preferred; grey or black allowable; but dun, chestnut, or broken
colour considered objectionable._ ACTION. _Best described as that
of the hunter; low “daisy-cutting” action to be avoided. The pony
should move quickly and actively, stepping out well from the
shoulder, at the same time flexing the hocks and bringing the hind
legs well under the body when going._ GENERAL CHARACTER. _The
pony should show good “pony” character and evidence of robust
constitution, with the unmistakable appearance of hardiness
peculiar to mountain ponies, and at the same time have a lively
appearance._ HEAD. _Should be small, well chiselled in its
outline and well set on; forehead broad, tapering towards nose._
NOSTRILS. _Large and expanding._ EYES. _Bright, mild, intelligent
and prominent._ EARS. _Neatly set, well-formed and small._ THROAT
AND JAWS. _Fine, showing no signs of coarseness or throatiness._
NECK. _Of proportionate length; strong, but not too heavy, with
a moderate crest in the case of the stallion._ SHOULDERS. _Good
shoulders most important: should be well laid back and sloping,
but not too fine at the withers nor loaded at the points. The
pony should have a good long shoulder-blade._ BACK AND LOINS.
_Strong and well covered with muscle._ HIND QUARTERS. _Long, and
tail well carried, as much like the Arab as possible, springing
well from the top of the back._ HOCKS. _Well let down, clean cut,
with plenty of bone below the joint. They should not be “sickled”
or “cow-hocked.”_ FORELEGS. _Well placed; not tied in any way at
the elbows; good muscular arm, short from the knee to the fetlock
joints; flat bone; pasterns sloping but not too long; feet well
developed and open at the heel; hoof sound and hard._
(SOUTH WALES DIVISION.)
_The South Wales hill pony seldom exceeds 13 hands, and in a pure
state is about 12 hands. His attributes are a quick, straight
action and sure-footedness; he is low in the withers, short in his
forehand, and with faulty hind quarters as far as appearance goes,
his tail being set on low and his hocks sickled, but his forelegs
and feet are good. His head and eye show breed, courage and sense,
and his constitution is strong or he could not live where he does.
Of late years he has been crossed with the Cardiganshire cob to
some extent; and half-bred two-year-old shire colts have been
allowed access to the hills in summer in some places, much to the
detriment of the breed. In colour, bays and brown prevail._
THE EXMOOR AND DARTMOOR PONIES.
It is certain that ponies have run in these districts for many
centuries in a practically wild state, and probably have always
supplied the tillers of the soil with beasts of burden. In times when
these localities were without roads of any kind and wheeled traffic
was impossible, the sled and the pack-horse were used for transporting
agricultural produce. The sleds were drawn by oxen and small horses;
and ponies were employed to carry corn, &c., in pots and panniers; the
ponies used for this purpose being the animals which ran at large upon
the wastes. As recently as 1860 packhorses might still be met with in
the western and southern districts. They were the larger ponies of
the Dartmoor and Exmoor breed, and were indispensable to the farmers
whose holdings at that time lay beyond the region of roads in secluded
districts. The practice of taking up a few of the best mares for
breeding purposes and keeping them in enclosed pasture is no doubt an
old one; but the vast majority of the droves have always been left to
their own devices. They bred and interbred without let or hindrance,
and by consequence the weakly died off, leaving the fittest, _i.e._,
the hardiest and the best able to withstand the rigours of exposure.
Carew, in his _History of Cornwall_, which was written in the early
part of the reign of James I. (1603-1625), says:—
“The Cornish horses are hardly bred, coarsely fed, and so low in
stature that they were liable to be seized on as unstatutable,
according to the statute of Henry VIII., by anyone who caught them
depasturing the commons.”
In the year 1812 Exmoor was disforested by George III., and a
commission was appointed to survey and value the lands. The total
acreage was found to be 18,810 acres, of which 10,262 acres were
adjudged the property of the Crown. In 1820 Mr. John Knight purchased
the Crown allotment; at a later date he acquired Sir Thomas Acland’s
portion, and Sir Arthur Chichester’s property of Brendon which
adjoined it, the total area so acquired being over 16,000 acres. Sir
Thomas Acland had bred ponies, and when Mr. Knight bought the land he
applied himself to the task of improving the ponies, which for some
years previously had been fetching only from £4 to £6. The low prices
obtainable, we infer, were due in a measure to the ease with which the
local shepherds “took liberal tithe” of the ponies, which, despite the
anchor-brand they bore to prove ownership, were readily purchased in
Wiltshire.
The only pure Exmoor ponies now existing, so far as enquiry has
disclosed, are those bred by Sir T. Dyke Acland, Bart., of Holnicote,
Taunton. When Sir Thomas Acland sold his Exmoor property to Mr.
Knight he removed his original uncrossed stock to Winsford Hill, near
Dulverton; these ponies alone preserve the full characteristics of the
old strain; they run from 11·2 hands to 12·2 hands, are dark-brown with
black points, and have the mealy tan muzzle. It is stated that only
about a dozen mares were left in their old quarters.
Mr. Knight and some other gentlemen were attracted by the accounts
of the Dongola Arab horses given by the great traveller Bruce,
and after considerable delay a number of stallions and mares were
procured through the British Consul in Egypt. They proved to be
black, short-backed animals with lean heads, and rather Roman noses.
Their hind quarters were good, but, unlike the typical Arab, they had
“flattish ribs.” Mr. Knight became the owner of two sires and three
mares, which he brought to Simonsbath. One of these Dongola stallions
was mated with a number of 12-hand Exmoor mares; the foals generally
grew to about 14 hands 2 inches, and though they followed their dams in
the colour of coat, the distinctive mealy muzzle disappeared. There was
a desire to retain as much of the Exmoor character as was compatible
with improvement in the breed; hence those half-bred mares by the
Dongola horse which did not retain as much as possible of the native
type were drafted from the stud.
The thoroughbred horse Pandarus, a 15-hand son of Whalebone, succeeded
the Dongola horse; foals of his get retained the original colour, but
were smaller, ranging from 13 hands to 13·2. Another thoroughbred,
Canopus, a grandson of Velocipede, followed Pandarus at the stud, and
with equally satisfactory results in respect of improved size and
conformation; but, as might have been expected, these cross-bred ponies
proved incapable of enduring the hardships of moorland life when turned
out. Hence, about 1844, Mr. Knight gave up the use of alien blood and
used his own stallion ponies; the only exceptions being Hero, a sturdy
chestnut out of a Pandarus mare, and Lillias, a grey of nearly pure
Acland strain.
After Mr. Knight’s death, which event occurred in 1850, the practice
of selling the ponies by private contract was abandoned in favour of
an annual auction, held at Simonsbath. The comparative inaccessibility
of the spot, however, soon indicated the need of change, and in 1854
the sale was first held at Bampton fair. The system on which the ponies
were kept was also changed in the later fifties; some 130 acres of
pasture were set apart, and on this the foals were wintered instead of
remaining at large on the bleak hill-sides. The effect thus produced
upon the size and development of the young stock was very marked. In
1863 the ponies mustered about four hundred strong, nearly one hundred
of which were brood mares, young and old. Much of the land which in
former days was given up to the droves has been reclaimed during recent
years, and improved methods of cultivation have made it capable of
growing various crops and of grazing cattle and sheep.
Mr. Robert Smith, of Emmett’s Grange, also devoted attention to the
improvement of the Exmoor breed. The “Druid,” who described a visit
to Devonshire about the year 1860 or 1861, remarks that “the original
colour of the Exmoor seems to have been a buffy bay, with a mealy
nose, and it is supposed to have preserved its character ever since the
Phœnicians brought it over when they visited the shores of Cornwall
to trade in tin and metals.” Enquiry into the ground for supposing
that the original stock was introduced by the Phœnicians would perhaps
produce results hardly commensurate with the labour of research.
When the “Druid” paid his visit to the district in 1860 or 1861, only
250 acres of moorland remained unenclosed, and the breeding stock on
Mr. Smith’s holding consisted of “some twenty-five short-legged brood
mares of about 13 hands 2 inches.” These passed the better part of the
year on the hills and were wintered in the paddocks furnished with open
sheds for shelter.
After experimenting with thoroughbreds, Mr. Smith procured a 14-hand
pony sire named Bobby, by Round Robin out of an Arab mare, and used him
with the most encouraging results for two seasons. Bobby’s stock were
almost invariably bays. At a sale held at Bristol, in 1864, twenty-nine
cobs galloways and ponies, nearly all of which were Bobby’s get, made
an average price of 23 guineas a head, several realising over 30
guineas. The highest price (figure not recorded) was paid for a bay
stallion, five years old and 13 hands high.
Whether Youatt refers to the improved breed or not it is impossible to
say: but that authority states that about the year 1860 a farmer who
weighed 14 stone rode an Exmoor pony from Bristol to South Molton, a
distance of 86 miles, beating the coach which travelled the same road.
This feat proves the pony to have been both fast and enduring.
A most competent authority who a couple of years ago paid a visit
to Simonsbath to inspect the ponies of the district, describes the
“Acland” as a wonderfully thoroughbred looking and handsome pony with
fine lean head, intelligent eye and good limbs. The only fault he had
to find was in the matter of size: he considered it a shade too small
for general purposes.
The “Knights” were described as larger than the “Aclands”: they also
retain the thoroughbred look derived from the Arab and other alien
blood introduced by Mr. Knight in the second quarter of the century. My
informant remarks that one of the most interesting sights he witnessed
was the display of jealousy by the stallions when two droves of ponies
were brought up for inspection. Each kept his harem crowded together
apart from the other, “rounding in” his mares with the greatest fire.
Needless to say the little horses would show at their very best under
such conditions.
Among the gentlemen who have endeavoured to improve the Exmoor pony,
mention must also be made of the Earl of Carnarvon, Viscount Ebrington
and Mr. Nicholas Snow, of Oare, who have breeding studs; but their
strains, like those of the farmers’ who rear a few each, are larger
than the representative “Aclands.”
Dr. Herbert Watney, of Buckhold, near Pangbourne, until recently
possessed herds of Exmoor and Arab-Exmoor ponies; their numbers have
quite lately been greatly reduced by the sale of mares and young stock,
Dr. Watney holding the writer’s view that ground in time becomes staled
if grazed by numerous horses.[5] Dr. Watney laid the foundations of
his herd by the purchase of about a dozen mares of the Knight and
Ackland strains, and to serve them he acquired the 13·2 Exmoor stallion
Katerfelto, winner of the first prize for pony stallions at the Devon
County Show, and first prize in his class at the “Royal” in 1890. The
stallion runs with the mares, and the herd lead on the Berkshire downs
exactly the same free life they led on Exmoor; they are never brought
under cover, and only when snow buries the herbage in severe winters
do they receive a daily ration of hay. The richer grazing and their
exclusive service by Katerfelto has resulted in distinct increase of
size, the ponies ranging from 11·3 to 13·3 in height, yet retaining all
the characteristics of the Exmoor native stock.
[5] See “Young Racehorses” (Suggestions for Rearing), by Sir Walter
Gilbey, Bart., Vinton & Co., Ltd.
Dr. Watney drafted off a number of the best mares to form a herd for
service by the Arab pony stallion Nejram, a bay standing 14·1, bred by
Mr. Wilford Blunt at Crabbet Park. Nejram’s stock show in marked degree
the distinctive character of their sire in the high set and carriage of
the tail, full barrel, blood-like head and the long pastern; but at the
same time they inherit from their dams the wonderful sure-footedness
of the Exmoor pony. These ponies run from about 13 hands to 13·3. Half
a dozen of these Arab-Exmoors, three years old, handled but unbroken,
were sold in the year 1898 at an average price of over £14 14s. each.
Twelve pure Exmoors by Katerfelto, also handled but unbroken, three
years old, brought an average of over £16 16s.
Bampton Fair, held in October, is now the great rendezvous for Exmoor
ponies. Every fair brings several hundred animals in from the moors for
sale. Like other horses and ponies, the Exmoors are suffering from the
competition of the bicycle, but good prices are still obtained under
the hammer. They are much used for children, and the less desirable
find ready sale to coster-mongers and hawkers. Newly-weaned suckers of
five or six months old fetch from £3 to £6; exceptionally promising
youngsters command a higher figure.
The Dartmoor pony’s good points are a strong back and loin, and
substance. For generations past the farmers appear to have been in the
habit of taking up a few mares for riding and breeding purposes; to
these 11 or 12-hand dams—they rarely reach 13 hands—a small Welsh cart
stallion is put, and the result is an animal hardy and serviceable
enough for ordinary farm work. Even these would seem to form a small
minority. For the most part the Dartmoor ponies still run wild, shaggy
and unkempt, on the waste lands on which they breed uncontrolled, on
which they are foaled and live and die; often without having looked
through a bridle. Those taken up for riding purposes or for breeding
are of course the pick of the droves, and thus we find an active force
at work which is calculated to lower the average standard of quality
among the wild ponies.
In considering the various efforts which from time to time have been
made in the direction of improvement by the introduction of fresh
blood, we must bear in mind that the mares on which such experiments
have been made are those which have been taken up by farmers and kept
within fences. We cannot find that stallions of alien blood have ever
been turned out to run on the moors, and in view of the conditions
under which the moor ponies exist it is highly improbable that a
stallion boasting such blood as would produce beneficial results on the
native breed would long enough survive the exposure and scanty food
to make any appreciable mark thereon. The endeavours, more or less
continuous and successful, to improve the breed have been confined to
the few, and have, therefore, produced little effect or none on the
main stock.
Early in the present century Mr. Willing, of Torpeak, made successful
experiments in crossing the Exmoor pony with the smaller variety
peculiar to the Dartmoor “tors.” Mr. Wooton, of Woodlands, says a
writer in the _Field_ of 9th October, 1880, was in the habit of
purchasing mares of this cross from Mr. Willing from about the year
1820, and possessed a considerable number of them. He used to put
these to small thoroughbred horses standing in the district. The names
of Trap, Tim Whiffler, Rover, and Glen Stuart are mentioned, and
about 1860 he sent some of his Exmoor-Dartmoor mares to a small Arab
belonging to Mr. Stewart Hawkins, of Ivybridge. Mr. Wooton’s endeavours
to improve the Dartmoor breed are the first that were made on any
considerable scale, so far as it is possible to discover.
About 1879 a resident who devoted much attention to the improvement
of the Dartmoor breed introduced a brown stallion by Mr. Christopher
Wilson’s Sir George out of Windsor Soarer, and as his mares—a selected
lot, 12·2 to 13 hands, either brown or chestnut—came in use, put them
to this pony with the object of getting early foals. The young stock
thus got were carefully weeded out, the best stallions and mares only
being retained. The colt foals were kept apart and at two years old put
to the mares got by their sire. The experiment was very successful,
browns, black-browns and chestnuts being the colours of this improved
breed, which sold well.
Mr. S. Lang, of Bristol, some years prior to 1880 sent down two good
stallions, Perfection and Hereford, for use in the district, but it
is stated that these ponies were little patronised by the farmers.
Hereford, a pure thoroughbred pony only 13 hands high, left a few
beautiful foals behind him.
A description of Exmoor and Dartmoor ponies exhibited at the Newton
Abbott Agricultural Show in May, 1875, may have had reference to these
improved ponies. The following is quoted from the _Field_ of 29th May
in that year:—
“Instead of deteriorating the stock improves yearly, and the
care which is now taken to infuse pure blood without harming the
essential characteristics of the original denizen of the moor has
succeeded in producing an animal of superlative merit, fitted for
any kind of work, whether for the field, the road, or the collar.
It must be observed that the word ‘moor’ should apply to Exmoor
and the Bodmin wastes as well as the Forest of Dartmoor, Dartmoor
Forest itself being within the precincts of the Duchy of Cornwall.
The moor pony or galloway of 14 hands is often in reality a little
horse; and when it is stated that Tom Thumb, the well-known hunter
of Mr. Trelawny, was a direct descendant of the celebrated Rough
Tor pony of Landue, and that Foster by Gainsborough, belonging to
the late Mr. Phillips, of Landue, carrying for many years fifteen
stone and upwards in the first flight, was from a moor pony near
Ivybridge, the assertion is not made without bringing strong
collateral proof of the validity of the statement. Moreover, a host
of other examples could be added. These animals possess many of
the properties of the thorough-bred—speed, activity, any amount of
stay, with legs of steel; they can jump as well as the moor sheep,
and much after the same fashion, for no hedge fence can stop either
one or the other.”
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 Local Committees may be quoted:
(THE EXMOOR DIVISION.)
_The Exmoor pony should average 12 hands and never be above 13
hands; moorland bred; generally dark bay or brown with black
points, wide forehead and nostril; mealy nose; sharp ears; good
shoulders and back; short legs, with good bone and fair action._
_There are a few grey ponies in Sir Thomas Acland’s herd, but no
chestnuts._
(THE DARTMOOR DIVISION.)
The official description of points is identical with that given for the
North Wales pony, with the following amendments and additions:—
HEIGHT. _Not exceeding 14 hands for stallions, 13·2 for mares._
COLOUR. _Brown, black, or bay preferred; grey allowable, other
colours objectionable._ HEAD. _Should be small, well set on, and
blood-like._ NECK. _Strong but not too heavy, and neither long nor
short; and, in case of a stallion, with moderate crest._ BACK,
LOINS, AND HIND QUARTERS. _Strong and well covered with muscle._
THE CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORELAND PONIES.
The ponies and galloways, for which the waste lands of these
counties have long been known, appear to possess no distinguishing
characteristics that would permit it to be said they form a distinct
breed. An authority resident at Harrington who gives much information
concerning the ponies of the heafs—fell-side holdings—and moors, states
that there are several strains, and the appearance and character of
each differs in various districts under the varying local influences
of climate, feed, &c. Little or nothing is known of the origin of
these ponies. The resemblance to “Shelties,” borne by those of certain
localities until about the middle of the century, suggested that they
were descended from a mixed stock of galloways and Shetland ponies;
but some forty or fifty years ago endeavours were made to improve them
by careful selection and mating; and the resemblance, which did not
necessarily imply possession of the merits of the Shetland pony, has in
great measure disappeared.
They are generally good-tempered; so sure-footed that they can gallop
down the steep hill-sides with surprising speed and fearlessness;
but their paces on level ground are not fast. Their endurance has
been remarked by many writers. Brown’s _Anecdotes and Sketches of the
Horse_, published about sixty years ago, contains an account of an
extraordinary performance by a galloway, at Carlisle, in 1701; when
Mr. Sinclair, of Kirkby Lonsdale, for a wager of 500 guineas, rode the
animal 1000 miles in 1000 hours.
The ponies run in “gangs” on the holdings, the gang numbering from half
a dozen to forty or even sixty individuals. In some cases a few ponies
are taken up, broken and worked all the year round, carrying the farmer
to market, drawing peat and hay, and ploughing. The stony nature of
the heaf-lands requires only a light plough, which is easily drawn by
one or two of the half-pony, half-horse nondescripts; the extent of
arable land farmed by any one farmer is only from four to six acres.
A stallion is sometimes used for the farm-work, and in such cases the
neighbouring farmers bring mares to be served; some such stallions will
serve from thirty to fifty mares in the season. In the larger gangs
the stallion runs with the mares on the hills; a good breeding mare
often lives and dies without knowing a halter, running practically
wild from the day she is dropped on the fell-side till she dies. These
unhandled ponies pick up their living on the hills, and during winter a
little hay is brought out to them by the shepherds.
The “Fell-siders,” as the holders of heafs are called locally, make no
attempt to improve their wild pony stock; under the existing conditions
the wild mares drop their foals, it may be without the knowledge of
their owner. Farmers who bring their mares to a neighbour’s working
stallion exercise no discrimination in their choice; the cheapest and
most accessible horse receives their preference.
Where skill and judgment have been brought to bear upon the improvement
of the Fell ponies the result has been very marked. Mr. Christopher
W. Wilson, of Rigmaden Park, Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmoreland, was the
pioneer of an improved breed of ponies, and he has shown what can be
done with the material at hand, having built upon that foundation a
breed which at the present day stands unrivalled for shape and action.
Having in the year 1872 taken the matter in hand, Mr. Wilson selected
his breeding mares from among the best ponies of the districts, and put
them to the pony stallion, Sir George, a Yorkshire-bred Hackney (by
Sportsman (796) by Prickwillow, who was descended through Phenomenon
from the Original Shales), which won for eight years the first prizes
at the Shows of the Royal Agricultural Society. The female offspring
were in due time mated with their sire, and threw foals which showed
Hackney characteristics in far more marked degree than did their dams,
as might be anticipated in animals three-parts instead of one-half bred.