony is evidenced
+in another direction, namely, length
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>of life. Instances in which ponies have
+attained to a great age are more numerous
+than those recorded of horses, and further
+the pony lives longer. Mr. Edmund F.
+Dease, of Gaulstown, Co. Westmeath, lost a
+pony in December, 1894, which had reached
+the age of 39 years; in 1896, Mrs. Pratt, of
+Low Pond House, Bedale, Yorks, lost a
+pony mare aged 45 years; on Christmas Day,
+1863, there died at Silworthy, near Clovelly
+in North Devon, a pony which had arrived
+within a few weeks of his sixtieth year.
+Accounts of ponies which lived, and in some
+cases worked, until they reached 40, 38, 37,
+and 35 years also recur to mind.</p>
+
+<p>There is a degree of cold beyond which
+the horse cannot exist; and as he approaches
+the latitude where the limit prevails, the
+effect of climate is apparent in his conformation.</p>
+
+<p>The frozen and ungenial country of Lapland
+has its small ponies; they are employed
+in drawing sledges over the snow and transporting
+forage and merchandise, which in
+summer are conveyed in boats. In Iceland
+he is dwarfed to a Liliputian size, and
+thriving in the comparatively mild climate
+of the Shetlands we find a pony smaller
+than any other in the British Islands.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span></p>
+
+<p>It would seem from the facts it has been
+possible to collect that the New Forest,
+Welsh, Exmoor and Dartmoor, Fell and
+Connemara breeds of ponies are in their
+natural state of small value to man, though
+they owe to the natural conditions under
+which they exist qualities which may be
+turned to very valuable account by judicious
+crossing with breeds of a recognised stamp.
+Improvement must involve partial sacrifice
+of qualities such as ability to withstand
+exposure and cold on insufficient food, sure-footedness,
+and the sagacity which avoids
+bog and treacherous ground. These qualities,
+in their highest development, are indispensable
+to a wild animal; but the improved
+pony obtained by crossing is not
+destined for a wild life on the hills and
+wastes, and is less dependent upon them.</p>
+
+<p>Partial loss of such attributes, therefore, is
+a price well worth paying for the increased
+size and better conformation which render
+the produce suitable for man’s service with
+the more artificial and luxurious conditions
+of life inseparable from complete domesticity.
+The remarkable soundness of limb and constitution,
+developed by centuries of free
+life on the hills, are enduring qualities
+which appear in generation after generation<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>
+of stock descended on one side from
+the half-wild breeds; and these are the
+qualities which above all it is desirable to
+breed into our horses of all sizes and for all
+purposes. The advantage to be gained by
+systematic improvement of these wild breeds
+of ponies is therefore not by any means
+advantageous to one side only.</p>
+
+<p>The Polo Pony Society at their meeting
+of 7th December, 1898, resolved to set
+apart a section of their Stud Book for the
+registration of Welsh, Exmoor, New Forest
+and other breeds of ponies; and with reference
+to this step Lord Arthur Cecil, in
+his Introduction to the fifth (1899) volume
+of the Polo Pony Stud Book, says:—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>“It is in the limit of height that the greatest difficulty
+of the Society lies. Could we be certain of
+breeding every animal between 14 hands and 14
+hands 2 inches our course would be tolerably clear....
+There is always, however, the danger that
+the best-looking and best-nourished of our young
+stock will, if some means be not found to prevent
+it, exceed this limit. The remedy is more or less
+within our reach by utilising the hardy little stocks
+of ponies which are to be found almost indigenous
+in those districts of the British Isles where there
+are large tracts of mountain or moorland ground. I
+refer to such ponies as those found in North and
+South Wales, the New Forest, Exmoor, Dartmoor,
+and the hills of the north of England and west
+coast of Scotland.... Perhaps it may not be
+out of place to mention that the present is not an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span>
+inappropriate time for upholding the breeding of
+ponies on hill lands. The keeping of hill sheep is
+not so remunerative as of yore, the price of wool
+being so low and the demand for four-year-old
+mutton not being anything like what it was a few
+years ago; whereas, on the other hand, the demand
+for ponies, especially good ones, is likely to increase,
+and if farmers will only give them a fair chance
+they will amply repay them for their keep up to
+three years old. It is hoped that by careful consideration
+of their various characteristics, and by
+registering such of them as are likely to breed
+riding ponies, and by periodically going back to
+this fountain head of all ponies, we may be able
+to regulate the size of our higher-class riding ponies
+to the desired limit, while at the same time we
+shall infuse into their blood the hardiness of constitution
+and endurance, combined with a fiery yet even
+temper, so pre-eminently characteristic of the British
+native breeds.”</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Shetland pony stands upon a different
+footing. In him we have a pony whose
+characteristics are equally valuable to it as
+a wild animal and as one in a state of
+domestication. It is the only one of our
+half-wild breeds which gains nothing from
+an infusion of alien blood; its value depends
+upon the careful preservation of distinctive
+peculiarities of size and make, which fit it
+above all others for special purposes.</p>
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="BREEDING_POLO_PONIES">BREEDING POLO PONIES.</h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>With only the limited experience in breeding
+ponies for Polo possessed by all who
+breed stock, remarks hazarded under this
+heading must necessarily be guided by
+general principles of breeding, and readers
+must be left to take them for what they may
+be worth.</p>
+
+<p>The steadily increasing popularity of the
+game of Polo has naturally produced an increased
+demand for suitable ponies; and
+Polo players being as a rule wealthy men, to
+whom a really good animal is cheap at almost
+any price, the value of first-rate ponies has
+risen to a level which compels attention to
+their breeding as a probably remunerative
+branch of industry. It was difficult to find
+ponies when an elastic 14-hand limit was the
+rule; and if we may judge from the prices
+which have been paid since the regulation
+height was raised to 14 hands 2 inches, the
+greater latitude thus afforded players in
+selecting mounts has done little or nothing
+towards solving the difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>What is this Polo Pony for which a fancy
+price is so readily forthcoming? In the first
+place, it is not a pony at all, but a small horse;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span>
+we may let that pass, however. The modern
+Polo Pony must be big and powerful, at once
+speedy, sound, handy and docile, having also
+courage, power to carry weight, and staying
+power. And, as the necessary speed and
+courage are rarely to be found apart from
+blood, it has become an article of faith with
+players that the first-class pony must have a
+preponderance of racehorse blood in his veins.</p>
+
+<p>Hence a serious difficulty faces the breeder
+at the outset. For generations we have
+devoted all our care to increasing the height
+of the racehorse, and with such success that
+in 200 years we have raised his average
+stature by nearly 2 hands. The great
+authority Admiral Rous, writing in the year
+1860, said that the English racehorse had
+increased in height an inch in every twenty-five
+years since the year 1700. We now
+regard a thoroughbred as under size if he
+stand less than 15 hands 3 inches. This is
+an important point to bear in mind; for if we
+are to breed blood ponies of 14 hands 2 inches
+to meet the demand which has recently arisen,
+it is plain that we must undo most that our
+fathers and ancestors have done.</p>
+
+<p>A Polo Pony to command a price must be
+able to carry from 12 to 14 stone, and must
+be sound. Nine stone seven lb. is nowadays<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span>
+considered a crushing burden for a racehorse
+of 16 hands to carry a mile and a quarter.
+Never are the weights for a handicap published
+but the air grows thick with doubts and
+forebodings as to whether this horse or that
+can possibly stand the strain required by the
+handicapper’s impost, or whether it is worth
+risking his valuable legs under such a weight
+at all. And yet, to a certain extent, it is
+among small blood horses, no better endowed
+with bone and no sounder than the big ones,
+that we seek animals capable of carrying 12
+or 14 stone in first-class Polo.</p>
+
+<p>The strain of playing a single “period” in
+a tournament match, in which the pony is
+required to make incessant twists, turns,
+sudden starts at speed, is continually being
+pulled up short, and is sent short bursts of
+hard galloping, takes far more out of the
+pony than does a race out of a racehorse, or
+an average day’s hunting out of the hunter.
+The marvel is, not that fast and well-bred
+ponies capable of doing this should command
+fancy prices, but that such should be obtainable
+at any figure.</p>
+
+<p>Under existing conditions, a small blood
+horse that looks like making a Polo Pony is
+neither more nor less than an accidental
+deviation from the normal. It is an accident<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span>
+that his height at five years does not exceed
+the regulation 14 hands 2 inches; it is an
+accident—unhappily, a rare one—that he has
+bone to carry weight; and before the trainer
+can make a Polo Pony of him he must be
+fast, handy, kind, and docile—another set of
+accidents; we might, indeed, almost call the
+first-rate Polo Pony a phenomenal chapter of
+accidents. For let us bear in mind that
+when we have found our 14 hands 2 inches
+endowed with the needful make and shape
+we have not by any means necessarily got
+our Polo Pony. Only the smallest percentage
+of the thousands of racehorses foaled
+annually prove good enough to pay their
+trainers’ bills; and when we reflect upon the
+nature of the work required on the polo
+ground, the sterling good qualities demanded
+of a pony for first-class Polo, we should indeed
+be sanguine did we look for high and uniform
+merit in the race of animals we hope to found
+upon a basis of pure blood! The clean
+thoroughbred, except in very rare instances,
+has not the power needful to enable him to
+stop quickly and turn sharply at the gallop.
+Speed he has, but he lacks the strong hind-quarters
+essential to carry 12 or 13 stone.</p>
+
+<p>The pony possessing the needful qualifications
+of make and shape has yet to be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>
+“made;” and only a trainer of experience
+could tell us what proportion of the likely-looking
+animals that come into his hands
+turn out worth the trouble of educating.
+Herein we find the reason for the vast
+difference in value which exists between a
+pony that is untrained and one which has
+gone through the various stages of stick-and-ball
+practice, the bending courses, practice
+games, and has finally been proven in
+matches. In the raw state the best-looking
+14-hands 2-inch pony is worth £25 to £50;
+when trained—when he has proved to his
+exacting trainer’s satisfaction that he is a
+Polo Pony, and does not merely look like
+one—he is worth, as we know, any sum
+up to 750 guineas, and there is no reason
+to suppose that this figure marks the limit
+which enthusiastic players are prepared to
+pay; on the contrary, the tendency is to
+go further.</p>
+
+<p>Such ponies as Mr. George Miller’s Jack-in-the-Box,
+Lord Kensington’s Sailor, Captain
+Renton’s Matchbox, Mr. Buckmaster’s
+Bendigo, the late Mr. Dryborough’s Mademoiselle,
+Mr. Walter Jones’s Little Fairy,
+have acquired their fancy value through their
+amenability to the training which has fitted
+them for the game. As to the breeding of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span>
+these ponies, it is doubtful if their respective
+owners know as a certainty whether they
+were got by a thoroughbred pony sire or
+by an Eastern sire; in the case of many
+high-class ponies nothing is known of their
+breeding. All probably have a strong strain
+of pure blood in them, but in the absence
+of certain knowledge concerning their pedigrees
+they are of comparatively little use
+to us as object lessons in Polo Pony breeding.
+Whether, in view of the extremely
+“accidental” character of the Polo Pony
+already referred to, that knowledge would
+be helpful if available is another matter.</p>
+
+<p>And while we make the English Turf
+pony which can carry weight our ideal,
+we acknowledge the difficulty of procuring
+it by seeking ready-made ponies in every
+corner of the horse-breeding world. Arabs
+and their near allies—Egyptian, Syrian and
+Barb ponies; Australian, Argentine, Canadian
+and Cossack ponies; ponies from the
+Tarbes district of France; ponies from
+Texas, Wyoming and Montana—all these
+have been imported and are played on
+English Polo grounds, and though not considered
+equal in speed, bottom, and courage
+to the English pony, the best of them when
+“made” are good enough to command high,
+if not extravagant, prices.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span></p>
+
+<p>The great object, it is granted once for
+all, is to get a pony as nearly thoroughbred
+as possible, for none other is good
+enough to play in the best class of game.
+At the same time, a large and representative
+proportion of players, while heartily granting
+the superiority of the well-bred pony when
+it can be obtained, consider it wiser to look
+the situation squarely in the face and admit
+that the supply of such ponies cannot be
+depended on to meet the demand.</p>
+
+<p>If it be a choice between an utterly inadequate
+supply of English-bred ponies with
+blood, speed, stamina and weight-carrying
+power, to be bought only at prices which
+reserve them to the wealthiest, and a sufficiency
+of ponies with a strain of alien blood,
+somewhat less speedy, courageous and enduring,
+the latter must be chosen; and as
+already said the Polo Pony Stud Book
+Society has recognised this by opening
+sections of their Stud Book for suitable individuals
+among our Forest and Moorland
+breeds, with a view of obtaining foundation
+stock.</p>
+
+<p>We may take it as an axiom in our endeavour
+to produce a breed of 14-hands 2-inch
+Polo Ponies that the sire must be a small
+thoroughbred, or, if not a thoroughbred,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span>
+an Arab. The reader may be reminded
+that adoption of this alternative involves
+no departure from the principle of a pure
+blood basis. It was the Arab that laid
+the foundation of our thoroughbreds in England,
+and the best horses on the Turf of
+to-day may be traced to one of the three
+famous sires—the Byerly Turk, imported
+in 1689, the Darley Arabian in 1706, and
+the Godolphin Arabian in 1730; all of
+them, it may be remarked, horses under 14
+hands 1 inch.</p>
+
+<p>There is, indeed, much to be said in
+favour of the policy of returning to the
+original Eastern stock to find suitable sires
+for our proposed breed of 14-hands 2-inch
+ponies. While we have been breeding the
+thoroughbred for speed, and speed only,
+Arab breeders have continued to breed for
+stoutness, endurance, and good looks. By
+going to Arab stock for our sires we might
+at the beginning, sacrifice some measure of
+speed; but what was lost in that respect
+would be more than compensated by the
+soundness of constitution and limb which
+are such conspicuous traits in the Eastern
+horse. Furthermore, the difficulty of size,
+which first of all confronts us in the
+thoroughbred sire, is much diminished if
+we adopt the Arab as our foundation sire.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-123">
+<img src="images/i-123.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="473">
+<p class="caption center">ARAB HORSE MESAOUD—14.2 hands.</p>
+<p class="caption center">The property of Mr. WILFRED SCAWEN BLUNT.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span></p>
+
+<p>We need not consider the game as
+played by Orientals. The Manipuris, whose
+national game it is, and from whom
+Europeans first learned it, use ponies which
+do not often exceed 12 hands in height.
+The game was introduced into India proper
+in 1864,<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> and was first played in England by
+the officers of the 10th Hussars in the year
+1872, on their return from service in India.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> “<cite>Recollections of my Life.</cite>” By Sir Joseph Fayrer, Bart.
+1900.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>In India, where the game of Polo was
+first played by Englishmen, the Arab is
+thought the perfect pony, the more so
+because the height of ponies played under
+the Indian Polo Association’s code of rules
+must not exceed 13 hands 3 inches. The
+extensive operations of the Civil Veterinary
+Department have proved again the truth
+that no sire impresses more certainly and
+more markedly his likeness upon his stock
+than the Arab, a fact which is due to the
+high antiquity, and therefore “fixed”
+character of the breed.</p>
+
+<p>If, therefore, we find the stock got by the
+thoroughbred sire too prone to outgrow the
+limit of height, we may, without self-reproach,
+turn for assistance to the Eastern
+stock, from which we have evolved the
+modern racehorse, as in doing so we shall
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span>simply be going a step farther back, and
+thereby avoid in great measure the difficulty
+of stature which our fathers and
+ancestors have created for us in our
+endeavour to breed a small compact horse
+from the pure strain.</p>
+
+<p>The next point that presents itself is, On
+what sort of animal would it be most advisable
+to cross our thoroughbred or Arab? In
+the absence of any long-continued series of
+experiments, which alone could have led to
+definite results in the production of a fixed
+type of pony, or a stamp of pony worth
+trying to perpetuate as a fixed type, the
+answer must be conjectural; we can only
+deal in probabilities.</p>
+
+<p>We may not be able to establish a breed
+of which a specimen exceeding 14 hands
+2 inches shall be something quite abnormal;
+on the contrary, the whole course of experience
+in breeding horses of whatever class
+goes to prove the impossibility of ensuring
+that the progeny of any given sire and dam
+shall attain to a specified height, neither less
+nor more. Nevertheless, there seems no
+reason why skill and care in breeding
+should not in course of time produce an
+animal whose <em>average</em> height at maturity
+shall be the desired 14 hands 2 inches.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span></p>
+
+<p>There are, it must be repeated, several
+essential points to be kept clearly in view in
+our endeavour to develop a Polo Pony on
+the foundation of Thoroughbred or Arab
+blood. We have primarily to guard against
+the tendency to exceed the regulation
+height, and we must seek means to obtain
+the bone and stamina which are so necessary.
+Our Forest and Moorland mares
+suggest themselves as the material at once
+suitable for the purpose and easily obtainable.
+In these ponies we have the small
+size which will furnish the needful corrective
+to overgrowth, and we have also that hardiness
+of constitution and soundness of limb
+which are invaluable in laying the foundation
+of our proposed breed of 14-hands
+2-inch ponies.</p>
+
+<p>Many attempts have been made from time
+to time to improve these breeds; indeed,
+some have been so frequently crossed with
+outside blood that the purity of the strain
+has nearly disappeared; this is believed to
+be the case with the Dartmoor pony. At
+the same time these infusions of blood have
+done nothing to impair the value of the
+ponies in respect of their intrinsic qualities
+of hardiness and soundness.</p>
+
+<p>That small thoroughbred and Arab blood<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span>
+blends well with the Forest and Moorland
+strains has been abundantly proved; Marske,
+the sire of Eclipse, who was under 14 hands
+2 inches, as is well known, stood at service in
+the New Forest district for three or four
+seasons from about the year 1765, and produced
+upon the New Forest breed a beneficial
+effect which remained in evidence for
+many years. The late Prince Consort sent
+a grey Arab stallion to stand at New Park,
+which did much good in improving the stamp
+of pony; and in 1889 as before mentioned
+Her Majesty lent two Arab sires, which
+remained respectively for two and three
+seasons and produced a marked effect on
+the Forest breed. One of the Dongola
+Arabs or Barbs which Mr. Knight used
+gave the best results on the Exmoor ponies,
+and the use of the thoroughbred horses,
+Pandarus by Whalebone, and Canopus,
+grandson of Velocipede, also improved the
+breed in point of size.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the best hunters in the West of
+England trace their descent on the dam’s side
+to the Welsh Mountain pony, the sire of
+some of the best horses, however, being a
+horse with a stain in his pedigree, viz., Mr.
+John Hill’s Ellesmere by New Oswestry.
+In this connection it may be remarked<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span>
+that Bright Pearl, winner in the class for
+unmade Polo Ponies at the Crystal Palace
+Pony Show, held in July, 1899, was got by
+the thoroughbred Pearl Diver out of a
+Welsh Hill Pony mare whose wonderful
+jumping powers had gained her many prizes.</p>
+
+<p>The fact that the Forest and Moorland
+breeds owe their small size to the rigorous
+conditions of a natural free life and the spare
+diet accessible must not be lost sight of, for
+their tendency to increase in size when taken
+up, sheltered and well fed is very marked.
+The fact is of importance, because we could
+not expect that foals got by a thoroughbred
+or Arab sire would possess the stamina that
+enables the Forest or Moorland pony to
+withstand exposure. It is true that the
+stock got by Marske throve under the comparatively
+mild rigours of New Forest life;
+but the thoroughbred of 135 years ago was
+a stouter and hardier animal than is his descendant
+of to-day. It would therefore be
+necessary to choose between losing the young
+half-bred stock altogether, and of rearing it
+under more or less artificial conditions with
+the certainty of rearing an animal which
+would respond to those conditions by increased
+stature.</p>
+
+<p>The same remarks apply equally to stock<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span>
+got from Forest or Moorland mares by an
+Arab sire which flourishes in a high temperature,
+but is not adapted to endure continuous
+cold and damp.</p>
+
+<p>Judgment and care might do something
+to obviate the tendency to overgrowth; the
+happy medium to adopt would be to allow
+the dams with their half-bred youngsters as
+much liberty as varying climatic conditions
+indicated the well-being of the latter could
+withstand.</p>
+
+<p>It has been suggested that the mares
+which have finished their active career of
+four or five seasons on the Polo ground
+might with advantage be used for breeding
+purposes, being mated with a small Forest
+or Moorland stallion. This suggestion does
+not commend itself to the practical breeder,
+who is well aware that a big mare throws a
+big foal even to a small horse. Were increase
+of size the object in view the worn-out
+Polo Pony mares might be used thus with
+every prospect of success; the reverse being
+our aim, it is to be feared that experiments
+conducted on these lines would lead to
+failure.</p>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class="figcenter" id="i-131">
+<img src="images/i-131.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="485">
+<p class="caption center"><cite>From a sketch by H. F. Lucas Lucas.</cite></p>
+<p class="caption center">POLO PONY SAILOR.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is reasonable to think that a breed of
+small horses can be established by the
+judicious intermingling of our Forest or
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span>
+Moorland mares with small Thoroughbred or
+Arab sires, but past experience in stock-raising
+has taught breeders that the creation
+of a new and improved strain, whether of
+horses, cattle, or other domestic animals, is
+a slow process. Failures must be corrected
+and errors retrieved by gradual and cautious
+steps before we can hope to succeed in
+creating a breed of ponies true to the required
+type. That it can be done with patience
+and skilled judgment there need be
+no doubt; but the evolution of the animal
+required, whether on the thoroughbred foundation
+or on the original progenitor of the
+thoroughbred, the Arab, will be a matter of
+time. It may be that the present generation
+will lay the foundation of a breed of 14-hands
+2-inch Polo Ponies, and that posterity will
+build the edifice and enjoy the benefits.</p>
+
+<p>To summarise briefly what has been said
+in this chapter, the position is this:—</p>
+
+<p>(1) Ponies with blood, speed, courage, and
+the many qualities essential to make a first-class
+Polo Pony are rare.</p>
+
+<p>(2) (<em>a</em>) They command fancy prices when
+trained, but (<em>b</em>) it is only when trained and
+<em>proven</em> that they command high prices.</p>
+
+<p>(3) The difficulty of producing a breed of
+blood ponies is due (<em>a</em>) to the long-maintained<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span>
+and successful endeavour to increase the size
+of the thoroughbred, and (<em>b</em>) to the fact that
+racehorses are bred for speed only, whereas
+speed is but one of the many qualities
+essential to the Polo Pony.</p>
+
+<p>(4) To avoid this difficulty—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>(<em>a</em>) The sire chosen for the foundation
+stock should be a small and compact
+Thoroughbred or an Arab.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>b</em>) The dam used for foundation stock
+should be chosen from the best of our
+Forest or Moorland ponies.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>(5) The tendency to undue increase in
+height should be counteracted—</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>(<em>a</em>) In the individual, by a free and
+natural life as far as climate permits.</p>
+
+<p>(<em>b</em>) In the breed, by recourse to further
+infusion of Forest or Moorland blood
+when necessary.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+<h3 class="nobreak center" id="WORKS_BY_SIR_WALTER_GILBEY_BART">WORKS BY SIR WALTER GILBEY, BART.</h3>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Animal Painters of England</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>from the year 1650. Illustrated. Two vols., quarto, cloth
+gilt, Two Guineas net on subscription. Prospectus free.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Harness Horses</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>The scarcity of Carriage Horses and how to breed them.
+3rd Edition. Twenty-one Chapters. Seven full-page
+Illustrations. Octavo, cloth gilt, 2s.; by post, 2s. 3d.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Horses Past and Present</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>A sketch of the History of the Horse in England from
+the earliest times. Illustrated. Octavo, cloth gilt, 2s.;
+by post, 2s. 3d.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Life of George Stubbs, R.A.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Ten Chapters. Twenty-six Illustrations and Head-pieces.
+Quarto, whole Morocco, gilt, price £3 3s.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Ponies Past and Present</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>The breeds of the British Islands, New Forest, Welsh,
+Exmoor, Dartmoor, Westmoreland, Cumberland,
+Scottish, Shetland, Connemara. With Illustrations.
+Octavo, cloth gilt, 2s.; by post, 2s. 3d.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Small Horses in Warfare</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Arguments in favour of their use for light cavalry and
+mounted infantry. Illustrated, 2s.; by post, 2s. 2d.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Great Horse or War Horse</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>From the Roman Invasion till its development into the
+Shire Horse. New and Revised Edition, 1899. Seventeen
+Illustrations. Octavo, cloth gilt, price 2s.; by
+post, 2s. 3d.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Young Race Horses—suggestions</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>for rearing, feeding and treatment. Twenty-two
+Chapters. With Frontispiece and Diagrams. Octavo,
+cloth gilt, price 2s.; by post, 2s. 2d.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"></p>
+<p class="center">VINTON &amp; Co.,<br>
+9, NEW BRIDGE STREET, LONDON, E.C.</p>
+
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+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75401 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
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