BREEDING PONIES. 119 



horses nor men are (in the average) so hardy 

 as once they were, and probably also through 

 the same cause, the softer way in which 

 both live. 



In recomm.ending the thoroughbred cross 

 I include as a matter of course the pure 

 Arab, since such is admitted without question 

 into the British "Stud Book" ; and when you 

 can get him I know nothing better to use 

 with pony mares than this. Very few are 

 likely now to be imported into this country 

 for some time to come ; the enterprise of 

 such lovers of this superlative animal as 

 Mr. Wilfrid Bkmt and the Honourable 

 Miss Dillon, not having, I regret to say, 

 through lack of patronage and support, met 

 with the success it deserved. Nothing of 

 course, as Major Shakespear assures us, 

 can surpass the Arab blood for hunting, but 

 every light-weight imagines now-a-days that 

 he must ride a big horse ; and the occasions 

 for distance riding being now so infrequent, 



