356 THE PONIES OF CONNEMARA. 



an upland farm in the West of Ireland. During the last seven years I have 

 had under constant observation a great many cross-bred ponies. Only one 

 of these crosses can be said to realise Sir Richard Green Price's ideal. This 

 is a 14. 1 bay pony by a bay Arab out of a grey-ticked mare, which resembled 

 in many ways the Galloways once so common in the South of Scotland. 

 This cross-bred bay pony might be taken for a somewhat stout Arab with 

 high withers, well let down hocks, and wide open hoofs. The grey dam 

 resembled the Cashel type of pony in the shoulder and withers ; in other 

 respects she resembled some of the larger yellow-duns still occasionally seen 

 in the vicinity of Maam Cross and Clifden. 



Though this half -Arab is in m.any ways an ideal pony, she is not, it seems 

 to me, the kind of pony wanted in Connemara. This is not because she is 

 wanting in constitution (since 1896 she has been living out-of-doors, 700 

 feet above the sea level), but because she is not sufficiently like a pack mule 

 in build, and because she has failed to produce either to thoroughbred or 

 Arab sires the kind of foals likely to fetch a good price m the West of 

 Ireland ; they are not likely to make hunters, and besides being expensive 

 to rear, they are too fine for remounts. 



If the aim is to produce a pony that will be easily kept and easily 

 handled, and capable of doing the work of a small farm, as well as of pro- 

 ducing light hunters to thoroughbred sires, good riding ponies to Arab 

 sires, it will, I think, be admitted that a pure-bred Galloway would prove 

 far more suitable than a Galloway- Arab cross. 



It may now be asked — " Are thoroughbred sires more likely than Arabs 

 to produce the kind of pony wanted ?" 



Connemara thoroughbred crosses sometimes make excellent light hunters, 

 and are often very fast ; but they are seldom adapted for the rough life of 

 a small moorland or upland farm. For many generations breeders of 

 thoroughbreds have directed their attention almost exclusively to speed, and 

 some have deliberately practised close in-breeding. One result of breeding 

 in-and-in is a marked increase in the impressiveness ; another is the gradual 

 refinement of all the organs and tissues, more especially of the nervous 

 system. 



In the case of the horse, the closer the in-breeding the more sensitive he 

 is to all kinds of stimuli, and the greater the waste of vital energy, and, as a 

 consequence, the greater the susceptibility to changes of habitat, tempera- 

 ture, etc., and the need of a rich, highly nutritive diet. Owing to the increase 

 in the impressiveness induced by in-breeding, thoroughbred crosses, though 

 sometimes wonderfully hardy and vigorous, have often (especially when out 

 of light pony mares) all the characteristics of their long-pedigreed pure- 

 bred ancestors. It would, doubtless, be possible by careful selection to 

 create a race of hardy Connemara thoroughbred crosses (for in thorough- 

 bred, as in other strains, reversion to stout ancestors now and again occurs) ; 

 but, for various reasons, this would be extremely costly, and not altogether 

 satisfactory. I find that in the vicinity of the poor lands, while half -Arabs, 

 after the third or fourth year, are hardy enough to live out-of-doors all the 

 year round, half-thoroughbreds, unless stabled during winter, invariably 

 succumb. Further, compared with half-Arabs, thoroughbred crosses are less 

 intelligent, less tractable, have less endurance, and are altogether less like 

 ponies ; and there is always a danger of their throwing back to some of 

 their highly sensitive, delicate, and, it may be, unsound, pure-bred ancestors. 

 Again, some of the foals out of half -thoroughbred ponies by thoroughbred 



