PONIES 127 



ponies, have received consideration, and the breed has been " enlarged and 

 improved," prizes being annually offered and well bestowed, and there is 

 further prospect of retaining it in all its native hardihood and with 

 increased size and symmetry. 



THE EXMOOR PONY. To our mind this pony has but one fault, and that is 

 want of size; what there is of him is remarkably good, and for all purposes. 

 He will carry a man as big as himself, pull a load like a cart-horse, and trot 

 in good style and at a high rate of speed if not overloaded. He is docile, 

 intelligent, handsome, and not given to shy or be tricky, and seen upon his 

 native heath there is a romance about him that might well have inspired 

 the author of " Caterfelts," whether or no there is any truth in the story of 

 that remarkable stallion. The small size may be, and is, probably due to the 

 short keep which the yearling has to expect, since two-year-olds caught up 

 and liberally treated grow to a very fair size. The beautiful little heads 

 and clean limbs of these ponies are suggestive of the thoroughbred in minia- 

 ture, while they rarely have his defective action in front, neither daisy- 

 cutting nor turning out their toes, but coming down on all fours like a cat 

 and with something like her power of jumping. At West-country horse shows 

 we have seen these little ponies carrying weights out of all proportion to 

 their size, yet clearing the same jumps as other horses in the competitions. 

 At the annual great sales at Bampton the competition of buyers is keen, 

 and dealers often travel long distances in the hope of securing a choice of 

 them beforehand. 



THE HIGHLAND PONY is remarkable for his docility and general good 

 manners, by which circumstance he makes the best shooting pony in the 

 world, and can be taught almost anything, except perhaps to gallop with 

 the race-horse. These ponies have, like the old Welsh breed, the forma- 

 tion of hind-quarter called " cat hams," but this only gives a greater power 

 of using them, and especially of creeping over broken ground, in which they 

 are unapproachable. Their intelligence also is so great that it is almost 

 impossible to get them into a bog ; and if by chance they find themselves 

 sinking, they avoid the struggles which are instinctive in other breeds, and 

 manage either to creep quietly out, or else wait patiently till assistance 

 comes. In size they vary from 12-J to 13 J hands, and in shape they present 

 little to be remarked except their neat heads and cat hams. They are 

 able to carry considerably more weight than their frames would lead one to 

 expect, and sometimes a six-foot brawny Scotchman may be seen on one 

 of them without causing any apparent distress, and with difficulty keeping 

 his legs off the ground. 



THE POLO-PONY. Though he can be hardly termed a distinctive breed it 

 needs no prophet to say that he shortly will be, as a Stud-book already 

 exists ; the game for which he is destined is ever increasing in popularity, 

 and the supply being unequal to the demand, there will doubtless be an 

 increasing number of gentlemen who for amusement and a possible profit 

 will succeed in establishing a race that will breed to type. Hitherto polo- 

 ponies have come from anywhere and been bred anyhow so that they have 

 been capable of being made into good performers, but the polo-pony most 

 esteemed is a dwarf hunter or steeplechaser. Lieutenant E. D. Miller in 

 his Modern Polo says, " any of the old breeds of ponies belonging to these 

 islands ... are useless for polo by reason of their small size, coarseness, 



