THE PONIES OF CONNEMARA. 343 



II. THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE PONIES. 

 Sice and Uniformity. 



In addition to considering the races or breeds to which the ponies of any 

 given district belong, it is necessary to take into consideration, amongst 

 other things, the conditions under which they are bred and reared — to take 

 cognizance of the environment as well as the ancestry. But before dis- 

 cussing the external conditions, I ought, perhaps, to insist again on the fact 

 that, whatever may have been the case in the past, a distinct breed of Con- 

 nemara ponies does not now exist. Amongst Arab and other Eastern 

 breeds there is a considerable range of variation, just as there is variation 

 amongst the oldest strains of Norwegian and other Western breeds. Never- 

 theless, it is generally possible at once to say whether any given horse is an 

 Arab or a Norwegian. It is, however, difficult — in most cases impossible— - 

 fo decide whether any given Irish pony has been bred in Connemara. 

 There is uniformity amongst the desert Arabs, because, to begin with, they 

 have almost certainly sprung from the graceful, lightly-built Eastern horse 

 of the Post Pliocene (Diluvial) period, and because for some thousands of 

 years the descendants of the " Al-Khamseh " (" the Five "), the so-called 

 mares of the Prophet, have been mainly, if not exclusively, used for breeding. 



Again, the Norwegian Yellow-duns are fairly uniform, because they are in 

 all probability the direct descendants of the Western race of the Post 

 Pliocene horse — of the sturdy, short-legged, long-headed race which ranged 

 over the plains and valleys of Europe after the Great Ice Age came to an end. 



A century ago the Connemara " hobbies " may have been a fairly uniform 

 blend of the slender Oriental and stout Occidental races, but to-day ther3 

 is a complete want of uniformity, doubtless because the people of Conne- 

 mara, unlike the Anazah and other desert Arabians, have long been breeding 

 from all sorts and conditions of mares, and have been, as a rule, strangely 

 indifferent as to the pedigree of the stallions. 



But, though more than ever uniformity is worth striving after (especially 

 by districts ambitious to supply small horses for mounted infantry), it is not 

 everything. Unless it is the product of centuries, or the result of extremely 

 careful selection, it may be a positive evil. When it is the outcome of close 

 m-and-in breeding, it but serves to cover a multitude of sins. Size, unifor- 

 mity, shapeliness, and fine action are excellent, indeed indispensable, in 

 horses taking part in pageants and in park parades, as well as in horses 

 harnessed to well-appointed carriages, but in the small horses by which the 

 world's work is mainly done, hardiness, endurance, nimbleness, intelligence, 

 and docility count for infinitely more than make or action, good looks 

 or a long pedigree. Make, docility, intelligence, and speed are largely 

 a matter of inheritance, while endurance and hardiness are mainly the 

 products of the surroundings. It is for this reason that active, hardy 

 horses are found in the less barren uplands of nearly all temperate and 

 sub-tropical areas, and that degenerate forms are often met with in certain 

 parts of India, and in areas within the tropics where the conditions are 

 unsuitable, and wherever there are neither sufficiently trying summer 

 droughts nor winter frosts to eliminate the weaklings. 



Have we, in the West of Ireland, and more especially in the west of 

 Galway, an environment likely to produce, without the help of man, ponies 



