Vol. LV. No. 2433. 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 12, 1896 
AN AMERICAN SHETLAND PONY. 
A WORTHY RIVAI. OF THE BICYCLE. 
A Popular Piece of Horse Flesh. 
Part I. 
The bicycle craze has swept a good many boys and 
girls away from habits and ideas that most of us 
cherish as among the happiest of childhood’s memo¬ 
ries. The boy or girl of 20 years ago always had 
some pet animal to be loved and cared for. It was a 
hen or a dog, a calf, colt or sheep—some living ani¬ 
mal that grew up with them, and really seemed to 
share their childish troubles and joys. The work of 
training and mastering this living pet was a most 
useful drill for the boy or girl, for it taught lessons 
of patience, self-control and 
watchful care that could hardly 
be learned in any other way. 
The bicycle craze or habit has 
changed this, to a great extent. 
In many cases, the “ wheel” has 
taken the place of the living pet in 
the child’s life. While the wheel 
has, certainly, done its full share 
in the world’s development, it is, 
at best, only a machine. A child 
cannot love or pet a machine as 
it would a living animal, and it 
can generate no such spirit of 
companionship as will grow up 
between a boy and a dog or pony. 
Mr. D. II. Nash, of Millington, 
N. J., is one of those men who 
believe that it is an essential 
part of childhood to have the 
care and ownership of some liv¬ 
ing pet. His own children have 
grown up among farm animals. 
A big black dog, about the same 
age as the little boy, watches 
and guards his young master 
and mistress with more care, and 
a greater sense of responsibility, 
than any human beside their 
parents could be expected to as¬ 
sume. It is safe to say that the 
companionship of that noble old 
dog will help make a better man 
and a better woman out of that 
boy and girl. 
When the bicycle craze started, 
Mr. Nash saw that, some day, 
there would be a reaction among 
those parents who do not care to 
have their children waste all 
their love and sympathy on a 
steel machine. The desire to 
“go” and to get about easily 
from place to place, cannot be 
headed off. The b i c y 1 e has 
planted that desire so that it 
cannot be pulled out. The child must have something 
that will cost no more than a good wheel, and which 
will carry people about from place to place, and give 
the child a truer sense of responsibility and care. 
Mr. Nash decided that a well-bred Shetland pony 
answers these requirements better than anything else, 
and for a number of years, he has been breeding 
them. He visited the Shetland Islands in order to 
secure good stock, and to see how these little horses 
are kept and bred at home. 
In July, I visited Mr. Nash’s farm in order to see 
the ponies and learn something about them. A Shet¬ 
land is a dwarf horse. Its small size is due, chiefly, 
to the hard fare it has received on its native island. 
Exposure to cold and storm, with scanty food, has, 
through many generations, reduced its size and given 
it a rough, shaggy appearance. When brought to 
this country and given plenty of good food and com¬ 
fortable shelter, the Shetland grows larger. Mr. Nash 
says that, with several generations of heavy feeding 
and the best of care, he can produce a 1,000-pound 
horse from the original 500-pound pony. This is not 
desirable, however, for such a horse would have few, 
if any, points of superiority over a small Morgan or 
French-Canadian. The public want a Shetland about 
44 inches high, and one of the hardest things with 
which American breeders have to contend, is the ten¬ 
dency of the pony to increase in size under improved 
care. About the only way to prevent this increase, is 
to import new blood from Shetland. 
Though the size of the Shetland has been reduced 
by many generations of hard usage, its temper, vigor 
and intelligence seem to have been even bettered by 
the treatment it has received. A well-bred and 
trained Shetland is the most lovable, patient and 
“ knowing ” little animal that has ever held a place 
in the stable. At the same time, it is strong, sturdy 
and active. You may have seen some little, short, 
sturdy Frenchman or Italian raised in some poor 
district, where food was scanty and rough, and where 
home comforts were few. Under such conditions, 
some men would grow long and thin and consump¬ 
tive, but the little man simply turned into muscle 
and gnarl and tough fiber, so that you have been 
astonished at the amount of work he can turn off in 
a day. He does it all so good-naturedly, that it is a 
pleasure to see him at work. 
That man represents among his fellows, what the 
Shetland does among horses. There are other dwarf 
horses, however, and I asked Mr. Nash why he picked 
out the Shetlands. He has investigated them all. 
The Icelands, he says, compare well in size and 
strength with the Shetlands, but are dull and slug¬ 
gish and ugly in disposition. A child might as well 
have a donkey and be done with it, so far as intelli¬ 
gence is concerned. The Welsh and Exmoor ponies 
are quick and graceful, and many of them can, doubt¬ 
less, out travel the Shetlands; but they are inclined 
to be ugly and treacherous, and are not safe for 
children to drive. The Shetland is as good-natured 
as a sheep. A little child might play about its legs 
without fear of a kick or injury. The Shetland is 
not intended for grown-up peop’e 
to drive, but is above all a child’s 
animal. 
There is no use trying to claim 
that it can trot as fast as Maud 
S., or that it can haul a plow or 
a ton of hay. Your child does 
not weigh a ton, and you do not 
want the baby to go whirling 
over the road at a break-neck 
pace behind an excited horse. 
A child is sure to take some life- 
iniluence from its companions— 
even from its pets. No man 
would give his son a bulldog in 
preference to a collie, unless he 
wanted to make a fighter out of 
the boy. A Shetland possesses 
the qualities of dignity, patience 
and loyalty, to a greater extent 
than any other horse that a child 
can safely drive. The Shetland 
is a gentleman—that's what he 
is—and if your boy learns to love 
him, and care for him properly, 
the per cent of “horse sense” 
in that boy’s make-up will be 
considerably increased. Some of 
our readers may think that I 
spend too many words in talking 
about this side of the matter. I 
do not think that we have talked 
half enough about the influence 
of farm animals in developing 
character. The Jersey cow has 
not only increased the money 
output of the American dairy, 
but her influence has uncon¬ 
sciously gone deeper, and im¬ 
proved the social and moral side 
of every man or woman who has 
championed her cause. She is a 
dainty little lady among cows, 
and from the milker to the owner, 
everyone who brushes up against 
her, gets a little inspiration for 
something better in life. You may have dozens of 
horses on your farm, but the chances are that a Shet¬ 
land colt added to them, will give the children just 
what they need to make a closer link to tie them to 
the old home. 
Mr. Nash says that, sometimes, people with young 
children buy a little Shetland as soon as it is weaned. 
The little thing can be kept on the lawn or in a little 
house of its own. It grows up to be as much a mem¬ 
ber of the family as the dog, and will follow its 
master all over the house. When it is big enougli to 
be harnessed, the boy can take care of it himself. 
Hoy and pony are like two ebuins, and they will go 
driving about like comrades out on a vacation. As 
we said at the start, trier© are an increasing number 
of people who do not like to see their children giving 
