classes and Breeas of British Horses. 191 



hampers, and thus carried to a distance. They are in great 

 request for equestrian exhibitions, and are more easily trained 

 to the feats required than any other kind of horses. Thus 

 they may be made to leap through hoops, and in passing a 

 bar, to stoop beneath it, or leap over, as directed. The chief 

 demand for them is for saddle-horses for children. They 

 are the safest animals that can be used for this purpose ; and 

 as the demand is considerable, and would be much greater 

 were the supply more extended, there is good reason for 

 directing attention to the rearing of them, and preserving 

 those peculiarities of size and form which give them their 

 value. 



The Orkney Islands possess likewise their breeds of ponies ; 

 but they are of more mixed descent, and of larger size and 

 coarser form, than those of Zetland. These islands, the Ore 

 of the ancient British, were discovered by the Roman fleet, 

 which, by command of Agricola, sailed round the Island. 

 They early formed the haunt of northern rovers ; and, to- 

 wards the end of the 9th century, were reduced to subjection 

 by Harold Harfagre, the Norwegian, who established a dy- 

 nasty of Earls, who reduced Caithness, and parts of Suther- 

 land, Ross, and Cromarty, and made themselves be felt for 

 ages as the terror of the neighbouring coasts. In the year 

 1468, the Orkney, together with the Zetland Islands, were 

 given in pledge to King James III. as the dowry of his wife 

 Margaret, the daughter of Christian, King of Denmark ; 

 and, in 1472, they were annexed to the Crown of Scotland, 

 by an act of the Scottish Parliament. The early conque- 

 rors of these islands were pirates ; and, fighting on foot, 

 made little use of the Horse in battle ; so that the horses of 

 the country were probably few in numbers. Those which it 

 now possesses are small, although, in the progress of culti- 

 vation, others of a larger size have been introduced. They 

 are mostly of a dull black colour marked with white, or 

 dun marked with the dark streak along the spine, charac- 

 tenstic of a widely diffused family. A few are white, and 

 some piebald, which has been ascribed to the wreck of a 

 number of white German stallions, which took place in the 

 latter part of last century. 



