WELL-BRED PONIES. 37 



If they increase to full fourteen and from thence up to fif- 

 teen hands, powerfully built, with short backs, round barrels, 

 deep, clean legs, coupled with lofty crest and carriage, fine 

 heads, the ability to carry foui-teen stone, or upward, at their 

 ease, to trot fourteen, or gallop eighteen, miles in the hour, 

 having two, or more, authenticated crosses of pure blood, they 

 are called cobs of the first class, command immense prices, often 

 above a hundred guineas, and are intrinsically, apart from the 

 consideration of money price, extremely valuable quadrupeds, 

 and much sought after, by men who ride heavy, and who ride 

 much, on the road. 



Still, they are not Scottish Galloways, nor any thing resem- 

 bling them — if only in the one point that the Scottish Galloway 

 could and did, and that the artificial Galloway cannot and does 

 not, transmit either its form or its qualities by hereditary de- 

 scent. 



Of the other English or British breeds, it is needless to speak 

 at large ; as most of them are known and imported, though rare- 

 ly, if ever, bred in this country ; and the others, which are not 

 known, have no interest attaching to them, as having no espe- 

 cial utility or adaptation for any purposes here. 



Tlie former are the little Shetlander ; rarely exceeding 

 twelve hands in height, and often much smaller ; which, for 

 such an atom of horseflesh, has greater weight-carrying power, 

 greater comparative speed, and greater endurance than any ani- 

 mal in the known world ; and the larger and less finely formed 

 Highland pony, which, while acknowledged inferior to the 

 genuine Sheltie, still possesses many of its qualities, especially 

 its hardihood, sure-footedness, power to carry weight, and gal- 

 lant endurance. In neatness of form and limb, it is inferior, as 

 much as it is superior in size, to the Shetlander ; yet the smaller 

 of the Highland ponies are frequently passed ofi" on those, who 

 are not first-rate judges, as their tiny northern cousins. 



Their great good-temper, docility, and sureness of foot, ren- 

 der them the best of all animals on which to put young chil- 

 dren, and they are commonly used for that purjDose in Amer- 

 ica ; the ass, which is decidedly better than the pony for giving 

 a firm seat and controlling hand, inasmuch as it is far more dif- 

 ficult to sit, and as it requires both a will and a way to 



