THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. 17 



he witnessed were half-a-dozen powerful ponies from 

 Usbeck Tartary, called phooldars, which meausjlower- 

 marked. They were under thirteen hands high, and 

 of the most curious compound colours or marks that 

 can be imagined. A description cannot easily be 

 given, but it may be attempted. Suppose, in the 

 first place, that the animal is of a fine snow white ; 

 cover the white with large, irregular, bright bay spots ; 

 in the middle of these light bay let there be dark bay 

 marbled spots; at every six or eight inches plant 

 lozenge-shaped patches of a very dark iron grey ; then 

 sprinkle the whole with dark flea-bites. There is a 

 phooldar ! What a sensation one of these animals 

 would excite in the London Parks ! 



The horses of the Feroe Islands are of small 

 growth, but strong, swift, and sure of foot, going over 

 the roughest places, so that a man may more surely rely 

 on them than trust to his own feet. In Suderoe, one 

 of these islands, they have a lighter and swifter breed 

 than in any of the rest. On their backs the inha- 

 bitants pursue the sheep, which are wild in this 

 island ; the pony carries the man over places which 

 would be otherwise inaccessible to him follows his 

 rider over others enters into the full sport of the 

 chase, and even knocks down and holds the prey un- 

 der his feet until the rider can take possession of it. 

 B 2 



