Ill] 



AND HISTORIC TIMES 



409 



In the so-called 'Andalusian' and 'Eastern' types we may 

 recognise the descendants of the old Irish Hobbies, which in 

 their turn were descended from the black and grey horses im- 

 ported from Gaul and which no doubt had blended very largely 

 with the ponies previously introduced. We have seen that 

 Connemara ponies not unfrequently lack hock callosities (p. 18), 

 a fact which may point to their 'Celtic' ancestry, though, since 

 many North African horses have a similar characteristic, the 



Fig. 126. Connemara Gelding of larger type; Cashel. 



absence of the hind chestnuts in Connemara ponies may be 

 due rather to the Libyan strain. 



In the stout-legged ponies of the Clifden district we have 

 animals which have probably in their veins more of the blood 

 of the old thick-set European horses of the Solutre type, and 

 we have found at least two other classes of Connemara ponies 

 which are still more horse-like in their conformation : of these, 

 one is due to the recent admixture of Clydesdale blood, 

 whilst the others resemble the Irish hunter, and in fact some- 



