PONIES AND PONY-BREEDING 167 



than the varieties referred to above, for it is not often that a really- 

 good-looking one stands much under 13 hands, and there are a great 

 many over that height. Still, as it is not everyone that requires a 

 very small pony, this may be regarded as a qualification in favour of the 

 Welshman by many persons; and at all events there is no denying the 

 fact that these animals have not only fully maintained their hold upon 

 the affections of the public, but have deserved it. The best specimens 

 very closely approach the miniature Hunter type, which may be laid 

 down as the most generally accepted ideal for the all-round pony; but 

 many of them lack the quality that the introduction of Thoroughbred 

 blood always brings, though the Welshman is grand material to work 

 upon. He is generally a very free and fast mover, with plenty of action, 

 and his legs and feet are exceptionally good, soundness being one of his 

 notable attributes — in fact so much so that, as far back as the year 1842, 

 Nimrod in his book alluded to the Welshmen as never going lame in 

 their feet or becoming roarers. 



Roughly speaking, though the Welsh pony and cob are not always 

 so blood-like in the head as some breeds, they are by no means coarse 

 there; they are very good about the shoulders, the back is short and 

 strong, and the quarters, if sometimes plain, are as a rule superior to 

 those of many other varieties. The Welsh pony also has a society devoted 

 to his interest and improvement, and, like the Exmoor, may be dismissed 

 with the observation that, however valuable he may be for the beginner 

 to commence with, it is probable that if the object of the breeder is to 

 produce 12-hand ponies, he may experience some difficulty in making his 

 enterprise a success. 



The Westmoreland. — Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart, in his extremely 

 interesting article on the subject of ponies, which appears in the Live 

 Stock Journal Almanack for 1896, makes the statement that the moors 

 and waste lands of Westmoreland and Cumberland have for centuries been 

 used for breeding ponies, horses, and Galloways. Such being the case, 

 it is remarkable to think how little the Westmoreland pony is really 

 known; for although the presence of valuable ponies in the north has 

 never been doubted, it was not known to everybody that the district has 

 been the home of such animals for centuries. It is, however, extremely 

 probable that the fame of Mr. C. W. Wilson's strain, which hail from 

 Kirkby- Lonsdale, has of recent years so completely overshadowed all the 

 other ponies in the district, that the latter have become lost sight of. 

 No doubt Mr. Wilson found some of his foundation stock in that 

 locality, but he, it may be observed, so improved them by judicious 

 inbreeding and a scientific attention to the details of out crosses, that no 



