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be made of animals under 14-2 hands that are leading prize winners 

 or have passed the inspection of one of the judges, which implies 

 that they possess merit and are free from hereditary disease. 



One chief difficulty in breeding Polo Ponies is keeping down the 

 height to the prescribed limit. This makes drafts of mares from 

 the various Mountain and Fell ponies of the country invaluable as 

 foundation stock. Few have been bred with sufficient care to 

 enable them to be entered in the Stud Book, but, by breeding from 

 the best specimens of stallions that occur within the various breeds, 

 a better class of animal will be produced in another generation 

 among such ponies as the following: Welsh, Dartmoor, Exmoor, 

 New Forest, and Scotch West Highland. , So trying are the condi- 

 tions under which these ponies are reared in their natural habitats 

 that the introduction of refined blood by way of improvement would 

 so soften and otherwise weaken the constitution that the progeny 

 would either die out or become degenerated. This was recognised 

 as a prominent inducement for the admission of the various indi- 

 genous mountain breeds for registration, each in its own division, 

 in the Polo Pony Stud Book, and by registering such of them as are 

 likely to breed riding ponies, and, by periodically going back to 

 this fountain head of all ponies, it is hoped to regulate the size of 

 our high-class riding ponies to the desired limit, and at the same 

 time to infuse into their blood the hardiness of constitution, and 

 endurance combined with a fiery yet even temper, which are so 

 pre-eminently characteristic of the British native breeds. 



The Welsh Pony is one of the tallest and one of the best of the 

 Mountain breeds. A good many types exist owing to the introduc- 

 tion of alien blood of different sorts, and a great many of the mares 

 are too tall for producing Polo Ponies by a Thoroughbred or Arab 

 stallion; but it has been truly said of the animals in a pure state, 

 when they rarely exceed 12 to 12-2 hands, that "the indomitable 

 pluck, endurance and good temper of the Welsh pony, together 

 with his substance and dash, will be found an invaluable cross for 

 the Throughbred and Eastern-bred ponies." 



The New Forest Pony is another breed which possesses the 

 advantage of an Association devoted solely to its improvement. 

 It takes its name from the New Forest, a Crown property of 

 70000 acres in extent which was laid out as a Royal forest by 

 William the Conqueror. It is believed that horses have there 

 found a home for an extended period, although the type has been 

 subjected to change by the recent introduction of Thoroughbred 



