PONIES 



171 



On the other hand, it can conscientiously be argued in his favor 

 that. he is capable of getting through an immense amount of hard 

 work, that he is a fast pony for his inches, and that his consti- 

 tution is as hard as iron. 



The New Forest pony has its native home in the New Forest, 

 which embraces about 145 square miles of fields and forests in 

 south-central England, in the coastal region. Here these ponies 



FIG. 66. A Welsh pony mare and foal, of mountain type, owned by John Jones, 

 Llandudno, Wales. From photograph by the author 



have run wild for centuries. W. Scarth Dixon states 1 that this 

 pony is a survival of Saxon times and that when he visited 

 the New Forest in 1897 it was estimated that there were over 

 3000 ponies in the forest, about 2000 of which were brood mares. 

 These ponies have been crossed more or less with other breeds, 

 notably the Thoroughbred, Arab, Welsh, Exmoor, and Norwe- 

 gian. Very satisfactory results are said to have been derived 

 from the Arab and Thoroughbred cross. These ponies stand from 



1 The New Book of the Horse, Vol. I, p. 314. 



