PONIES. 139 



adapted. In the first instance, it is obvious that the splendid 

 game of polo would become an impossibility, were no minia 

 ture steeds available and to hand for the accommodation 

 of the players. Nor could children learn to ride^ or old 

 gentlemen be safely carried in the park or on the moors, if 

 something up to weight and steady, and near to the ground, 

 were not provided to do their will. Then there is the 

 legion of timid individuals and invalids, who would shudder 

 at the bare idea of finding themselves on two wheels behind a 

 horse, but to whom the pony is quite a thing of joy and com- 

 fort, in which implicit reliance may be placed. Here, indeed, 

 is to be found a market, which it is impossible to believe that 

 an increased supply of the proper sort of pony not the goose- 

 rumped Russian specimens, or the cow-hocked productions of 

 some districts of England could possibly glut ; and more- 

 over, it may reasonably be anticipated that the popularity of 

 ponies would extend, as a knowledge of their value became 

 more widely recognised. 



Finally, some allusion must be made to the highest class 

 pony of all, and the most valuable, the trapper, with all round 

 action and good looks to attract the attention of the . un- 

 initiated and horsey men alike. How these little animals are 

 appreciated may best be gauged by the infallible test, the 

 money one, for the way that heads go nodding when a top- 

 sawyer comes up under the hammer, shows how difficult they 

 are to procure, and how highly prized they are when come 

 across. Any breeder who could turn out goers of about 13.2, 

 and good-looking to boot, would never be likely to receive an 

 unpleasant communication from his bankers regarding the 

 state of his balance, and with reasonable luck and judgment 

 would be a rich man in the course of a few years. Yet with 

 the knowledge of this fact before them, British horse breeders 

 have contented themselves with confining their attention to the 

 bigger breeds, with the result that the appearance of a new 

 pony at an Islington or Agricultural Show, is regarded as an 

 event in the annals of the equine year. 



