Welsh Ponies and Cobs. 
45 
14'2 hands (locally known as Aberhenwen-y-fccch ), similarly 
bred, stand out with others as conspicuous impressive sires of 
smaller ponies. It is worthy of remark that in these cases 
such ponies reverted to the smaller size of the dams, and in 
spite of their cob ancestry on one side, invariably retained the 
pony character. 
A similar experience in the case of thoroughbred and pony 
crosses is mentioned and explained in the Mountain and Moor- 
land Pony Commission, where attention is called to the fact 
that those thoroughbreds whose back lineage disclosed pony 
crosses were best adapted to mate with ponies. Rosewater , 
the celebrated Polo pony sire of so many excellent pony 
types, was cited as an instance. He was descended from 
Tramp (winner of the Derby in 1813) foaled in 1810, who was 
reputed to have twelve pony crosses on his family escutcheon. 
Science steps in and explains that animals with certain 
physical similarities due probably to a common origin in the 
past, mate satisfactorily, while animals with certain physical 
dissimilarities mate unsatisfactorily ; or, transcribed in Men- 
delian language, that homozygous mating, i.e. 9 animals with 
physical similarities, produces good, and heterozygous mating, 
i.e., animals with physical dissimilarities, indifferent results. 
What animals are homozygous one to another, and what are 
heterozygous can only be ascertained by experiment, a lengthy 
process, while the fact that the homozygous identity of 
characteristics may be of a limited nature enhances the 
difficulties of an interesting and deep problem. 
The Hackney and Welsh Cob Question. 
It is beyond contradiction that some Eastern Hackneys 
appear in the Welsh Stud Book. 
Had the system of registration at first been better thought 
out, the Hackney Stud Book would not have contained the 
names of Welsh cobs, or the Welsh Stud Book the names of 
Eastern Hackneys. Some arrangement should have been 
devised whereby when a Hackney was mated with a Welsh 
the result would have had to appear in a separate section as 
Foundation stock, and if mated back with a Welsh cob, the 
second progeny allowed a number in the Welsh Stud Book. 
A quarter outcross might have bettered rather than injured 
the type aimed at, and an occasional outcross of the Hackney 
or Thoroughbred might in some cases result in a slight 
rejuvenation or improvement of the aboriginals. 
Hackneys, however, now are no longer admissible for 
registration in the Welsh Stud Book, and by the system 
adopted of compiling the pedigrees the harm or confusion that 
might arise in studying old pedigrees is minimised. 
