Highland Ponies 67 



There is one thing that is greatly in favour of the pony breeder, 

 and that is that the pony is easier to breed to type than a bigger 

 horse. Another generahzation may also be made, viz., that all breeds 

 of native ponies, that is, all which may be classed as light breeds, 

 cross well with other light horses such as the Thoroughbred or the 

 Hackney. This leads me to think that in the remote past all our 

 native breeds had a common foundation, and that that foundation 

 had something in common with the Thoroughbred and the Hackney. 



Highland Ponies 



(Plate, /luring p. 144) 



There is no more valuable breed of ponies to be found in the 

 country than the Highland pony; the old hardy breed, which 

 carried the men of the hills on many a long journey on " the 

 roads before they were made". Invaluable in the deer forests, 

 hardy and quick on a journey, capital breeders, and crossing well 

 with more than one breed, the genuine Highland pony is a valu- 

 able acquisition indeed. But, it may be asked, what is a genuine 

 Highland pony? The answer is a simple one. It is a pony which 

 has no mixture of the Clydesdale in his composition. There are 

 some at the present day who claim that a type more like small 

 cart horses than ponies are the genuine and original Highland 

 ponies, and they support their contention with many hypotheses 

 which, although ingenious, are scarcely tenable. The original 

 tenant of the hills had no cart horse in his composition, and he, or 

 one like him, could alone have faced those roads before they 

 were made. The cross of cart-horse blood would have been 

 fatal. 



The Western Islands of Scotland may be safely regarded as 

 the original home of the Highland pony. The Mainland pony 

 — sometimes called the Garron — is on a somewhat larger scale 

 than the pony of the islands, but this is undoubtedly due in great 

 measure to the better climate and better grazing of the mainland. 

 There may be, and no doubt frequently are, cases of outcrossing 

 in the Mainland ponies, but generally when a good one is spotted 

 he can be traced back to the islands. 



These ponies have many subdivisions, such as the Barra, the 

 Uist, the Skye, the Isle of Rum, and others, but one type pre- 

 dominates through them all. Indeed, it is characteristic of the 

 Highland pony that no matter how it is crossed it is almost im- 

 possible to obliterate the original type. Highland ponies vary 

 considerably in height, climate and food perhaps being the prin- 



