THE CONNEMARA PONY 463 



The Connemara pony a direct and till recent years an 

 unpolluted descendant of the horse which inhabited Ireland 

 from time immemorial though dwarfed by the climatic 

 conditions of an exposed sea-board, as well as by the meagre 

 fare, still retains the high courage and stamina of his 

 ancestors, and, though somewhat modified in shape, possesses 

 the strength and bone so characteristic of the Irish horse. 

 Roscommon is so famous for the production of big-boned 

 animals cattle, sheep, and horses that no sire is too small 

 to get sizable hunters in Roscommon. The natural char- 

 acteristics of the typical Irish horse are more prominently 

 developed in the Thoroughbred and the Irish Draught- Horse 

 than in any other of all the breeds in the country. Owing to 

 the close relations which existed from early times between 

 Spain and Ireland, there were constant importations of 

 Spanish horses. The Hobby (or Hobble) breed of horses, 

 famous on the Continent and in England, must be regarded 

 as a purely Irish product, evolved partly from Spanish 

 blood by the influence of the Irish soil and climate in 



coat, his long venom-edged blade, his champion's helmet full of starry 

 carbuncle stones, his two thick-hafted battle-javelins in his firm unloosable 

 hands, his empurpled brown-red shield upon the arched expanse of his back, 

 a sharp knife dagger on his left side, and three letters of golden letters, 

 written on the shield and the knife, setting forth that it was he himself who 

 used to lop the heroes in the battle. Then there was found for him a 

 smooth, high-spirited, very-fast, clear-leaping steed, with four shoes of fine 

 white silver beneath him and a golden-bitted bridle, which [steed] had in 

 itself twelve accomplishments of excellence : first, three excellences of a 

 woman a narrow waist, a full hip, and a proud spirit; three excellences 

 from a bull a stout eye, a thick neck, and a broad face ; three excellences 

 from a fox a bounding gait, a pointed ear, and a bushy tail ; three 

 excellences from a hare a high leap, a rapid turning, and a run uphill. 

 Then he got on the back of his blue, sweeping, very knowing, lively, expert 

 steed so that they went in no other fashion than as a Ion going before the 

 wind, or a seame w off a bald mountain head, or a wheel down a great incline, 

 or a sound going through the valleys, or Ceadach, the son of the King of 

 Sorcha, going to dispute with the king-son Caoilte mac Ronain in the 

 desert places of Airreacht O'Conor, on the near confines of Erin and 

 Alba ; so that such was the career of travel and constant going which the 

 hero made at that time, that he would rout badger out of woods, geilts of 

 glens, wolves under heights, and put foxes a wandering ever, until he 

 came to the brink of Loch Derg." The Land of the Ferule, with transla- 

 tion, notes, and glossary by Douglas Hyde (London : Irish Text Society, 

 1899), pp. 31-32. 



