Assuming that the peculiar suitability of horses between 14 hands and 14
hands 3 inches for mounted infantry and light cavalry purposes is
acknowledged by the authorities, and that these forces will in future
form a larger proportion of our standing army, it behoves us to turn our
attention to the task of breeding. The high prices obtainable for
first-class polo ponies have given a stimulus to pony-breeding, and it
may be said the foundations of the industry have been laid. What the
present remount market is to the breeder of hunters, so may the market
for mounted infantry cobs be to the breeder of polo ponies; but with
this difference, that the latter, being handicapped by the height limit
of 14 hands 2 inches, and the exceedingly high standard of merit[3]
required by polo players, will have a larger proportion of "misfits." To
compensate for the paucity of valuable prizes he may hope to draw in the
lottery of breeding, both stock and maintenance will be cheaper, if the
business be conducted on the lines which seem best calculated to result
in production of the horse desired.
[3] See _Ponies Past and Present_, by Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. Vinton &
Co., Ltd.
What is required is an animal between 14.0 and 14.3 hands; it must be
stout and able to carry weight, capable of covering long distances at
fair speed, able to subsist on coarse or poor food for weeks together
without losing condition, strong of constitution to withstand the
exposure inevitable on a campaign, and the more tractable the better. To
get small horses endowed with these qualifications we must look to the
breeds which possess them in marked degree, to the ponies of the Welsh
Hills, Exmoor, the New Forest, the Fell districts, and West of Ireland.
In these we have ponies ranging in height from 12.2 to 13.3 or 14 hands;
they are compact, sturdy, and untiring; they can carry weights which are
out of all ratio to their size; they live on grass, and the open-air
life they lead, year in year out, has made them completely independent
of the luxurious "coddling" bestowed upon other horses.
These ponies lack only the size required in our mounted infantry horse,
and these essentials we can obtain from the sire we shall select.
Keeping ever in mind that an animal of the polo-pony stamp--a hunter in
miniature--is required, what sire is more likely to get the desired pony
than the Arab? We might use a small Thoroughbred with excellent results,
but having regard to the rarity with which we find good bone and sound
constitution in the Thoroughbred, and also having regard to the inherent
soundness and stoutness of the Eastern horse, we shall probably obtain
more satisfactory young stock from Forest and Moorland dams if we use
the Arab sire. Blood, it is truly urged, gives the superior speed and
courage required in the polo-pony, but let us not forget that Arabs were
the sires from which all our modern race-horses are descended. The best
horses on the Turf to-day may be traced to one of the three famous
sires--the Byerly Turk imported in 1689, the Darley Arabian in 1706, and
the Godolphin Arabian in 1730: all of them, it may be remarked, horses
under 14 hands.
By going back to the original strain we shall obtain all the useful
qualities our Thoroughbreds possess without those undesired
characteristics, greatly increased size, great speed, delicacy of
constitution and complete inability to lead a natural life which man's
long-maintained endeavours to breed race horses have implanted in them.
In a word, we shall obtain a natural and not an artificial horse; the
modern race-horse is practically everything the mounted infantry cob
must not be, saving only in respect of speed, and speed for only a
short distance is of no great use to mounted infantry. By using the Arab
we may expect to obtain the qualities our race horses boasted a century
and a half or two centuries ago, when they stood 14 hands to 14.3--the
famous Gimcrack is said to have measured 14 hands 0-1/4 inch.
There is much to be said in favour of the policy of returning to the
original Eastern stock to find suitable sires for our proposed breed of
ponies. While we have been breeding the Thoroughbred for speed and speed
only, Arab breeders have continued to breed for stoutness, endurance and
good looks. By going to Arab stock for our sires we might at the
beginning sacrifice some measure of speed: but what was lost in that
respect would be more than compensated by the soundness of constitution
and limb which are such conspicuous traits in the Eastern horse.
Furthermore, the difficulty of size which confronts us in the
Thoroughbred sire is much diminished if we adopt the Arab as our
foundation sire.
By crossing the Arab on mares of our forest and moorland breeds we shall
obtain the increased size and speed required, while it will be possible
to preserve the valuable qualities of the dam. Those qualities, the
hardiness, robustness of constitution, sureness of foot, and ability to
thrive on poor feed, are the natural outcome of the conditions under
which they have lived for centuries; and to preserve them in the young
stock, it will be necessary to rear the cross-bred foals under
conditions as nearly natural as their constitution will allow. What
those conditions should be circumstances must determine; but it is
possible to combine large measure of liberty with a certain amount of
shelter from the rigours of winter, such as the foal with Arab blood in
his veins would require. To take up the young stock as soon as weaned,
stable and feed them artificially, though this course would preserve
them from the risks of exposure, would produce failure in other
directions. It would encourage undue physical development while
undermining that capacity for endurance of hardship which is so
essential.
[Illustration: _From a drawing on stone by Gauci._ GIMCRACK]
Whether, by careful attention to mating and management, it would be
possible to establish a breed of small horses as a fixed type is a
question only prolonged experience will be able to answer. It is quite
certain that we shall never be able to reckon on getting stock which,
when fully grown and furnished, will neither exceed nor fall short of
the limit of 14 hands 2 inches, at which the breeder will aim with the
prizes of the polo pony market in his mind's eye. But there is sound
reason to think that we can build upon an Arab and Forest or Moorland
pony foundation a breed of small horses such as we need for mounted
infantry.
There are difficulties in the way; and not the least is the peculiar
care and watchfulness that must be exercised in order to hit the "happy
medium" between artificial life, with its attendant drawbacks of
probable overgrowth and certain delicacy of constitution, and the free,
natural existence, which may prove fatal to the cross-bred youngsters
and will certainly check their growth.
Having shown the great utility of small horses for work requiring
endurance, hardiness, and weight-carrying power, as proved by the
writings of authorities who, in several instances, employed them merely
because they could procure no other animals, and learned what their
qualities are by experience, we may briefly summarise what has been said
in regard to the foundation stock we possess.
(1) The pony dams of our Forest and Moorland breeds cannot be surpassed.
(2) The sire chosen should be a _small_ thoroughbred or an Arab. If a
half-breed sire is used his dam should be one not less than three parts
thoroughbred.
(3) Inasmuch as the forest and moorland ponies owe their small size and
soundness to the hardships of the free and natural conditions in which
they live, their half-bred produce should--
(_a_) Lead a similarly free and natural life as far as climate permits,
in order to inure them to the hardships of warfare and general work:
(_b_) Should exist, as far as possible, on natural herbage: as in all
cases artificial feeding tends to render them less hardy and enduring.