92 THE HORSE 



prosperity, and what an increase there would be to the 

 ranks of the unemployed. The writer was living in Ireland 

 during the disastrous days of the Land League, when it was 

 so ill-advised as to order the stoppage of the various Hunts, 

 and he has good cause to remember the distress and ruin 

 caused by the edict in the county of Kildare, and how 

 the evil blighted with its withering touch such different 

 sections of the community whose intimate dependence on 

 hunting had never before been suspected. History has a 

 way of repeating itself, and when there is no market for 

 hay, straw, oats, or bran, the farmer will also realise how 

 valuable an asset hunting is to him, which is likely to 

 become even greater since so few horses are being reared 

 owing to the advent of mechanical traction. 



Ponies. 



In addition to thoroughbreds and hunters, our saddle- 

 horses comprise invaluable native breeds of ponies, so sure- 

 footed, hardy, and sagacious, which afford an invaluable 

 starting-point for crossing with other breeds. The one 

 drawback to the dash of pony blood, when a considerable 

 increase of height has been obtained in the course of gene- 

 rations, is the difficulty of obtaining length at the same time, 

 for the short, compact form of the pony does not accord well 

 in appearance with the stature of a 16-hands' horse. 

 Though the Eastern horses are ponies in height, they are 

 true horses in that when crossed with large animals the 

 length is there, and the progeny show no trace of the pony 

 in this respect. In every other way ponies cannot be too 

 much praised, and when crossed with thoroughbred blood, 

 if the height is not unduly increased, they make the best 

 riding-horses in the world. 



In general type the ponies of the North of England and 

 Scotland are of a much more powerful build than the 

 Welsh, Dartmoor, or Exmoor mountain ponies, or those 

 bred in the New Forest, while the Irish ponies are rather 

 intermediate between the others. But all seem to possess 

 the same soundness of constitution, and do their work with 



