How they may he Utilised hy Pony Breeding. 509 
all probability there would be a small amount of arable land 
round tke homestead, and if this was cultivated with the light 
Devonshire style of cart-mares active and hardy, the blood sire 
would do good service also amongst them, and some very useful 
stock Avould be the result. 
With the mares all properly mated, there would be little to 
do by the speculator, at any rate until foaling or, I should say, 
weaning time ; and the interval would be profitably employed 
in seeking out sheltered spots for enclosures with south aspects, 
where there was a prospect of better herbage, in stubbing up 
all gorse patches and sowing their sites with the grasses best 
suited to the soil, clearing brackens, and so forth, not to men- 
tion waging a war of extermination against rabbits and such 
vermin. In fact, he could hunt, shoot, and fish to his heart's 
content, for I suppose no one would undertake such a specula- 
tion who could not afford to wait until the return came. At 
weaning time, of course, all the young stock would be gathered 
together, put into sheltered places, and done as well as circum- 
stances would allow for the first winter. Then a selection of 
the best fillies would be made for stock, not to run wild on the 
hill all the year, but to be crossed again with blood sires of 
substance when old enough, and kept to some of the improved 
inclosures of which I have spoken. The rest would, in my 
opinion, pay best to get as forward as possible. A great deal 
of amusement may be got out of handling and gentling them, 
to any one really fond of horses. And at three or four years 
old, as the fancy and inclination of the owner may lead him to 
select, he ought to send some very saleable ponies into the 
market — good match pairs, polo ponies, covert hacks, and so 
forth. During the summer, those for sale may either run on 
the hill or have an enclosure to themselves. At two years 
old, at latest, they should be handled, for there is nothing like 
" manners " to sell any horse ; and with horses, as with children, 
manners cannot be inculcated too early. They should also be 
docked, if requiring it, and put generally into form as much as 
possible, so as to give each the peculiar style that best suits 
him. If the mares were well selected to begin with, and I pre- 
sume none but broad square ones loith action would be admitted, 
there would be sure to be a gem or two amongst them. " Don 
Carlos," Lord Calthorpe's celebrated hack, who afterwards, in 
Mr. Milward's hands, won several prizes as a pony sire, was 
bred in this way, by a thoroughbred horse out of a pony mare, 
and few nicer ones have ever been seen. It is, however, from 
the produce of the daughters of these mares and a blood sire, 
crossed again with blood or a very good trotting stallion, that 
I should look for ultimate profit, as these, both from their 
