Chapter II: Part 2

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.