76 Poxii;5— THEIR different breeds. 



for which trotters are preferable to jDacers. To whatever 

 cause it is due, the decline of the breed must be regretted. 

 It is doubtful whether it can ever be renewed or replaced, 

 and it was undoubtedly a pure race of rare powers. 



THE MEXICAN MUSTANG AND NORTHERN INDIAN PONY. 



We have treated of the principal races of ponies peculiar 

 to the Old World, and to those more particularly which 

 are remarkable for good qualities and are worthy of culti- 

 vation. We now come to the ponies of our own continent. 

 For although it is not to be denied that the horses of 

 America are all, in the beginning, traceable to a foreign 

 origin, and although avc have no distinct breed or family 

 of the full-sized horse which is not distinctly to be traced 

 back to some one particular European family, of which it 

 still preserves the principal characteristics, we have cer- 

 tainly two families of ponies which, thoughthey are pi'ob- 

 ably to be discovered originally in two European breeds 

 of larger size, differ from the original type so widely that 

 they may now be set down as distinct. These are the 

 Mexican Mustang and the Indian pony of the north^ 

 which are in themselves distinct breeds, although there is 

 undoubtedly growing up a hybrid race between the two. 



The Mustang of the ^fexican and Texan prairies, where 

 it has spread over much of the western country beyond 

 the Mississippi, is clearly of Spanish origin, and both has 

 and shows a considerable share of ^loorish blood. It is 

 under-sized, very slight-limbed, and often ill and dispro- 

 portionately made, with the neck or the back, or both, far 

 too long for either symmetry or strength. Their hoofs are 

 often very badly formed, and their posteriors are generally 

 weak, long and slender. On the other hand, they show 

 blood in the shape and setting on of their lean, long heads, 



