CHAPTER V 



THE PONY BREEDS OF HORSES 

 By S. B. Elliot 



PONIES are fourteen hands two inches or under, and 

 all equine breeds in which that limit is not exceeded are 

 classed as pony breeds. All diminutive equines are 

 characterized by being especially close and full made 

 with an apparent ruggedness expressed in the unusual 

 bone and muscular development which they possess. 



AMERICAN PONIES. Fig. 23. 



187. The dividing line between the horse and the 

 pony was vague and undefined until the Hackney Horse 

 Society was established in England in 1883. All horses 

 measuring fourteen hands or under were then designated 

 ponies, and registered in a separate part of the stud-book. 

 This standard of height was accepted and officially rec- 

 ognized by leading agricultural and horse-show societies 

 in England, and subsequently in America. In 1905, the 

 American Hackney Horse Society increased the height 

 of ponies to fourteen hands one inch, and in the case of 

 polo ponies the limit of height had previously been raised 

 to fourteen hands two inches, which is now the generally 

 accepted pony standard. 



Adverse climatic conditions, promiscuous breeding 

 and privation have had much to do with the development 



157 



