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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 ***