PONIES 



be wide open and fiery, long neck, short back with quarters 

 weU up, long to the hock, long forearm, short cannon bones, 

 with long wavy silken hair attached to the tendons, bidding 

 defiance and exposure to any crossing with the often round- 

 boned dwarf hackney, or with a half thoroughbred, or any 

 mongrel bred pony. Last of all, his eyes should be large, open, 

 and dilated, flashing fiery courage from their orbs. 



A good specimen is the most valuable asset in all the 

 pony classes to-day. If you carefully breed him, in my opinion, 

 3^ou cannot breed anything that will pay you better. Seek 

 iar and wide for good dams of the type and class ; and if you 

 succeed in getting them bred on the same lines, you will soon 

 reverse the policy of doing away with mountain pony breeding, 

 and you will keep more ponies and fewer sheep on your hills 

 Well bred Welsh ponies are the scarcest and most sought for 

 in Great Britain to-day. I admit that good specimens are few 

 and far between ; but diligence and judgment will find them. 

 Sometimes, when found, they are condemned as not " pure," 

 because of their quality. Their good points condemn them ; 

 but in England these ponies are bred up. Sixty per cent, of 

 the best show ponies are dwarf hackneys. There is no pony 

 blood in them. Many of them descend from hackneys who 

 became ponies in size by a freak of nature. There are many 

 beautiful ponies of this class in size, but not in type. The cross 

 hackney gives the type. Note their heads and ears ; and, to 

 their credit, their quality, and conformation. Many have 

 adopted this cross as one of the best with Welsh pony mares. 

 I agree that, when a cross is desirable, this is the best. I practise 

 it myself with 50 per cent, of my brood mares, and won the 

 first prize at the London Hackney Show last year with a two- 

 year-old filly bred in that way. I believe that it is possible in 



I2Q 



