Transcriber’s Note
Page 51 — precints changed to precincts
Page 72 — atttention changed to attention
Illustration labelled ‘H. F. Lucas Lucas’ Page 110 — is left
as printed.
The Footnotes have been changed from alpha to numeric.
PONIES PAST AND PRESENT
[Illustration:
_Painted by A. Cooper, R.A._ _Engraved on wood by F. Babbage._
THE SHOOTING PONY.]
PONIES
PAST AND PRESENT
BY
SIR WALTER GILBEY, BART.
ILLUSTRATED
VINTON & CO., LTD.,
9, NEW BRIDGE STREET, LONDON, E.C.
1900
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Introduction 1
The New Forest Pony 11
The Welsh Pony 25
The Exmoor and Dartmoor Ponies 38
The Cumberland and Westmoreland Ponies 53
Ireland—The Connemara Pony 63
The Ponies of Scotland and The Shetland Islands 71
Uses and Characteristics of the Pony 87
Breeding Polo Ponies 97
ILLUSTRATIONS.
The Shooting Pony Frontispiece
The Pony Hack To face page 25
Little Wonder II. 59
Child’s Shetland Pony 82
“Princess Victoria in her Pony Phaeton” 87
The First Leap 89
Arab “Mesaoud” 104
The Polo Pony “Sailor” 110
_The increasing attention which during the last few years has been
devoted to breeding ponies for various purposes, more especially for
polo, suggested the collection of facts relating to our half-wild races
of ponies. It will be seen from the following pages that we possess
large supplies of small but strong and sound constitutioned horses
which may be turned to far more valuable account than has been done
hitherto. The Polo Pony Society set the example of drawing attention
to the possibilities of utilising profitably the Moorland and Forest
Mares, and it is hoped that these pages may be of some interest to
those who are giving attention to pony breeding whether for polo or for
any other purpose._
[Illustration]
_Elsenham Hall, Essex,
August, 1900._
PONIES PAST AND PRESENT
INTRODUCTION.
In another volume, _Horses Past and Present_, brief reference has been
made to the early subjugation of the horse in Eastern countries by man;
and it is unnecessary here to further touch upon that phase of our
subject.
The early history of the horse in the British Islands is obscure.
The animal is not indigenous to the country, and it is supposed that
the original stock was brought to England many centuries before the
Christian era by the Phœnician navigators who visited the shores of
Cornwall to procure supplies of tin. However that may be, the first
historian who rendered any account of our islands for posterity found
here horses which he regarded as of exceptional merit. Julius Cæsar,
when he invaded Britain in the year 55 B.C., was greatly impressed
with the strength, handiness, and docility of the horses which the
ancient Britons drove in their war chariots; his laudatory description
of their merits includes no remark concerning their size, and from this
omission we may infer that they were not larger than the breeds of
horses with which Cæsar’s travels and conquests had already made him
acquainted.
There can be no doubt but that these chariot horses were small by
comparison with their descendants—the modern Shire horses;[1] they
probably did not often exceed 14 hands, and were therefore much on
a par in point of height with the horses Cæsar had seen in Spain
and elsewhere. It is unlikely that so shrewd an observer would have
refrained from comment on the point had the British horses been
superior in size, as they were in qualities, to the breeds he already
knew. It is doubtful indeed whether the horses of Britain gained in
stature to any material extent until the Saxons and Danes introduced
horses from the Continent. These being for military purposes would
have been stallions without exception, and being larger than the
British breed must have done something to produce increase of height
when crossed with our native mares.
[1] See “The Great Horse or War Horse.” By Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. 3rd
edition, 1899. Vinton & Co., Ltd.
This being the case, we are confronted with the difficulty of
distinguishing between the horses and ponies of these early times;
the chroniclers do not attempt to differentiate between “horse” and
“pony” as we understand the terms. The process of developing a big
horse was necessarily a slow one, from the system, or want of system,
which remained in vogue until the fifteenth century, and was still
in existence in some parts of England in Henry VIII.’s time. During
the long period the greater portion of the country lay under forest
and waste, it was the practice to let those mares which were kept
solely for breeding purposes run at large in the woodlands, unbroken
and unhandled. Doomsday Book contains frequent mention of _equæ
silvestres_, _equæ silvaticæ_, or _equæ indomitæ_ when enumerating
the live stock on a manor; and there is evidence to show that these
animals (always mares, it will be observed) were under a modified
degree of supervision. They were branded to prove their ownership,
and during the summer selected mares appear to have been “rounded
up” to an enclosure in the forest for service. Apart from this they
ranged the country at large, strangers alike to collar and bridle. It
would be unreasonable to suppose that the mares which were employed in
agricultural work were not also used for breeding; the surroundings of
the farmer’s mare in those days were not luxurious, but she undoubtedly
enjoyed shelter from the rigours of winter and more nourishing
food than her woodland sister. Hence it is probable that the first
differences in size, make and shape among English horses may be traced
to their domestic or woodland ancestry on the dam’s side.
The life led by these _equæ indomitæ_ made for hardiness of
constitution, soundness of limb, surefootedness, and small stature; and
we venture to think that the half-wild ponies England possesses to-day
in the New Forest, Exmoor, Wales and the Fell country are (or were,
until comparatively modern endeavours were made to improve them) the
lineal descendants of the woodland stock which is frequently referred
to in ancient records, and which in 1535 and 1541 Henry VIII. made
vigorous attempts to exterminate.
The law of 1535 (26 Henry VIII.) declares:—
“For that in many and most places of this realm, commonly little
horses and nags of small stature and value be suffered to
depasture, and also to cover mares and felys of very small stature,
by reason whereof the breed of good and strong horses of this
realm is now lately diminished, altered and decayed, and further
is likely to decay if speedy remedy be not sooner provided in that
behalf.
“It is provided that all owners or fermers of parks and enclosed
grounds of the extent of one mile in compass shall keep two mares,
apt and able to bear foals of the altitude or height of 13 handfuls
at least, upon pain of 40s.
“A penalty of 40s. is imposed on the Lords, Owners, and Fermers of
all parks and grounds enclosed, as is above rehearsed, who shall
willingly suffer any of the said mares to be covered or kept with
any Stoned Horse under the stature of 14 handfuls.”
This Act applied only to enclosed areas, and therefore would not affect
the wild ponies in any appreciable degree: but six years later another
Act was passed (32 Henry VIII., c. 13) which provided that—
“No person shall put in any forest, chase, moor, heath, common,
or waste (where mares and fillies are used to be kept) any stoned
horse above the age of two years, not being fifteen hands high
within the Shires and territories of Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge,
Buckingham, Huntingdon, Essex, Kent, South Hampshire, North
Wiltshire, Oxford, Berkshire, Worcester, Gloucester, Somerset,
South Wales, Bedford, Warwick, Northampton, Yorkshire, Cheshire,
Staffordshire, Lancashire, Salop, Leicester, Hereford and Lincoln.
And furthermore, be it enacted, that if in any of the said drifts
there shall be found any mare, filly, foal, or gelding that then
shall be thought not to be able nor like to grow to be able to
bear foals of reasonable stature or not able nor like to grow to
be able to do profitable labours by the discretions of the drivers
aforesaid or of the more number of them, then the same driver or
drivers shall cause the same unprofitable beasts ... every of them
to be killed, and the bodies of them to be buried in the ground, as
no annoyance thereby shall come or grow to the people, those near
inhabiting or thither resorting.”
This enactment was of a more far-reaching character than its
forerunner. The “shires and territories” enumerated were those in
which greatest attention was paid to the breeding of Great Horses;
“profitable labours,” in those times, could only mean military service,
agricultural work, and perhaps pack transport, for any of which
purposes the woodland ponies were useless. How far the law proved
effectual is another matter: laws more nearly affecting the welfare of
the subject were less honoured in the observance than the breach in the
remoter parts of the kingdom in those times.
In 1566, when Elizabeth was on the throne, Thomas Blundeville, of
Newton Flotman, wrote a book on _Horses and Riding_; and prefaced it
by an “Epistle dedicatorie” to Robert Lord Dudley, Master of the Horse,
which begins:
“It would be the means that the Queen may not only cause such
statutes touching the breeding of Horses upon Commons to be put in
execution: but also that all such parks within the Realme as be
in Her Highnesse hands and meet for that purpose might not wholly
be employed to the keeping of Deer (which is altogether without
profit), but partly to the necessary breeding of Horses for service
[_i.e._, military service] whereof this Realme of all others at
this instant hath greatest need.”
It would appear, therefore, that Henry’s laws had become a dead letter,
or something very like it, within twenty-five years of its finding
place on the Statute Book. It was afterwards repealed in respect of
certain counties by Queen Elizabeth and James I. (for particulars see
p. 26 and p. 33, “Horses Past and Present.”)
These various early edicts no doubt produced some result in the more
central parts of England, though, as we gather from Blundeville’s
“Epistle,” those charged with their administration failed to enforce
them in areas more remote. A certain amount of driving and killing no
doubt was done, but probably no more than enough to make the herds
wilder than before and send them in search of safety to the most
inaccessible districts. The natural result of this would be to preserve
the breeds in greater purity than would have been the case had they
been allowed to intermingle with horses which, after the harvest was
carried, were turned out to graze at will over the unfenced fields and
commons. It is worth glancing at these items of horse legislation to
discover that the half-wild ponies have survived, not by grace of man’s
aid or protection, but in defiance of his endeavours to stamp them out.
Nearly a century later (1658) the Duke of Newcastle published his work
on the _Feeding, Dressing and Training of Horses for the Great Saddle_
and therein, urged strongly the desirability of discouraging the
breeding of ponies. The records of subsequent reigns show occasional
endeavour to improve by legislation the breeds of horses needed for
military purposes, tournaments, racing and sport, but until we come
to the time of George II. we find no _positive_ attempt to discourage
the breeding of ponies. An Act passed in 1740 was definite enough in
the purpose it sought to attain. This was the suppression of races by
“poneys” and other small or weak horses.
Under this law matches for prizes under £50 were forbidden, save at
Newmarket and Black Hambleton, and the weights to be carried by horses
were fixed at 10 st. for a five-year-old, 11 st. for a six-year-old and
12 st. for a seven-year-old horse. This statute had two-fold intention:
it was framed “not only to prevent the encouragement of a vile and
paltry breed of horses, but likewise to remove all temptation from the
lower class of people who constantly attend these races, to the great
loss of time and hindrance of labour, and whose behaviour still calls
for stricter regulations to curb their licentiousness and correct their
manners.”
During the present century organised effort to improve these breeds has
followed recognition of their possibilities for usefulness, and in few
localities, if any, does the original stock remain pure. In Devonshire,
Hampshire, Wales, Cumberland, the Highlands, Shetland, and in the West
of Ireland, the original strains have been intermingled and alien blood
introduced. Small Thoroughbred, Arab and Hackney sires have produced
new and improved breeds less fitted to withstand the rigours of winter
and the effects of scanty food contingent on independent and useless
existence, but infinitely better calculated to serve the interests of
mankind.
Before the establishment of the Hackney Horse Society in 1883 the
dividing line between the horse and the pony in England was vague and
undefined. It was then found necessary to distinguish clearly between
horses and ponies, and accordingly all animals measuring 14 hands or
under were designated “ponies,” and registered in a separate part of
the Stud Book. This record of height, with other particulars as to
breeding, &c., serves to direct breeders in their choice of sires and
dams. The standard of height established by the Hackney Horse Society
was accepted and officially recognised by the Royal Agricultural
Society in 1889, when the prize list for the Windsor Show contained
pony classes for animals not exceeding 14 hands. The altered Polo-rule
which fixes the limit of height at 14 hands 2 inches may be productive
of some little confusion; but for all other purposes 14 hands is the
recognised maximum height of a pony. Prior to 1883 small horses were
called indifferently galloways hobbies, cobs, or ponies, irrespective
of their height.
THE NEW FOREST PONY.
The New Forest in Hampshire now cover some 63,000 acres of which about
42,000 acres are common pasture, the remaining 21,000 acres having been
enclosed in 1851 for the growth of timber. The greater portion of the
common land is poor and boggy moor, and on these areas ponies have been
bred in a semi-wild state from the earliest times. It is considered
more than probable that the New Forest ponies are the survival of the
stock which, before the time of Canute (1017-1035), was found in the
district formerly called Ytene, and which was afforested in the year
1072 by the Conqueror.[2]
[2] Mr. W. J. C. Moens, in a pamphlet printed for private circulation.
Henry III. (1216-1272), on 15th March, 1217, ordered the Warden of the
pony stud kept in the New Forest to give to the Monks of Beaulieu all
the profits accruing from the droves from that date till November,
1220, this donation being for the benefit of the soul of his late
father, King John. Thus it is evident that the New Forest ponies of the
thirteenth century were numerous enough to form a source of revenue to
the Crown.
The remote history of the breed need not concern us; for it was not
until comparatively recent times that any endeavour was made towards
the improvement of the “forester,” as it is called. The first infusion
of alien blood likely to be beneficial seems to have been made about
1766; and the circumstances under which this fresh blood was introduced
are interesting. In 1750, H.R.H. the Duke of Cumberland acquired by
exchange a thoroughbred foal from his breeder, Mr. John Hutton. The
animal was named Marske, and was run at Newmarket: achieving no great
success on the turf, he was put to the stud, but up to the time of
the Duke’s death his progeny had done nothing to win reputation for
their sire. When the Duke died, in 1765, his horses were sold at
Tattersall’s, and Marske was knocked down “for a song” to a Dorsetshire
farmer. The farmer kept him in the New Forest district, and here Marske
the sire of Eclipse served mares at a fee of half-a-guinea, till his
famous son achieved celebrity. Eclipse was foaled in 1764, won his
first race on 3rd April, 1769, at Epsom, and made his name in a single
season on the turf.
For four years at least, therefore (until Mr. Wildman ferreted out
“the sire of Eclipse” and bought him for £20 to go to Yorkshire),
the New Forest breed of ponies were being improved by the very best
thoroughbred blood, the effects of which continued to be apparent for
many years after Marske had left the district.
It is at least probable that Marske ran in the Forest during the
lifetime of the Duke of Cumberland; for that prince was Warden of
the New Forest, and evidence is forthcoming to show that he made a
systematic attempt to better the stamp of pony.
For many decades after this infusion of thoroughbred blood nothing was
done to maintain the improvement made. On the contrary, the demand for
New Forest ponies increased, and the commoners took advantage of the
higher prices obtainable to sell the best of their young stock; thus
the breed steadily degenerated, until the late Prince Consort sent a
grey Arab stallion to stand at New Park. The effects of this fresh
strain of blood were soon evident; but history, as exemplified by the
beneficial results of Marske’s service, repeated itself; the commoners
were too ready to sell the pick of the young animals, whereby the
benefits which should have accrued were heavily discounted.
It must be explained that the large breeders have running in the
Forest a hundred ponies, or even more; many breeders possess forty or
fifty, while the small occupiers own as many as they can keep during
the winter. Their sole responsibility to the Crown in respect of the
ponies is the “marking fee” (raised in 1897 from eighteen pence to two
shillings per head), which goes to the Verderer’s Court. The marking
system enables the Court to know how many ponies are running in the
Forest, and the latest census showed about 3,000 animals, of which it
was estimated some 1,800 were breeding mares.
From spring to autumn the droves range the Forest at will, affecting,
of course, the best pasturage, or, in the heat of summer, the shadiest
localities; in winter about 1800 ponies are taken into pastures, the
remaining 1200 being left at large.
It is to be observed that the most profitable animals are the hardy
ones, which run in the Forest all the year round. The majority of the
young animals are handled only for the purpose of marking, and are
never, if possible, driven off their own ground. Thus, unless strange
stallions are used, it is very difficult to change the blood, the
forest-born stallion remaining in his own locality and collecting his
own harem around him. “In-and-in” breeding is therefore inevitable.
Besides these 3,000 it is estimated that about the Forest neighbourhood
some 2,000 ponies are worked in light carts and other vehicles, and,
as many of these ponies are used for breeding purposes, it will be
seen what an important source of pony supply we have in the New Forest
district.
When the influence of the Arab sire sent by the Prince Consort
ceased to be felt, degeneration again set in, the decreased prices
brought by ponies at the fairs proving conclusively how the breed
was deteriorating. To combat the evil the Court of Verderers in 1885
hired four well-bred stallions, which were kept by the “Agisters,”
or markers of ponies, for the service of commoners’ mares at nominal
fees. Two seasons’ experience proved that funds would not bear the
strain, and the horses were sold; with the less hesitation because it
was found that in the absence of any inducement to the breeders to
retain promising young stock, good foals and bad were alike sent for
sale to the fairs. Moreover, the wild mares were not of course covered
by these stallions, and the majority of the New Forest stock obtained
no benefit from their presence in the district. The “ponies in hand,”
nevertheless, were more than sufficiently numerous to be considered,
and in 1889 it was arranged to provide the necessary inducement to keep
promising youngsters by giving premiums at a stallion show in April of
each year, winners of premiums to run in the Forest till the following
August; and this scheme has been productive of very marked results in
the way of keeping good stock to reproduce their kind. Her Majesty
in 1889 lent two Arab stallions, Abeyan and Yirassan, for use in the
district, and these, remaining for two and three seasons respectively,
did much good. A son of the former, out of a Welsh mare, now stands in
the district. His owner, Mr. Moens, states that his produce show great
improvement, and his services are in eager demand among the commoners.
The general improvement in the Forest ponies since 1890 is very
striking.
Lack of funds has seriously handicapped the New Forest Pony Association
in its work, and the burden of carrying out the programme has fallen
upon the shoulders of a few. Conspicuous among those who have borne
the lion’s share of the task is Lord Arthur Cecil, who now turns out
no fewer than twenty-two stallions for the benefit of the commoners
generally. For many years past Lord Arthur has interested himself in
the improvement of the breed; he has been using with much success
stallions of a distinct and pure breed from the Island of Rum off the
West coast of Scotland. These are the original Black Galloways which
were found in a wild state on the island in 1840 by the late Marquis
of Salisbury, and were always kept pure. Lord Arthur secured the whole
stock in the year 1888. I cannot do better than give, practically in
its entirety, his interesting letter on the subject of the ponies which
for the last ten years have been increasingly used in the New Forest so
much to the advantage of the breed:
“The Rum ponies which were much thought of by my father seem to
be quite a type of themselves, having characteristics which would
almost enable one to recognise them anywhere. Every one of those
I bought in 1888 had _hazel_, not _brown_ eyes; and though only
a small boy in 1862, when six or seven of those ponies came to
Hatfield, I can remember that they also had the hazel eye. They
have, almost without exception, very good hind-quarters, with the
tail well set up; and it is in this respect that I hope they will
do good in the New Forest. On the other hand, they have big plain
heads which are not liked by the commoners. This defect, however,
is rapidly disappearing with good keep, as it does with all breeds
of ponies.
“After I bought the ponies in 1888 and began breeding I was at a
loss to know how to continue the breed, as I could not well use
the stallion which accompanied the mares to his own progeny. I
remembered having seen at the Highland and Agricultural Society’s
Show, in 1883, a stallion which had interested me very much, being
exactly like the ponies I remembered coming to Hatfield. I enclose
... copy of a letter[3] received from his breeder.
[3] “The pony, Highland Laddie ... was bred by us at Coulmore,
Ross-shire; being the youngest, I think, of seven foals thrown by
the black mare, Polly, to Allan Kingsburgh (Lord Lovat’s stallion)
... and, as far as I know, Polly was never covered by any other
horse. Most of her foals, if not all, were shown by us and won
prizes at country and the Highland Agricultural Society’s Meetings
in the North. Her third foal, Glen, a jet-black stallion, took 2nd
prize in his class at the Aberdeen Show in 1880 (I think), and
again took the medal for pony stallions at Perth in 1881 or 1882.
At the same show Polly’s second foal, Blackie, took second prize
in the gelding class, and her fourth foal (the eldest of the bay
mares), shown at Inverness by McKenzie of Kintail, would easily
have taken a prize in her class but for an accident on the railway
or ferry ... which lamed her for the meeting. Your pony has, of
course, the same pedigree as those.... The Rum ponies were always
supposed to be pure, as the Marquis of Salisbury was known to take
a great interest in the breed ... though not sure, I believe a pony
stallion of another strain, a dun with black mane and tail (Lord
Ronald) was sold by my father to go to Rum.... Allan Kingsburgh
and Polly were both bred by my father.... Allan’s dam was a bay
mare, Polly’s was a grey named Maria. I know the stock from which
both came: it was brought long ago from Glenelg and bred and kept
pure by my grandfather and ancestors who lived in Glenelg when
that Barony belonged to the MacLeod of MacLeods. I am not sure of
the sires of either Allan or Polly, but know they were both pure
Highland. One, I think, was Lord Ronald which I formerly mentioned,
and the other a pony belonging to a Mr. Stewart in Skye (a known
breeder of Highland cattle).”
... It is curious that I should have thus dropped on to exactly the
same kind of thing that my father is supposed to have used; he used
the same blood years ago in Lord Ronald.
“I think what first interested me so much in these ponies was
that, as long ago as I can remember anything, I heard my father
describing them to old Lord Cowley and the Duke of Wellington. He
told them how like the Spanish horses he had thought the ponies
in 1845; and mentioned how he had turned down a stallion on the
island and a Spanish jackass—some of the mules are still (1889)
at Hatfield. He also said that he saw no reason why they should
not be descended from some of the Spanish Armada horses which were
wrecked on that coast. When the ponies—most of them stallions—came
to Hatfield in 1862, I remember some of them broke out of the
station; it took several days to catch them again. They were almost
unbreakable, but my brother, Lionel, and I managed to get two of
them sufficiently quiet for _us_ to ride, though they would not
have been considered safe conveyances for an elderly gentleman.
We were never quite sure of their age, but they must have been
nearly thirty when they died. I believe my father had intended
these ponies to be kept entire, but they were so hopelessly savage
they had to be cut. They could trot twelve miles in fifty-five
minutes after they were twenty years old, and could gallop and jump
anything in the saddle.
“My father’s theory about the Spanish Armada receives curious
corroboration in the well-known fact that a galleon lies sunk in
Tobermory Bay; while, in the “Armada” number of the _Illustrated
London News_ which was published in 1888 (the same year that I
bought the ponies), there was a small map which showed the storms
off the North and West of Scotland, which are almost exactly
coincident with the occurrence of this particular type of pony,
though no place was so favourable for breeding a type as a remote
island like Rum.
“When my mother visited Rum the people of the adjacent island of
Canna gave her a pony mare which I also remember, very old, at
Hatfield. She was a rich cream colour; she threw a foal which had
all the characteristics, the hazel eye, long croup and big head.
“I have noticed all the deer-stalking ponies I could see on the
look-out for some of these characteristics; but, with the exception
of the hazel eye and a somewhat strong inclination towards
blackness in colour, I cannot say that I have seen much trace of
the same kind of pony on the mainland in Scotland. This, however,
is no doubt rather through crossing with other strains than because
they have not some of the original blood; and I feel sure that the
Galloway of olden days was of the same type, though that term has
now come to mean something quite different and in no way connected
with the district on the West Coast of Scotland.
“The hazel eye is not uncommon on Exmoor, and occurs in the Welsh
pony. It would be a very interesting study to try and trace the
tendency to show that colour; it would, I think, throw light on the
ancestry of many horses and ponies; or, at least, it would reveal
many curious instances of _reversion_.”
Lord Arthur, in conclusion, deprecates the susceptibility of pony
breeders generally to the influence of fashion; he is of opinion
that efforts made in some districts to increase size, while efforts
elsewhere are directed to its reduction, cannot in the long run be
beneficial; whereas, if Nature were allowed to determine the size of
pony suitable for each locality, valuable results might be obtained
by crossing the different breeds. It is quite certain that the
perpetuation of a breed larger than the character of the country and
pasture can support can only be secured by the constant introduction of
alien blood, which in course of time will completely alter the local
stamp, and not necessarily for the better.
The Hon. Gerald Lascelles, Deputy Surveyor of the New Forest, has
said of this locality: “You have a magnificent run for your ponies.
Your mares might breed from ponies of almost any quality.... Ponies
running out all winter in the mountains of Ireland and of Wales, on
Exmoor, in Cornwall, and on the Cumberland and Yorkshire fells, have a
far worse climate to face than that of the New Forest, and no better
pasture. Such ponies would laugh at the hardships of the New Forest.”
The New Forest pony is perhaps less hardy than some of the hill breeds,
but his constitution is quite robust enough to be one of his most
valuable attributes; and opinions are not unnaturally divided as to the
desirability of increasing his size, if gain of inches mean sacrifice
of hardiness. Thirteen hands was the height the Forest breeders
formerly admitted to be the maximum desirable; but of recent years
their views on this point have been somewhat enlarged.
The close resemblance of the Rum ponies to the native of the New Forest
marks out these stallions as peculiarly suitable for crossing purposes.
For this reason, and also because their number must exercise strong and
speedy influence upon the wild Forest mares, the foregoing particulars
have been given in detail.
Lord Arthur believes that the Welsh pony stallion of about 13·1 or 13·2
would be as good a cross for the New Forest pony as any now obtainable.
Lord Ebrington, who bought Exmoor and the Simonsbath stud of improved
Exmoor ponies, lent one of his stallions to the New Forest Association
in the summer of 1898, and this sire has done good service among the
wild mares.
When broken the New Forest ponies are generally far more spirited than
the ordinary run of British ponies. The practice of using the “ponies
in hand” for driving the wild mobs to be branded, &c., teaches them to
turn quickly and gallop collectedly on rough ground; they thus acquire
great cleverness.
As regards their market value, the following letter from Mr. W. J. C.
Moens, a most energetic member of the Council of the Association,
gives the best idea.
“At the last Ringwood Fair, December 11th, 1897, there was a larger
outside demand for suckers than ever experienced; buyers coming
from Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Essex, Somersetshire and Dorsetshire.
The prices ran from £4 to £6 10s.; the larger dealers buying about
fifty to sixty each, which they trucked (25 to 30 in a truck)
away by rail. One lot of about 55 were sold at once by auction at
Brighton, and realised £6, £7 and £8 each, one fetching £10. The
foals improve enormously on good keep. Our Forest feed is hardly
good enough; on richer lands the ponies grow nearly a hand higher
and get more substance. Since our Association has improved the
breed, of late years, very many have gone to the Kent Marshes,
where they are highly thought of, very much more so than the
Dartmoor ponies. Yearlings at last Lyndhurst Pony Fair, in August,
fetched £5 to £8, but the average was spoiled by two large sales
by auction of ‘lane haunters’—old mares and other cast-offs—which
realised small prices.... I have seen some of our improved ponies
at Hastings and elsewhere, broken in, and about five years old.
They are much valued and sell for about £25.... The general
improvement since 1889 or 1890 is very marked; and, though there
was some opposition to the idea of bettering ‘the real Forester’ at
first, now all admit the benefit of the work.”
For the information of those interested in this breed, the following
description, furnished to the Polo Pony Society for their Stud Book
(vol. v.) by the New Forest Local Committee, may be quoted:
_For the New Forest pony it is difficult to give any exact
description, but the best class of them are from 12 hands to 13
hands 2 inches high according to the portion of the Forest on which
they are reared. If taken off the Forest when they are weaned and
well kept during the first two winters, they are said very often
to attain the size of 14 hands 1 inch. There is sometimes an
apparent deficiency of bone, but what there is should be of the
very best quality. The feet are wide and well formed. They are
often considered goose-rumped, but their hocks should be all that
could be desired. In colour they may be said to range through every
variety, though there are not many duns, and few if any piebalds
left. The flea-bitten greys which are still very numerous on the
Forest show strong traces of an Arab cross. The shoulders, though
not always what might be desired in point of depth, are almost
invariably fine and well laid. It is a great characteristic of the
New Forest pony to be always gay and alert, and, though they are
extremely good-tempered and docile when fairly broken, they are
quite indomitable until they are completely cornered. The true
Forester is never sulky._
[Illustration:
A PONY HACK.
_Engraved on wood by F. Babbage._
A pony well-known on Newmarket Heath and North Country racecourses
about 1828.]
THE WELSH PONY.
At the period when Wales was an independent kingdom live stock was
protected by a singularly comprehensive series of laws. These were
originally codified by Howel Dda (the Good), a prince who reigned from
A.D. 942 to 948, and at a somewhat later period they were embodied in
three distinct legal codes, the Venedotian, Dimetian and Gwentian,
applicable respectively to North, South and South-eastern Wales,
conforming to the local customs which prevailed in each area. Under
these laws no Welsh serf was permitted to sell a stallion without the
permission of his lord. The value of a horse (or, accurately speaking,
pony, as the hill ponies were the only equine stock the country
possessed in those days) was laid down without regard to individual
merit till he reached his third year. A foal until a fortnight old was
worth four pence; from the fifteenth day of his age till one year old,
24 pence; when a year and one day old he was worth 48 pence, and stood
at that value till he began his third year when he was valued at 60
pence. When in his third year he was broken in, and his value depended
on the work he was fitted for. A palfrey or sumpter horse was valued
at 120 pence, and a working horse to draw cart or harrow 60 pence. It
was not permissible to use horses, mares or cows for ploughing for fear
of injury; oxen only might be employed for such labour. Any entire male
animal was worth three females; thus a wild stallion was worth nine
score pence to the mare’s value of three score pence.
If a horse were sold he was to be warranted against staggers for three
nights, against “black strangles”[4] for three months, and against
farcy for a year. He was to be warranted against restiveness until the
purchaser should have ridden him three times “amid concourse of men and
horses;” and if he proved restive the seller had to refund one third of
the price he had received.
[4] The commentators believe the disease so termed to be glanders; but
inasmuch as the warranty against farcy held good for twelve months,
perhaps we should accept this reading with reserve.
The value of each part of the horse was strictly specified by these
laws; the worth of his foot was equal to his full value; each eye
was esteemed worth one third of his full value. For every blemish in
a horse one third of the total worth was to be returned, his ears
and tail included: a not obscure hint that cropping and docking were
practised in Wales at this period, and that opinions varied concerning
the desirability of the operations. That docking was in vogue is
certain, for a special clause makes the “tail of a filly for common
work” worth the total value of the animal. The peculiar value of the
tail of a “filly for common work” lay in the fact that the harrow was
often secured to the tail, as was the practice in parts of Ireland and
Scotland until near the end of the last century. In Wales, as in other
parts of Britain, the mare was preferably used for draught and pack
work, horses being reserved for military service. The mane and bridle
were worth the same amount, viz., four pence; the forelock and halter
were also coupled as worth one penny each.
Howel Dda’s “Law of Borrowing” was equally comprehensive. The man who
borrowed a horse and fretted the hair on his back was to pay four
pence; if he broke the skin to the flesh eight pence; and if skin and
flesh were broken to the bone sixteen pence. Borrowing without the
owner’s leave was expensive: the borrower had to pay four pence for
mounting, and four pence for each rhandir (supposed to be a league) he
rode the horse. He also had to pay a fine to the owner’s lord.
If a hired horse fell lame or was injured by accident the owner had
to furnish the hirer with one equally good until the injured horse
recovered.
The laws which regulated compensation for trespass show that it was
customary to fetter or clog the horses when they were turned out to
graze. Trespass in corn by a clogged horse was to be compensated by
payment of one penny by day and two pence by night. Trespass by a
horse free of restraint was recompensed by half those sums. In this
connection it must be noted that stallions were “privileged;” and
though a broken-in entire ran at large for three seasons (season from
mid April to mid May and the month of October), he did not lose the
privilege which relieved his owner from fine for any damage he might do
in the standing crops.
The Welsh pony is more numerous than any other breed. He wanders
over the hills and waste lands in all the twelve counties of the
Principality, and also on the borders of Shropshire, Herefordshire and
Monmouth; whereas his congeners are limited to areas insignificant by
comparison. The distribution is of course very unequal, the strength
and number of droves varying with the character of the country; there
are no statistics in existence nor has there been made any estimate of
their number.
Many of the common lands which were once open to the Welsh pony have
been enclosed of recent years; but in spite of his exclusion from
the better pastures and the warfare waged against him by shepherds
and their dogs in the interests of grazing for sheep, he thrives
marvellously. There are thousands of acres of wet and boggy lands
whose grasses “rot” sheep, but which afford the hardy pony nourishing
diet. In some districts he is kept on the move almost as unceasingly
as are the deer in Scotland or on Exmoor; and the life he leads has
done much to develope his instincts of self-preservation. Accustomed
from earliest foalhood to the roughest ground, he is sure-footed as the
goat, and neither punishment nor persuasion will induce him to venture
upon unsafe bog. He has good shoulders, strong back, neat head and most
enduring legs and feet; he is, in short, a strong, sound and useful
animal. Some of the stoutest and best hunters bred on the borders of
Wales trace their descent from the Welsh pony mare crossed with the
thoroughbred sire; and the same may be said of some of the best modern
steeplechasers.
J. C. Loudon, in his work, _An Encyclopedia of Agriculture_, published
in 1825, writes:—
“The Welsh horse bears a near resemblance in point of size to the
best native breed of the Highlands of Scotland. It is too small for
the two-horse ploughs; one that I rode for many years, which, to
the last, would have gone upon a pavement by choice, in preference
to a softer road.”
Again, the celebrated sporting writer, “Nimrod” (C. J. Appleby), in his
book _The Horse and the Hound_, published in 1842, writes of this breed
as follows:—
“They are never lame in the feet, or become roarers; they are
also very little susceptible of disease in comparison with other
horses, and as a proof also of their powers of crossing a country,
the fact may be stated of the late Sir Charles Turner riding a
pony ten miles in forty-seven minutes, and taking thirty leaps in
his course, for a wager of 1,000 guineas, with the late Duke of
Queensberry.... The Earl of Oxford had a mare pony, got by the
Clive Arabian, her dam by the same horse, out of a Welsh mare pony,
which could beat any of his racers four miles at a feather-weight;
and during the drawing of the Irish lottery the news was conveyed
express from Holyhead to London chiefly by ponies, at the rate of
nearly twenty miles an hour.”
Endeavours have been made from time to time to improve the breed, but
these efforts have been made by individuals, and the benefits, when any
followed, were local and temporary. The first recorded introduction of
superior alien blood occurred in the first quarter of the eighteenth
century, when that famous little horse, Merlin, was turned out to
summer on the Welsh hills after his retirement from the Turf. The
small horses which George II.’s Act (p. 8) sought to banish from the
race-course were not all worthless; “vile and paltry” they may have
been as a class, but there were some good ones among them, and Merlin
was the best. This little horse, who owed his name to the smallest of
British hawks, beat every animal that started against him, and enjoyed
a career of uninterrupted success until he broke down; he was then
purchased by a Welsh gentleman, said to have been an ancestor of Sir
Watkin Williams Wynn, and turned out to run with the droves on the
hills. So remarkable was the improvement wrought upon the breed by this
one stallion that in course of a few years the value of the ponies in
that locality greatly increased. The name of the sire was applied to
his stock and their descendants, which became famous as “Merlins”; and
the certificate that proved an animal one of the true Merlin breed made
all the difference in the market.
That usually accurate authority, Richard Berenger, in his _History and
Art of Horsemanship_, says, the Welsh breed, “once so abundant, is now
[1771] nearly extinct;” but in this he must have been mistaken, as
there is evidence from the district to show that twenty-six years later
it was very far from extinct. “A Farmer” writes to the _Gentleman’s
Magazine_ of July, 1797, complaining of the “injurious increase of
the smallest breed of ponies, which are no kind of use,” and which,
he says, do an immense amount of mischief to the growing corn. He
ventured to assert that for one cow found trespassing ten ponies would
be seen, and strongly urged that an Act of Parliament should be passed
forbidding right of common to horses under 14 hands high.
In the middle of the present century, when fast-trotting animals for
harness and saddle were in great demand, it was thought desirable to
see what could be done with the Welsh pony, and accordingly Comet,
Fire-away, Alonzo the Brave, and other fast-stepping small-sized
Hackney sires were brought from Norfolk into Cardiganshire and
Breconshire to cross with the native ponies. Such a cross could have
hardly failed to result in a strong, fast-trotting and useful pony.
The Report issued by the recent Royal Commission on Land in Wales
and Monmouthshire contains some remarks on the subject which must be
reproduced here:—
“With regard to cobs and ponies, breeding in this direction is
a much larger factor in the farming of Wales. There is plenty
of material to make use of, and the breeding of ponies might be
made much more profitable than it is at present. In the counties
of Radnor and Brecon there has been some systematic attempts to
encourage the breeding of cobs, with satisfactory results. On the
mountains of North Wales, which were formerly famous for wild
herds of ‘Merlins,’ little has, however, been done. Lord Penrhyn
purchased an excellent stallion, Caradoc, who might have done much
good had he been more patronised. The fault seems to lie in the
careless treatment of the herds of ponies, which are allowed to
ramble at will, winter and summer, to live or starve as nature may
please. No attention whatever is paid to the breeding, the herds
being wild to all intents and purposes. It seems a pity that such
waste should be allowed. The stoutness and endurance of the Welsh
pony is proverbial, and if attention were paid to selection in
breeding, separation of the sexes, and feeding and shelter in the
winter, an exceedingly valuable addition to the mountain farmer’s
profits might be found at a small cost.
“Turning to the evidence upon this subject: Mr. J. E. Jones, who
appeared before us at Tregaron, gave it as his opinion that the
breed of cobs was deteriorating; while Mr. Bowen Woosnam, of
Tynygraig, near Builth, himself a successful breeder, stated that
not nearly as much attention was paid to breeding cobs as formerly.
Mr. Woosnam also said: If Welsh farmers were to have a portion of
their money invested in ponies and cobs which are suitable to the
farms that they are occupying, they would derive proportionately a
larger income from them than they would from the cattle or sheep
that they are rearing.... I do not mean to say that their stock
should exclusively consist of ponies and cobs, but that they should
have a few on every suitable farm. There is the greatest difficulty
at the present time in getting good ponies and cobs.”
The Commissioners were evidently unaware of the work which has been
done by the Church Stretton Hill Pony Improvement Society. This society
was formed to encourage and assist the farmers in the work of improving
the ponies which they only too generally neglect. The plan followed
was to take up the best of the native stallions for service: those of
the truest type only were used, and the improvement in the young stock
got by these selected sires was marked: they showed more compactness
of build, better bone and greater spirit than their promiscuously bred
brethren of the wilds. There can be no doubt but that continuance of
work on these lines would do much towards converting the scarcely
saleable raw material of the Hills into profitable stock.
Mr. John Hill, of Marshbrook House, Church Stretton, in his endeavours
to breed polo ponies has shown that a valuable riding and harness
animal can be obtained by judicious crossings on the Welsh pony.
Running more or less wild on the hills in the immediate neighbourhood
of Church Stretton are ponies closely allied to and very similar to the
Welsh mountain breed. These usually range from 10 hands to 11 hands 2
inches in height, 12 hands 2 inches being considered the outside limit.
About the year 1891 Mr. Hill purchased several of the best and most
typical mares, wild and unbroken, from the hills: these mares, which
averaged only 10 hands, were put to an Arab. His stock were handsome,
compact and hardy, and grew to an average height of 13 hands. The
fillies of this cross when two years old were put to the best Welsh
pony procurable, a 14-hand 1-inch stallion with riding shoulders and
showing bone and quality. These mares were subsequently put to a small
thoroughbred, and to him threw foals full of quality and in every way
promising. Mr. Hill’s breeding experiments have all been made with the
14-hand 2-inch polo pony in view: and he has shown that Welsh ponies
judiciously crossed with suitable alien blood produce stock for which a
ready market should be found.
Mr. W. J. Roberts, the Hon. Secretary of the Church Stretton Hill
Pony Society, states that he has tried the Arab cross, but “the
offspring is useless on the hills.” A half-bred Arab is not the animal
to successfully withstand the hardships and exposure of half-wild
existence on the Welsh hills. The object sought in improving the
Welsh or any other of these breeds is not to fit it for a life of
semi-wildness but to make it more serviceable to man.
For the information of those interested in this breed, the following
descriptions, furnished to the Polo Pony Society for their Stud Book
(vol. v.) by the Local Committees, may be quoted:
(NORTH WALES DIVISION.)