^50 THE PONIES OF CONNEMARA. 



The reason of this difference is that large horses are highly specialised 

 products of artificial selection, quite incapable of maintaining themselves in 

 adverse circumstances. Nature makes short work of large horses, and m 

 a very few generations mercifully reduces to the pony standard any off- 

 spring they may happen to leave. 



While one may fail to appreciate fully the grit and stamina of the Con- 

 nemara ponies, it is impossible to miss noticing their intelligence and 

 .docility. In these respects they agree with Arabs, and contrast favourably 

 with thoroughbreds. Their docility is in part hereditary, and in part the 

 result of their upbringing. From the first, as in Arabia, they often form one 

 of the family circle, and in course of time court rather than shun human 

 society. Ponies which have during their youth acquired confidence in man 

 are, except in rare cases, far more docile than ponies that run wild during 

 the first year, or that have a chance of developing all their wild instincts 

 before they are pressed into the service of man, as is the case with most of 

 the Argentine horses. 



Seeing that the ponies of Connemara belong to several fairly distinct 

 types, it will be more profitable to consider what kind of pony breeders 

 should aim at producing in the future, than to discuss the points of those 

 now in existence. In doing this, it is important to bear in mind (i) the 

 kind of work that falls to the lot of the average Connemara pony ; (2), that 

 .each mare is expected to produce annually a foal that will fetch a good 

 price when six or eight months old ; and (3), that some of the cross-bred 

 foals will be expected, under generous treatment, to reach a size of sixty 

 inches, and develop into light-weight hunters. 



From what has already been said, it will be evident that many of the 

 ponies in the west of Galway do the work of pack horses, and require to be 

 as strong, agile, and tireless as battery mules. In mountain battery mules 

 one expects to find powerful loins, great girth, a fairly long body, and short 

 strong legs. Many of the old " hobbies " appear to have had all the best 

 points of a battery mule, united to the temperament and much of the grace 

 of an Arab, while some of them, if one may rely on Berenger and other 

 writers, were fleet enough to outrun the best of the Eastern horses on the 

 English turf at the end of the eighteenth century. To combine in one breed 

 the strength of a pack horse and the fleetness of an Arab may seem impos- 

 sible ; but, after all, the difference between a long, low hobby and an Arab- 

 like racer may be mainly a difference in the length of the legs and of the 

 parts correlated to the legs — the hobby may have been sometimes a stunted 

 Eastern horse. 



If this is the case, it may still be possible, out of native material, to produce 

 a breed of ponies fairly uniform in make, size, and colour, and capable not 

 only of performing the arduous work of a small upland farm, but also, under 

 favourable conditions, of developing into hunters, or, at least, of producing 

 hunters to hunter sires, remounts or riding ponies to Arab sires, and hardy 

 ponies with good action to Hackney and Welsh cob sires. That this is more 

 than probable will be admitted, when it is remembered that during 

 recent years many excellent light hunters and riding and driving ponies 

 have been bred in Connemara. This has been possible partly because the 

 ponies are, as a rule, non-impressive, and partly because many of the mares, 

 though unshapely and deficient in bone, belong to a good stock, and are 

 seldom wanting in stamina. 



