90 CHOOSING A POLO PONY. [Chap. IV. 



climate, there are, I believe, many very good cow 

 ponies not over 14 hands, although they may be at 

 least three-quarters clean bred from English stock. 

 In Ireland, which, according to my experience, is far 

 the best country for ponies, the majority of those that 

 are suitable for polo are by thorough-bred hunting sires 

 out of well-bred hunting mares, or out of well-bred 

 pony mares. The fact that they are ponies and not 

 horses is generally due to their growth having been 

 arrested by starvation, especially during the first 

 winter, too early weaning, parental idiosyncrasy, or 

 to their being first foals. Plenty of good 14.2 English 

 ponies can be found, but only a few 14. i, and hardly 

 any 14 hands. When speaking of English ponies, 

 1 of course include Irish, Scotch, and Welsh ponies. 



If the would-be purchaser meets a likely unbroken 

 pony, such as that in Fig. 40, I would advise him, 

 unless he is anxious to try experiments, not to buy 

 it until it is broken, so that he might feel how the 

 animal would move under him. If, however, he is 

 willing to take the chance of the pony turning out 

 well, being probably stimulated thereto by the fact 

 that unbroken ponies are cheaper than "made" ones, 

 he should not conclude to purchase without looking 

 into the pony's pedigree, and, if possible, seeing the 

 dam. If she is well-bred and of the proper stamp for 

 a polo pony, and if the sire is thorough-bred English 

 or Arab, our friend will not do wrong to buy the 

 youngster at a fair price ; but if the dam is a com- 

 moner and the sire half-bred, he should have nothing 

 to do with the pony, no matter how good-looking it 

 may be. In fact, I would go further, and say that if 

 either the sire or dam was under-bred, the pony would 



