44 
Welsh Ponies and Cobs. 
Mr. David Evans (Hon. Member of our Welsh Pony and Cob 
Society), the problem, so far as it affects the sire side of the 
question, has been solved, for it has been proved that Flyer , the 
sire of Old Trotting Comet was of the able-bodied carter type, 
or the Equus operarius of the 10th century, indigenous to our 
hillside country, but not to be confused with the large Midland 
shire of to-day. The Welsh carter was a lighter built animal 
which drew the light cart of the country, the gambo laden with 
trouse on the hillside, and which sometimes carried the farmer 
and his wife on his back to market. 
As to the histories of the dams of these trotting horses little 
if anything is known, save that their powers of endurance were 
generally ascribed, and with good reason, to thoroughbred 
influence, as the following will show : — 
In the County of Cardigan lived a sporting family of the 
name of Lovedon Pryse. Their dwelling place was Goggerdan, 
in the vicinity of Aberystwyth. For many years they kept 
racehorses. To enumerate a few, Buscot Buck (f. 1841, 
ex. the Reubens mare), a winner of many classical races, 
Cardinal Puff by Phamtom (f. 1820), Doctor Eady by 
Reubens (f. 1822), and another thoroughbred or two, one 
by name Bobtail , were used there for stud purposes. 
Although the Squires of Goggerdan kept a thoroughbred sire 
for their tenants, this generous privilege did not content them, 
as it is common gossip that surreptitious visits were arranged to 
be paid to the other stud horses. If the blanks in the pedigrees 
of Mr. Poole’s trotting mares, Captain Vaughan’s Trotting 
Nancy ( vide Pedigree of Old Trotting Comet), could be traced 
and properly filled in, it is more than likely that the well- 
known names of turf celebrities of a past day would be found 
therein. 
To many otheis in the Welsh Stud Book the same story of 
the introduction of thoroughbred blood would also apply. 
The famous Express II., alias Little Robin, went back on 
his dam’s side to the thoroughbred Potsheen, Express III. 
through Old Hereford , Cardigan Comet through True Briton 
(whose dam was Arabian ), and the Eiddwen Flyers and 
Beacons fields, through the before-mentioned Arab bred Cymro 
Llivyd. 
Inter-Breeding Between Welsh Cobs and Ponies. 
Some writers contend that all that is best in the Welsh cob 
comes from the mountain pony strain. 
The fact that the Welsh cobs were afterwards often mated 
with the smaller pony successfully admits of no doubt. 
Eiddwen I., 14*1 hands, by Old Welsh Flyer, and on the 
dam’s side sprung from pony sources, and Trotting Flyer, 
