192 



X.— HORSES. 



HORSES have never been a strong feature in Westmorland, and 

 the only breed which has persisted is the hardy Fell Galloway, 

 which is now known as the Fell Pony. Pringle reports that the horses 

 " are small, not exceeding 14I hands in height, are said to be hardy, 

 but are neither strong nor handsome ; £16 or £iy is reckoned a good 

 price for a horse at 5 years old. Most commonly two, tho' sometimes 

 three, and in the western part of the county even four, are yoked 

 together in a plough. They are often turned upon the commons 

 during the intervals of labour." 



" The Galloway was a horse between thirteen and fourteen hands 

 in height," wrote Youatt in 1831, " once found in the south of Scotland, 

 on the shore of Solway Firth ; but now sadly degenerated, through the 

 attempts of the farmer to obtain a larger kind and better adapted 

 for the purpose of agriculture." " The pure Galloway is nearly 14 

 hands high and sometimes more, its qualities are speed, stoutness 

 and sure-footedness over very rugged and mountainous country." 

 As showing their endurance, he sites one belonging to a man called 

 Sinclair, of Kirkby Lonsdale, which performed the extraordinary 

 feat at Carlisle, in 1701, of a thousand miles in a thousand hours. 



The Fell Ponies or Galloways have been bred upon the fells and 

 high moors in Westmorland time out of mind, and they are bred there 

 to-day, though certainly in decreasing numbers. Their principal 

 centres are now restricted to the district round Kirkby Stephen and 

 the Bampton Fells over into Kentmere and the head of Longsleddale, 

 Orton and Ravenstonedale, with another centre in Cumberland, round 

 Keswick and Caldbeck. Some of the best and purest are to be found 

 in Durham with Middleton-in-Teesdale as the centre — Swaledale and 

 Sedbergh in Yorkshire are other centres, though in the latter district 

 they have been contaminated with Hackney Pony blood. They 

 run wild on the fells in lots of 10 to 30, and fully 50 per cent, of the 

 mares are served " lose headed." They receive no other food but 

 what they can pull, even in winter and in March after a hard winter, 

 they are poor, miserable-looking creatures, with their long, thick 



