142 LIGHT HORSES '. BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



contain the nutritious elements that are to be found in rich 

 pastures and luxurious lowlands. The little ones are unques- 

 tionably the children of the mountain and the uplands, and it 

 therefore must assuredly become the bounden duty of a 

 breeder to endeavour to imitate the teachings of Dame Nature, 

 and not oppose her by stuffing his youngsters with food which 

 no mountainous district could by any possibility supply. 



In making the assertion that ponies are the " children of the 

 mountain," the writer desires it to be clearly understood that 

 he does not imply that they cannot be bred on, or may not be 

 indigenous to, the lowlands of any country. At the same time 

 no dwarf breed of animal will retain the smallness of its 

 stature if raised for generations on a fertile soil and under a 

 genial climate. A i6-hands Arab, or anything like it, would 

 be a lusus natura, but it is a certainty that these desert - 

 created steeds are steadily increasing their height at shou Ider 

 so far as the English-born animals are concerned. 



It has been observed before in this chapter, that in-breeding 

 has to be practised in order to maintain the desired smallness 

 of a pony, and there is not much chance of the truth of this 

 assertion being combated by practical breeders. The very 

 history of the most famous varieties, be they Dartmoor or 

 Exmoor, New Forest or any other, confirms the accuracy of 

 the statement, and it usually occurs that a change of blood at 

 once has the result of raising the height and increasing the 

 substance of a strain, and continues to do so until by syste- 

 matic " sibbing" the effect of the new blood has worn itself out 

 in this respect. Considerable differences of opinion exist as to 

 how these in-breeding operations should be conducted, but 

 speaking generally, it is more advisable to breed father to 

 daughter and mother to son, than to adopt the cross of brother 

 and sister. Unquestionably most of the recognised varieties 

 of pony such as those raised on Dartmoor are very much 

 in-bred, and doubtless the juveniles would be of a far better 

 class than they are if some rational method of management 

 were adopted. It is no use to emasculate the most ill-favoured 



