548 THE PONIES OF CONNEMARA. 



In various parts of Africa, as in Central Asia, where wild horses still 

 survive, ordinary grasses during the dry season are conspicuous by their 

 absence. During this dry period horses and other non-migratory ungulates 

 would be exterminated — as it is they are probably often decimated — were 

 they unable to sustain life on shrubs, roots, and such desert plants as manage 

 to show themselves above the parched dry ground. The instinct to feed on 

 hard fibrous plants during part of the year survives in the domestic horse. 

 Tn temperate regions, for at least some weeks before the advent of spring, 

 horses living in a semi-wild state prefer hard shrubs to the rough and 

 probably tasteless grasses still available. During this trying period, when 

 the spring coat is preparing to take the place of the winter one, hill and 

 moorland ponies may be seen eating gorse, heaths, and other shrubs. In 

 the absence of shrubs, they devour the bark of beech, and other trees, or dig 

 up and deliberately eat various kinds of roots and underground stems. In 

 a mixed herd of Equidae some prefer gorse and heaths, others as readily 

 take to bark and the smaller branches of fallen trees, while others direct 

 their attention chiefly to underground stems. Recently I came upon a mixed 

 family, all in excellent condition, busily engaged digging up and eating, 

 apparently with great relish, the underground stems of nettles. Not far 

 fiom this group some zebra hybrids were cutting off and devouring branches 

 (ever an inch in circumference) of a fallen beech tree, and in an adjoining 

 paddock several ponies, instead of feeding on the excellent hay provided, 

 were directing their attention to the fences. In Shetland the ponies are 

 said to consume sea-weeds, while in Iceland, when the usually scanty supply 

 of hay comes to an end, they readily take to eating cod-heads specially 

 reserved for them during the fishing season. 



It might be said that in the case of the domestic horse the instinct to 

 feed on shrubs, underground stems, branches, leaves, etc., might well have 

 been allowed to lapse. It should, however, be borne in mind that, without 

 this instinct, thousands of horses in Europe, and a countless number in 

 Africa and Asia, would annually perish, and that our semi-wild ponies prob- 

 ably owe their hardiness and their freedom from various diseases largely to 

 their feeding on shrubs and other fibrous substances during the interval 

 between winter and spring. Without a wide range of frequent change of 

 pasture, it is difficult to rear vigorous, hardy horses ; but the wild herbs and 

 the dwarf shrubs that occur so plentifully on uncultivated moors and 

 uplands may be quite as essential during colthood as a free and unfettered 

 existence. 



III. THE WORK OF THE CONNEMARA PONIES. 



Ponies are as essential to-day in Connemara as " Galloways " were a cen- 

 tury ago in many parts of England and Scotland, and owing to the wild and 

 rugged nature of the country, and the all but inaccessible position of many 

 of the homesteads and cabins, the pillion and pack-saddle are not likely 

 soon to disappear from the West of Ireland. 



In England, as the result of the revolution effected in travelling and 

 tiansport by railways, the existence of hardy, active ponies had almost 

 been forgotten until the South African War proved how invaluable they 

 were for mounted infantry. In Connemara, as in the East, interest in ponies 



