CHAPTER V 
THE PONY BREEDS OF HORSES 
By S. B. Elliot 
Pontes are fourteen hands two inches or under, and 
all equine breeds in which that limit is not exceeded are 
classed as pony breeds. All diminutive equines are 
characterized by being especially close and full made 
with an apparent ruggedness expressed in the unusual 
bone and muscular development which they possess. 
AMERICAN Pontgs. Fig. 23. 
187. The dividing line between the horse and the 
pony was vague and undefined until the Hackney Horse 
Society was established in England in 1883. All horses 
measuring fourteen hands or under were then designated 
ponies, and registered in a separate part of the stud-book. 
This standard of height was accepted and officially rec- 
ognized by leading agricultural and horse-show societies 
in England, and subsequently in America. In 1905, the 
American Hackney Horse Society increased the height 
of ponies to fourteen hands one inch, and in the case of 
polo ponies the limit of height had previously been raised 
to fourteen hands two inches, which is now the generally 
accepted pony standard. 
Adverse climatic conditions, promiscuous breeding 
and privation have had much to do with the development 
157 
