2i8 The Book of the Horse. 



torty guineas each ; a blood bay filly, \2\ hands high, four years old — a perfect model of 

 what a hack pony should be — was sold unbroken for thirty guineas. These were, however, 

 the rare exceptions, and an average of /'12 to ^^15 was a poor return for a lot of good-looking 

 and useful ponies of from three to five years old. A cross between the mares of this breed 

 and a thoroughbred horse produces the blood-like animal of 14 hands high so much sought 

 for London use. But the unimproved Exmoor hills will not produce that half-bred pony, 

 and on the improved land sheep-stock pay better. 



The mares live on the hills all the winter, and seek certain favourite spots known to the 

 herdsmen, who build up stacks of rough hay well protected by stout rails, from which in 

 very hard winters they give out supplies to the snowed-out ponies. 



The weaned foals are now all sold from their dams at the Bampton fair in October ; none 

 are kept except two or three for use on the estate, so that the picturesque sight of a mare 

 with the progeny of three years is no longer to be seen. The sire in 1878 and for several 

 previous years was a tan-muzzle black of fine riding form and action, nearly, but not quite, 

 thoroughbred, and about 15 hands high. The progress of sheep-farming, assisted by growing root 

 and rape crops, has, while reducing the number, enabled Mr. Knight to improve the size of his 

 ponies, which have two great merits for family use — sure-footedness and hardy constitution. 

 Exmoors are sometimes grey, occasionally chestnut with white marks, after a remote ancestor, 

 the speedy Velocipede — but bay with mealy muzzle is the favourite Exmoor colour — rarely 

 black, and never piebald, although piebald Exmoors are constantly advertised in the London 

 papers. 



Exmoor ponies, both of Sir Thomas Acland's and Mr. Knight's breed, are to be found 

 in October at Bampton fair in reduced numbers, in fair competition with the other ponies of 

 the south-west. 



WELSH PONIES. 



With respect to Welsh ponies, both north and south, it is very difficult to say where the 

 districts to which they originally belonged begin and end. So many industries have been 

 established in Wales, so many mines and manufactories opened, so many watering-places 

 raised into importance, such numbers of settlers and summer travellers have been drawn 

 thither by the facilities created b)' good roads and railroads, that the Principality is no longer 

 isolated, and nearly all its live stock has been crossed by lowland breeds. Welsh ponies 

 early in this century were largely crossed by thoroughbred sto;k, with the usual result, fine 

 individual specimens, which were quite incapable of enduring the hardships of the native 

 mountain breeds. The best are bred in districts like that near Wynnstay, where farmers have 

 the use of Sir Watkin Wynne's blood sires. 



NEW FOREST PONIES. 



In the New Forest, which is Crown property, the wildest absence of all attempts at 

 breeding by rule has always prevailed. Three hundred persons enjoy rights of pasturage, under 

 which for the greater part of the year they turn their horses and ponies to graze in the 

 forest. Amongst these have always been stallions of all breeds, sizes, and ages, with every 

 kind of defect to which horseflesh is heir. These, enjoying promiscuous intercourse with the 

 mares, have raised uj) just such a mongrel race as might be expected from what Horace 

 Walpole described as the " daughter of nobody by the son of anybody." 



