160 VARIETIES OF THE HORSE 



The introduction of a bit of blood into the newly-founded pony stud 

 will be doubly valuable if high action is not sought for at the outset, for 

 the superfluous males and the mares which are not considered good enough 

 to keep for breeding purposes would assuredly command a readier market 

 than many of the continental monstrosities which now find their way into 

 the country to supply the home demand. No one would willingly invest 

 his money in the purchase of a coarse underbred-looking animal with 

 straight short pasterns if he could get hold of an active, symmetrical, wear- 

 and-tear-looking pony with some approach to the type of what may be 

 regarded as the correct one. Consequently an investment in a little 

 Thoroughbred blood, it may be once more repeated, is of the highest im- 

 portance to the founder of a stud of ponies brought together from all 

 quarters. It is noticeable that some sires will always get foals bigger than 

 they are themselves, and beyond the limit of height allotted to the pony, 

 whilst others, happily for their owners, invariably produce smaller ones; 

 so if the beginner is fortunate enough at the outset to procure a horse 

 pony belonging to the latter category, which at the same time possesses 

 the invaluable merit of impressing his own quality upon his foals, the path 

 of that particular breeder will be a rosy one indeed. 



In commencing pony-breeding there is one question that the speculator 

 must always put to himself and answer before he sets to work. This is, 

 what type of pony is it that he proposes to raise. In all other varieties of 

 horse there are lines laid down to guide the operations of a breeder, as the 

 standards are pretty well fixed; but in the case of the pony matters are 

 somewhat mixed. It is not merely sufficient to try and produce a little 

 horse; a breeder should have something more definite before him than that, 

 or else his operations will be conducted on a happy-go-lucky method of 

 progression which can only end in disappointment and disaster. Perhaps 

 the most valuable and saleable type of pony is the Harness tyjje, possessed 

 of a high, free, and graceful action. Very few ponies, and especially the 

 higher-priced ones, are required to gallop, the canter and the trot being 

 the paces that are most affected hy their owners. For the production 

 of such as these the Hackney pony is, of course, the best of all sires 

 to use in the first instance, provided always that his merits as a stock- 

 getter are proportionate to his other qualifications. He should at all 

 events be equal to the task of introducing action into his foals, and it is 

 remarkable for how long this most essential " entity " will remain in a 

 strain when once it becomes fairly rooted in it, which, by the way, it is 

 sure to be in the case of closely inbred strains, such as those most pony- 

 breeders now possess. 



The Hackney sire of small stature, combined with action, finds many 



