20 



THE EXISTING EQUIDAE 



[CH. 



In the northern part of Iceland, where the few pure specimens 

 of the Celtic pony survive, only a height of twelve hands 

 (48 inches) is reached under more favourable conditions the 

 height would probably be 50 to 52 inches, the size of some of 

 the ' Elephant bed ' horses and the smaller variety of the desert- 

 bred Arab to which the small slender-limbed occidental pony 

 closely approximates." The Celtic pony learns rapidly what the 

 trainer wishes, and responds with alacrity. " In a few days its 

 education is complete 1 ." 



FIG. 13. Typical 'Celtic' pony: North Iceland. 



Ewart regards the pony selected as a type (Fig. 13) as an 

 almost pure representative of a once widely-distributed species. 

 The pony in question proved sterile with stallions belonging to 

 five different breeds, as well as with a Burchell's zebra and 

 a kiang ; but she at once bred when mated with a yellow-dun 

 Connemara- Welsh pony, which closely approximates to the 

 Celtic type, and she has this year been successfully mated with 

 a Hebridean black Celtic pony (Fig. 15). 



1 J. C. Ewart, op. cit. p. 25. 



