Chapter I: Part 1

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

_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._

_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._

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.