60 



THE SHETLAND PONY. 



so little a creature far from being a blemish,) back short, quarters expanded 

 and powerful, legs flat and fine, and pretty round feet. They possess 

 . immense strength for their size, Avill fatten upon anything ; and are per- 

 fectly docile. One of them nine hands, or three feet in height, carried a 

 man of twelve stone, forty miles in one day. 



Our cut is the portrait of a Sheltie, the property of Lord Verulam, 

 painted by Mr. Ward. A friend of ours was, not long ago, presented with 

 one of these elegant little animals. He was several miles from home, and 

 puzzled how to convey his newly-acquired property. The Shetlander was 

 scarcely more than seven hands high, and as docile as he was beautiful. 

 " Can we not carry liim in your chaise?" said his friend. The strange 

 experiment was tried. The Sheltie was placed in the bottom of the gig-, 

 and covered up as well as could be managed with the apron ; a few bits of 

 bread kept him quiet ; and thus he was safely conveyed away, and exhibited 

 the curious spectacle of a horse riding in a gig. 



In the Southern parts of the kingdom the Shetlanders have a very pleas- 

 ing appearance, harnessed to a light garden chair, or carrying an almost 

 baby rider. There are several of them now running in Windsor Park. 



It has been disputed whether the pony and large English horse were, 

 or could be, originally from the same stock. The question is difficult to 

 answer. It is not impossible that they might have one common extrac- 

 tion, and, if we reflect on the effect of feeding, it is not so improbable as it 

 may at first appear. 



Mr. Parkinson * relates a circumstance very much to the point, that fell 

 under his observation His father had a mare that brought him no less 

 than fourteen colts, and all by the same horse, and not one of which at 

 three years old was under seventeen hands. She was in the fifteenth foal 

 by the same horse, when he sold her to a neighbouring farmer, reserving 

 the foal which was to be delivered in a twelvemonth. At her new master's 

 she was comparatively starved, and she came back at the expiration of the 

 year so altered as scarcely to I e recognised. The foal, four months old, 

 was very small. The little animal was put on the most luxuriant keep, 

 but it did not reach more than fifteen hands at the expiration of the third 

 year. 



* Parkinson on Breeding, and the Management of Live Stock; vol, ii. p. 139. 



