3o8 Mountain Pony : Value to Agriculture, july, 



that the materials received the roughest treatment in breaking 

 up hard ground and rough handhng by makeshift drivers 

 and mechanics. 



^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 



For some time past the Ministry has given attention to that 

 very interesting auxiHary to horse breeding, the mountain or 

 The Mountain Pony : moorland pony. Every year pony stal- 

 Its Value lions are brought to shows for judging and 

 to Agriculture. veterinary inspection, and the best and 

 most typical specimens of the breeds which it is desired to 

 perpetuate are awarded premiums. These premium^s, however, 

 are awarded only in those districts in which Regulations under 

 the Commons Act, 1908, have been made and are enforced, or 

 where, as in the case of the New Forest, similar regulations are 

 in force to prevent undesirable stallions from roaming at large. 

 Hard}'^ ponies run wild on the mountains, moorlands and com- 

 mons of Wales, on Dartmoor, Exmoor and in the New Forest, 

 where they have roamed for many generations. Their excellent 

 blood can be traced in the finest varieties of the hunter, the 

 racehorse, the hackne}^ and the polo pony, while the mountain 

 pony itself is often the best draught animal that the small 

 holder can desire. 



Strictly defined, a mountain or moorland pony is one whose 

 ancestors have lived half wild on mountain, moorland and 

 common for at least three generations. All breeds have prob- 

 ably a common origin — the ancient British pony — but they 

 have now become so differentiated as to constitute separate 

 breeds. The differentiation arises from such causes as the 

 selection for the particular kind of work they have been 

 required to perform ; the attempts that have been made from 

 time to time to improve the breed ; too close in-breeding ; and 

 breeding from immature, unsound or aged stock. The two 

 causes last mentioned have tended to bring about deterioration, 

 and on this matter it has been said that the history of any breed 

 of ponies is the story of man's neglect of them and his inter- 

 ference with their freedom. The better policy now in force 

 promises a steady improvement in a stock too valuable to be 

 left uncared for. It is sufficient testimony to the vigour, 

 vitality and native excellence of the pony that he is still found 

 in so perfect a state upon his native pastures. He can live 

 where sheep and cattle only die ; he has every instinct sharpened 

 by self-preservation, every limb tested by exertion, i nd he 

 fights his battle unaided, even in the restricted pastures of 

 wire-enclosed mountain spaces. These ponies, bred in the 



