60 



THE HORSE. 



and po^verflll, legs flat and fine, and pretty round feet. They possess 

 immense strength for their size, will fatten upon any thing, and are per- 

 fectly docile. One of them, nine hands or three feet in height, carried a 

 man of twelve stone, forty miles in one day. 



THE SHETLAND PONY. 



Our cut is the portrait of a Sheltie, the property of Lord Verulam, 

 painted by Mr. Ward. A friend of ours was, not long ago, presented with 

 one of these elegant little animals. He was several miles from home, and 

 puzzled how to convey his newly-acquired property. The Shetlander was 

 scarcely more than seven hands high, and as docile as he was beautiful. 

 " Can we not carry him in your chaise ?" said his friend. The strange 

 experiment was tried. The Sheltie was placed in the bottom of the gig, 

 and covered up as well as could be managed with the apron ; a few bits of 

 bread kept him quiet ; and thus he was safely conveyed away, and exhibited 

 the curious spectacle of a horse riding in a gig. 



In the southern parts of the kingdom the Shetlanders have a very pleasing 

 appearance, harnessed to a light garden chair, or carrying an almost baby 

 rider. There are several of them now running in Windsor park. 



It has been disputed whether the pony and large English horse were, 

 or could be, originally from the same stock. The question is difficult to 

 answer. It is not impossible that they might have one common extraction, 

 and, if we reflect on the effect of feeding, it is not so improbable as it may 

 at first appear. 



Mr. Parkinson * relates a circumstance, very much to the point, that fell 

 under his observation. His father had a mare that brought him no less 

 than fourteen colts, and all by the same horse, and not one of which at 

 three years old was under seventeen hands. She was in the fifteenth foal 

 by the same horse, when he sold her to a neighbouring farmer, reserving 

 the foal, which was to be delivered in a twelvemonth. At her new master's 

 she was comparatively starved, and she came back at the expiration of 

 the year so altered as scarcely to be recognised. The foal, four months 

 old, was very small. The little animal was put on the most luxuriant 

 keep, but it did not reach more than fifteen hands at the expiration of the 

 third year. 



• Parkinson on Breedings, and the Manag-ement of Live Stock, vol. ii. p. 139. 



