ExMOOR Ponies. 



215 



Exmoor ; his mode of cultivation rather opposed than encouraged the production of improved 

 permanent grass land, for which the soil and climate of these hills have since been proved to 

 be so well adapted. The great increase in the prices of sheep, cattle, and dairy produce, and 

 the improved facilities afforded by railways for reaching the Bristol and London markets, are 

 now rapidly augmenting the value of the grass lands of North Devon. 



" Coming, as we did, from a part of the country where ponies are the perquisites of old 

 ladies and little children, and where the nearer a well-shaped horse can be got to 16 hands the 

 better, the fiist feeling on mounting a rough, little, unkempt brute, fresh from the moor, barely 

 12 hands (48 inches) in height, was intensely ridiculous. It seemed as if the slighest mistake 

 would send the rider clean over the animal's head. But we learned soon that the indigenous 

 pony, in certain useful qualities, is not to be surpassed by animals of greater size and pretensions. 

 We crossed the stream, not by the narrow bridge, but by the ford, and passing through the 

 straggling stone village of Simon's Bath, arrived in sight of the field where the Tattersall of 

 the West was to sell the wild and tame horse-stock bred on the moors. It was a field of some 

 ten acres and a half, forming a very steep slope, with the upper part comparatively flat, the 

 sloping side broken by a stone quarry, and dotted over with huge blocks of quartz. At its 

 base flowed an arm of the stream we had found margining our route. A substantial, but, as the 

 event proved, not sufficiently high stone fence bounded the whole field. On the upper part a 

 sort of double pound, united by a narrow neck, with a gate at each end, had been constructed 

 of rails upwards of five feet in height. Into the first of these pounds, by ingenious management, 

 all the sale ponies, wild and tame, had been driven. When the sale commenced, it was the 

 duty of the herdsman to separate two at a time, and drive them through the narrow neck into 

 the pound before the auctioneer. Around a crowd of spectators of every degree were clustered 

 — squires and clergymen, horse-dealers and farmers from Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire 

 as well as South Devon and the immediate neighbourhood. 



" These ponies were the result of crosses made years ago with Dongola and thoroughbred 

 stallions on the indigenous race of Exmoors, since carefully culled from year to year, for the 

 purpose of securing the utmost amount of perfection among the stallions and mares reserved 

 for breeding purposes. 



"The modern Exmoor seldom exceeds 13 hands; has a well-shaped head, with very small 

 ears. The body is round, compact, and well ribbed, with good quarters and powerful hocks ; 

 legs straight, flat, and clean, the muscles well developed by early racing up and down steep 

 mountain sides while following their dams. In about forty lots the prevailing colours were bay, 

 brown, and grey ; chestnuts and blacks were less frequent, although black was one of the colours 

 of the original breed. 



"The sale was great fun. Perched on convenient rails, we had the whole scene before us — 

 the auctioneer, rather hoarse and quite matter-of-fact ; the ponies, wildly rushing about the 

 first enclosure, were with difficulty separated into pairs to be driven in the sale portion. When 

 fairly hemmed in through the open gate, they dashed, and made a sort of circus circuit, with 

 mane and tail erect, in a style that would draw great applause at Astley's. Then there was 

 the difficulty of deciding whether the figures marked in white on the animal's hind-quarters 

 were 8, or 3, or 5. Instead of the regular trot up and down of Tattersall's, a whisk of the cap 

 was sufficient to produce a tremendous caper. A very pretty exhibition was made by a little 

 mare with a late foal about the size of a setter dog. 



" The sale over, an amusing scene ensued. Every man who had bought a pony wanted 

 to catch it. In order to clear the way, each lot as sold, as wild and nearly as active as 



