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diff --git a/75401-0.txt b/75401-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..83b2b58 --- /dev/null +++ b/75401-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2646 @@ + +*** 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 *** |