438 THE COACH HORSE AND SHETLAND PONY. 



of the country, coach-horses and even roadsters have been 

 greatly dispensed with. Previously, the horse was an invaluable 

 servant, on whose speed all one's hopes and safety might depend 

 in the hour of need -, and there was a feeling of pleasure and 

 gratitude in contemplating the willing exertions of the animal 

 in our behalf. 



The SHETLAND PONY is a beautifully formed creature, and 

 is at once docile, hardy, and strong. Miss Sinclair, in her 

 Shetland and the Shetlanders (1840), says, " They are chiefly 

 running wild among the distant unenclosed hills of that island. 

 When w r ell fed from an early age, they grow nearly to the 

 height of a donkey -, but some years ago, Mr. Hay reared a 

 perfectly well-formed pony, which measured only twenty-six 

 inches high, not so tall as a moderate sized hobby-horse ! I 

 have heard sportsmen talk in praise of a horse that would 

 canter round a cabbage-leaf, but here was one literally capable 

 of doing so. The very largest men ride these tiny little creatures, 

 which appear at a distance, when racing rapidly along, as if 



