382 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK HI. 



When he encounters bogs or ice, he knows by simply sniffing at the 

 surface if it can carry him safely across ; and those who try to urge a 

 pony when once he has refused these surfaces are very ill-advised, and 

 repent of their action when they lie sprawling in the mud. 



The pony cannot be accused of lack of courage, although he is 

 cautious and judicious, as he does not hesitate to plunge into his 

 native voes and swim many of them a mile wide, against in many cases 

 rapid currents, for the purpose of joining the society of his kind, or for 

 enjoying more succulent pasture. 



Of the origin of the Welsh pony there is no trustworthy record. 

 Mr. W. Lort states that the breed has existed for more than a century, 

 and that from time to time it has received dashes of fresh blood from 

 foreign horses wrecked on the coast of Wales. A few still exist of 

 which the colours mostly listed yellow duns and dirty greys alone 

 remain to indicate their origin ; size is lost, and so are the lop ears 

 and heavy foreign neck. On some of the hills far removed from the 

 sea, as in the pony counties of Radnor and Montgomery, where 

 little or no alien blood has crept in, the ponies are truer in type, 

 although the characteristic drooping quarters, upright shoulders, and 

 calf knees prevail, and are an appreciable set-off to the blood heads, full 

 eyes, deep girth, and short legs usually met with in the Welsh pony. 

 At the crucial test, " the show," the Welsh pony of to-day almost 

 invariably succumbs to the improved pony, the one that has in his 

 veins the cross of the thoroughbred, and in his looks the carriage and 

 make of the dwarf hunter. 



One of the difficulties in the path of the pony breeder is to control 

 size, to compress into the least compass all the valuable qualities of 

 the breed. The most valuable pony that any breeder can set himself 

 the task of producing is, says Mr. C. W. Wilson, of Rigmaden Park, 

 the ideal one possessing good shoulders, perfect and true action, good 

 manners, and small head an animal that can carry an elderly gentleman 

 up to fifteen or sixteen stones weight, to whom the effort of mounting 

 a big horse is a source of discomfort. This is the highest point in 

 pony breeding, and it brings with it financial success, for such an 

 animal never goes a-begging. Ponies are not subject to side-bone, 

 ring-bone, or curb, nor to the thousand-and-one diseases and failings 

 that afflict their big brothers. 



A model pony fit for anything, and good for everything, should, 

 according to Mr. J. E. Backhouse, have in shape a champion prize 

 hunter's points, and in action should possess all the go and finish of a 

 perfect-stepping hackney. " Whenever the realisation of such an ideal 

 is found, cherish it as the apple of your eye, and never rest content 

 until you have purchased or bred such another. But where and when 

 shall we go to find such treasures of pony flesh is the necessary 

 question, and we own that the answer cannot be very definite, for it 

 is a case of seeking and searching without regard to time or labour. 

 There are two distinct varieties of ponies. 



" (1) The town or lowland bred pony. 



" (2) The moor or hill pony. 



