354 THE PONIES OF CONNEMARA. 



shoulders set well back, fine in the chine, standing over a lot of ground, and. 

 above all, firm, wiry, wear-and-tear legs. (Sam. Ainsworth, Perth, West 

 Australia, December, 1900.) 



It will, I think, be at once admitted that some of the best horses that 

 ever lived were far short of these ideals, and, further, that many horses which 

 in make all but realise the ideal conception are of little actual use. 



Nature never made a horse combining the " points " set forth in these 

 and other ideal conceptions, and as ponies are hable to be exposed to all 

 the hardships of their wild relatives, it is not wise to insist too much on non- 

 essential characters.* 



I have seen wild or semi-wild horses with a lean head well-set-on, 

 a light neck, high fine withers, very oblique deep shoulders, a straight 

 croup, and a well-set-on tail. These are the products of artificial selection, 

 and most of them rapidly disappear when natural selection comes into play. 



If hardiness and endurance are the chief considerations, we must be pre- 

 pared to give up any " points " of a sentimental kind that directly or in- 

 directly tend to diminish these essential traits. In wild horses there is an 

 intimate relation between the head, neck, and shoulders. The size of the 

 head (or, to be more accurate, the length and strength of the jaws) depends 

 mainly on the food. As the head increases in size, the neck must either be 

 shortened or the spines of the dorsal vertebras (which form the ridge known 

 as the " withers ") lengthened ; sometimes both things happen. In the old 

 long-headed Irish horse, there seems to have been a lengthening of the 

 vertebral spmes, as well as a shortening of the neck.t 



When the withers are not only high, but extend well along the back, a 

 horse is sometimes said to have a good shoulder, and it is frequently assumed 

 that high withers indicate speed or jumping power. The withers, however, 

 have little or nothing to do with the shoulders, any more than they are in 

 any way related to speed. On the other hand, when the withers are un- 

 usually long as well as high in riding ponies, the weakest part of the back 

 is apt to be strained, or the effective action of the great muscles of the loins 

 interfered with. Every inch added to the length of the neck, by shunting 

 forward the centre of gravity, increases the strain on the forelegs. 



As the obliquity of the shoulder {scapula) increases, the arm bone {hu- 

 merus) becomes more vertical, with the result that the trunk is raised from 

 the ground. While very oblique shoulders may facilitate galloping over a 

 flat surface, they are not well adapted for the rough work in a hilly country, 

 or for supporting a heavy weight. In some famous racers and fine movers 

 the shoulders have been thick and straight. This is true of " Touchstone," 

 and of the pony " Mars " — one of the finest movers ever bred in Scotland. 



Great stress is often laid on having the croup nearly horizontal. Whether 

 the tail is set on high up, as in many Arabs, or low down, as in moor and 

 mountain ponies, is, as far as I can see, a matter of but little moment. We 

 owe, I believe, the high position of the tail in many thoroughbreds to the 

 influence of some of their Arab ancestors. Many Arabian horses are said to 

 be descended from a mare that carried her tail unusually high. The tradi- 

 tion is that an Arab, being pursued, " loosed his cloak to relieve his mare 

 from every impediment." On reaching his tent he was surprised to find his 



* Witness the large head, short neck, straight shoulders, and drooping quarters of moor and 

 mountain ponies, which for generations have lived in adverse circumstances. 



t The high withers so often seen in hunters have probably been inherited from the old Irish 

 horses that in olden times occupied the great central plain. 



