22 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, DAIRYING, ETC. 



the market and are usually bought for the use of children and 

 ladies. The distinguishing characteristics separating ponies from 

 horses are not easily described; yet, to the trained eye, the line of 

 division is fairly distinct. The principal distinguishing features ac- 

 cepted by most authorities is that of height, a pony being 14 hands 

 or under. Sometimes there are dwarf horses without pony blood 

 that come within these limits, but usually they lack pony character- 

 istics, some of which are a deep, round body, with heavily muscled 

 thighs and quarters, croup not dropping, and width well carried 

 out. These the small horse does not usually possess. Ponies are 

 essentially children's horses, and because of this must be kind and 

 gentle in disposition, but with as much spirit as is compatible with 

 gentleness. There are no special requirements for weight. Like 

 horses, they should be straight line movers and the greater knee 

 and hock action they possess the greater will they be appreciated and 

 higher prices secured when they are placed on the market. 



The Indian Pony. The Indian pony, or the Cayuse as it is 

 sometimes called, is larger and a descendant from the native range 

 stock. These animals are classed on the market as range ponies. 

 They are hardy and can endure a great privation if necessary. It is 

 stoutly maintained that they are able to perform long continued 

 hard labor with less food than almost any other type of horse. 



Range Horses. Range horses are sold on the market in two gen- 

 eral classes: as light and as heavy, according to the predominance 

 of light or draft horses' blood. Most of the range horses find their 

 way to the country where they are usually broken, and when edu- 

 cated some of them are returned to the market to fill the demand 

 for some of the commercial classes. Cheap farm horses for the most 

 part remain in the country and seldom find their way to the great 

 commercial markets, where better classes of horses are in demand. 

 As these horses are worth more to wear out on the farms than for 

 any other purpose, they usually remain in the country. (111. B. 

 122.) 



HORSE BREEDING. 



Selection of Breeding Stock. The general principle of hered- 

 ity is that like produces like. This principle or recognized law of 

 transmission is without doubt adhered to more closely by stock 

 breeders than any one recognized law or principle of breeding. There 

 are departures or exceptions to this rule, but it proves true in the 

 majority of cases, or else there would be no continuity of species. 

 If this were not true wheat might produce corn, corn produce bar- 

 ley, etc. It should be remembered, however, that bad points are 

 quite as likely, or in fact more likely, to be transmitted than are 

 good ones. As the good points so highly prized in our improved 

 breeds have been secured by man through his skill in feeding and 

 breeding and therefore are not so firmly fixed as some of the less 

 desirable points which were original traits or characteristics of the 

 unimproved stock, from which our animals have descended, it is a 

 serious but common error in breeding to suppose that the bad points 

 of one animal can be fully off-set or overcome by the good points 



