HORSES AND STABLES 257 



of the provincials, he must, of course, have breeding 

 and pace, but where the country is hilly, where there 

 is more arable land than grass, and where there is a 

 good deal of scrambling about in rough and deep wood- 

 lands, then a clever, big pony is, as a rule, a capital 

 conveyance, and it is perhaps within the mark to sug- 

 gest that many of this class of animal carry far more 

 weight, in proportion, than big horses. Look at the 

 ponies one sees really heavy men riding at polo, and 

 look at some of the ponies which come into the ring 

 in the saddle classes at Islington every March. Some 

 of these classes are full of weight carriers, and hunt- 

 ing men who are content to ride a pony should bear 

 in mind that at the expense of a little trouble many 

 really good ones are to be picked up late in the 

 year. 



What perhaps is most against hunting a pony is that 

 many of the species do not spread themselves when 

 they jump, but go up and down, rising to a consider- 

 able height, but not covering a distance of ground. 

 Such ponies are of little use in a flying country, where 

 there is a ditch on one or both sides of the fence and 

 several feet in length to be covered at nearly every 

 jump, but in a stone-wall country or where there is a 

 good deal of timber they do wonderfully well, and of 

 course some of them can extend themselves as well as 

 go high. This high jumping, too, is often a feature 

 of the common-bred horse, and one such we knew 

 took a host of jumping prizes at the summer shows, 

 but was never sent to compete where there was a water 

 jump. At high jumping, at an in-and-out, even at a 

 bank he was an extraordinary performer, but in vain 

 his owner tried to get him to land clear over the water. 

 He would go at it and jump as far as he could, but 

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