THE WELSH PONY 



Julia M. Wade, Lafayette, Iiid. 



ORIGIN 



Li letters to a friend, afterwards printed, ^Irs. Olive Tilford 

 Dargen, who lias made an exliaiistive study of the Welsh pony, 

 writes, regarding their origin, that they were probably results 

 of a cross between the descendants of a species which Professor 

 James Corsar Ewart has named the Pony Celticus, which once 

 overspread Western Europe, and the military animals of the 

 J^omans, which in general were Gallic; that for four hundred 

 years the acclimated Arabian blood crept up the hills and among 

 the wildest herds — a slow infusion that left the pony still a pou^y^ 

 retaining all the hardihood that made life possible on the scanty- 

 herbaged peaks. 



Later the Welsh exchanged horses with the Celts, and '' the 

 once noted Irish hobble w^as often brought into Wales." 



The enthusiasm of the breeders of the eighteenth century im- 

 proved couditions. " Merlin, a descendent of the Byerly Turk, 

 after his brilliant years on the turf, was brought to Wales and 

 turned out with the ponies on the Ruabon hills to become the 

 founder of a famous and prolific line." 



RECENT HISTORY 



In 1900 The Welsh Pony and Cob Society was organized. 

 King George became a patron. Lord Tredegar was made first 

 president of the society which represented all the Shires of Wales 

 and the counties of Monmouth, Shropshire and Hereford. As 

 a result of this influence, parliament enacted certain laws bene- 

 ficial to the breed. Committees were appo-inted with power to 

 pass on stallions and clear the commons of all undesirables. Tn 

 Longmynd Eange it has been the custom for^he last twenty-five 

 years to have an annual drive and round-up, when all the ponies 

 are brought down, selected, sorted, the undesirables cast out, and 

 the others, excepting those picked for market or exchanged for 

 ponies of another run, sent back to freedom. 



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