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succulent herbage found on low-lying lands 
produces on the horses pastured thereon ; 
and also with the contrary influence of sparse 
and meagre herbage growing on high lands 
with poor soil upon the horse-stock reared 
there 
At one end of the scale we have the 
heavy and massive shire horse which reaches 
its greatest size on lowland pastures whose 
grasses are luxuriant; at the other the 
mountain ponies, whose small size is in no 
small measure due to the scanty grazing 
available 
Such ponies are to be seen, for example, 
on the Welsh hills surrounding Llandrindod 
Wells. These half-wild animals vary from 
10 to 11 hands high ; their stunted growth 
is due to the poor feed on the mountains 
and exposure to the severity of the winters 
The object with the Thoroughbred is not 
to lay on fat, which animals grazed on rich 
lands have a tendency to do, but to. gain 
flesh which can be converted into muscle 
by work 
The deer of the mountains and the hare 
found on downs whose grass is poor rather 
than rich are proverbial for their activity, 
the result of muscular elasticity ; the same 
