Part 2
[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.