Small horses in warfare

JOHNA.SEAVERNS

y^iebsisr Famtiy Ubrs^ry ot Veterinary Medicine

CummiiHyB Schor < c"^ Votorinary Medicine at

Tufts University

aOOWestboroRoad

North Grafton, MA 01536

SMALL HORSES IN WARFARE

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SMALL HORSES IN
WARFARE

BY

SIR WALTER GILBEY, Bart.

ILLUSTRATED

VINTON & CO., Ltd.
9, NEW BRIDGE STREET, LONDON, E.G.

1900

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CONTENTS

Horses in the Crimean War

Cape Horses

Ponies in the Soudan

Burnaby's Ride to Khiva
Post Horses in Siberia

Ponies in India

Ponies in Northern Africa ...

Ponies in Morocco

Ponies in Eastern Asia

Ponies in Australia

Ponies in America and Texas
Army Horses of the Future
Breeding Small Horses
Appendix

3

4
6

13
17
17

21
24
26
28
29

34
36

44

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

On the Alert Frontispiece

Bashi Bazouk face 4

One of Remington's Horse „ 12

Six Original Pencil Sketches by Henry

Alken ,, 24

GiMCRACK „ 41

The present seems an appropriate time to put forward a
few facts which go to prove the peculiar suitability of small
horses for certain campaigning njork which demands staying
power, hardiness and independence of high feeding. The
circumstance that the military authorities have been obliged
to look to foreign countries for supplies of such horses for
the ivar in South Africa has suggested the propriety of
pointing out that we possess in England foundation stock
from which we may be able to raise a breed of small
horses eqital to, or better than, any we are now obliged to
procure abroad.

Elsenhavi Hall, Essex,
May, 1 900.

SMALL HORSES IN WARFARE.

The campaign in South Africa has proved
beyond doubt the necessity for a strong force
similar to that of the Boers. Their rapidity
of movement has given us an important
lesson in the military value of horses of that
useful type which is suitable for light cavalry
and mounted infantry.

Since the war broke out we have seen
that we possess numbers of men able to
ride and shoot, who only need a little train-
ing to develop them into valuable soldiers,
but our difficulty throughout has been to
provide horses of the stamp required for
the work they have to perform. The expe-
rience we have gained in South Africa goes
to confirm that acquired in the Crimea,
where it was found that the horses sent
out from England were unable to with-
stand the climate, poor food, and the hard-
ships to which they were subjected, while
the small native horses and those bred in

countries further East suffered little from
these causes. It was then proved beyond
dispute that these small horses are both
hardy and enduring, while, owing to their
possession like our English thoroughbreds
of a strong strain of Arab blood, they
were speedy enough for light cavalry pur-
poses.

Breeders of every class of horse, saving

only those who breed the Shetland pony

and the few who aim at getting ponies for

polo, have for generations made it their

object to obtain increased height. There is

nothing to be urged against this policy in

so far as certain breeds are concerned ; the

sixteen-hand thoroughbred with his greater

stride is more likely to win races than the

horse of fifteen two ; the sixteen-hand

carriage horse, other qualities being equal,

brings a better price than one of less stature;

and the Shire horse of i6*2 or 17 hands

has commonly in proportion greater strength

and weight, the qualities most desirable in

him, than a smaller horse. Thus we can

show excellent reason for our endeavours to

increase the height of our most valuable

breeds ; and the long period that has

elapsed since we were last called upon to

put forward our military strength has allowed

us to lose sight of the great importance of
other qualities.

Breeders and horsemen are well aware,
though the general public may not know or
may not realise the fact, that increased
height in the horse does not necessarily
involve increased strength in all directions,
as greater weight-carrying power and more
endurance. Granting that the saying, " a
good big horse is better than a good little
one," is in the main correct, we have to
consider that the merits which q-q to make
a useful horse for campaigning are infinitely
more common in small horses than in bio-
ones.

All the experience of campaigners, ex-
plorers and travellers goes to prove that
small compact animals between 13.2 and
14.2 hands high are those on which reliance
can be placed for hard and continuous work
on scanty and innutritions food.

Horses in the Crimean War.

During the Crimean War I was located
for a short time at Abydos in Asia Minor,
on the shores of the Dardanelles, and had
daily opportunities of seeing the horses and
studying the manoeuvres of some 3,000
mounted Bashi Bazouks and Armenian

troops who were encamped there under
General Beatson in readiness for summons
to the Crimea, whither they were eventually-
dispatched.

The horses on which these troops were
mounted ranged from 14 hands to 14.3 ;
all had a strong strain of Arab blood, and
had come with the troops from the Islands
of the Archipelago. They were perfect
horses for light cavalry work. The economy
with which they were fed was surprising :
their feed consisted principally of chopped
straw with a small daily ration of barley
when the grain was procurable, which
was not always the case ; and on this diet
they continued in condition to endure long
journeys which would have speedily broken
down the best English charger in the British
army.

Cape Horses.

The universal opinion of residents in
South Africa is against the introduction of
imported horses for general work, inasmuch
as they cannot withstand the climate, hard
living, bad roads and rouorh usaoe which
make up the conditions of a horse's life in
the Colony.

In past years, before the present war,

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large numbers of English horses have been
sent to Natal for military service, but the
results were not satisfactory ; all became
useless, and the large majority died ; the
chanofe from Enolish stables and Enorlish
methods of management to those in vogue
in the Colony almost invariably proved fatal.

Some five years ago, when discussing with
Mr. Cecil Rhodes the advisability of intro-
ducing into Cape Colony English sires to
improve the stamp of horse bred in South
Africa, he gave his opinion against such
measures. He pointed out that highly bred
and large horses were unsuitable for the
work required in the Colony ; they needed
greater care in housing, feeding, and groom-
inor than the conditions of life in South
Africa would allow owners to bestow upon
them. The hardships attendant upon long
journeys over rough country, the extremes
of heat and cold which horses must endure
with insufficient shelter or none at all,
must inevitably overtax the stamina which
has been weakened by generations of lux-
urious existence in England.

Mr. Rhodes considered that no infusion of
English blood would enhance the powers of
the small colonial bred horse to perform the
work required of him under local conditions ;

that though thoroughbred blood would im-
prove him in height and speed, these ad-
vantages would be obtained at the cost of
such indispensable qualities as endurance
and ability to thrive on poor and scanty
fare.

It is however permissible to suppose that
a gradual infusion of good blood carefully
chosen might in course of time benefit the
Cape breed. The use only of horses which
have become acclimatised would perhaps
produce better results than have hitherto
been obtained. The progeny reared under
the ordinary conditions prevailing in the
Colony would perpetuate good qualities, re-
taining the hardiness of the native breed.

Ponies in the Soudan.

The late Colonel P. H. S. Barrow fur-
nished a most interesting and suggestive
Report to the War Office on the Arabs
which were used by his regiment, the 19th
Hussars, during the Nile campaign of 1885.
This report is published among the Appen-
dices to Colonel John Biddulph's work,
The XlXth and their Times (1899).

Experience, in the words of Colonel
Biddulph, had shown that English horses

could not stand hard work under a tropical
sun with scarcity of water and desert fare.
It was therefore decided before leaving
Cairo to mount the regiment entirely on
the small Syrian Arab horses used by the
Egyptian cavalry. Three hundred and fifty
of these little horses had been sent up in
advance and were taken over by the regi-
ment on arrival at Wady Haifa. Colonel
Barrow thus describes these horses :

"Arab stallion. Average height, 14
hands ; average age, 8 years to 9 years ;
some 15 per cent, over 12 years; bought
by Egyptian Government in Syria and
Lower Egypt; average price, ^18."

About half of the ponies had been through
the campaign in the Eastern Soudan with
the regiment in February and March, 1884,
and had returned in a very exhausted state.
In September of that year they were
marched up from Assouan to Wady Haifa,
210 miles; and when handed over to the
19th again in November, all except some
10 per cent, of the number were "in very
fair marching condition." From Wady
Haifa the regiment proceeded to Korti, a
distance of 360 miles, at a rate of about 16
miles per day, halts, one of one day and one
of two days not included ; their feed con-

sisted of about 6 lbs. of barley or dhoora*
and lo lbs. of dhoora stalk ; and on this
rather scanty ration the horses reached Korti
in very good condition. Here they remained
for eighteen days, receiving- 8 lbs. of green
dhoora stalk daily instead of 8 lbs. dry ;
the rest and change to green food pro-
duced improvement in their condition.

While the main body rested at Korti, a
detachment of fifty went to Gakdul, lOO
miles distant, on reconnaissance ; they per-
formed the march in sixty-three hours, had
fifteen hours rest at Gakdul, and returned
in the same time. Six of the party returned
more rapidly, covering the lOO miles in
forty-six hours, the last 50 being covered
in seven and a-half hours. During these
marches the horses were ridden for eighty-
three hours, the remaining fifty-eight hours
of the time occupied being absorbed by
halts.

The reconnaissance party having returned
on the 5th, the regiment, numbering 8
officers and 127 men, with 155 horses,
started, on January 8, to march with
General Sir Herbert Stewart's column

* Dhoora is a kind of millet cultivated throughout Asia
and introduced into the south of Europe ; called also Indian
millet and Guinea corn.

across the desert to Gubat. This march,
336 miles, occupied from January 8 to
February 20, 4 miles only being- covered
in the hour they were moving on the last
date. They halted on the 1 3th at Gakdul ;
whereby the average day's journey works
out at nearly 26 miles per day, or, if we
ignore the march (4 miles in one hour) of
January 20, at nearly 28 miles per day. The
hardest day was the i6th, when the regi-
ment travelled 40 miles in 11^ hours, from
4.30 a.m. to 4 p.m., the horses receiving each
half-a-gallon of water and 4 lbs. of food
grain. Their ability to work on scanty
diet was put to the test on this fortnight's
march. The average daily ration for the
first ten days was from 5 to 6 lbs. of grain
and 2 gallons of water ; the horses covering
an average of 31 miles per clay exclusive
of the halt at Gakdul on the 13th.

When the final advance to the Nile was
made, the horses went fifty- five hours with
no water at all, and only i lb. of grain; some
15 or 20 horses were upwards of seventy
hours without water. During their halt at
Gubat from January 20 to F'ebruary 14,
they had received but one ration of grain,
6 lbs. given them two days before they had
to start for the Nile. During this period

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they performed out-post and patrol duty
averaging- about 8 miles daily.

On the return march, the journey between
Dongola and Wady Haifa, 250 miles, was
performed on an average rate of 16 miles
per day, with one two-days' halt. On this
march the regiment usually travelled at night
for the sake of coolness, but the scanty shade
available generally compelled exposure to
the hot sun all day.

Colonel Barrow remarks, " I think it may
be considered a most remarkable circum-
stance that out of 350 horses, during nine
months on a hard campaign, only twelve
died from disease." Colonel Biddulph sums
up the work of the horses in a few words :
" The performance of the small Arab horses,
both with the river and desert columns,
carrying a heavy weight, on scanty fare and
less water, is a marvel of endurance." The
former officer attributes the small percentage
of loss from disease to the facts (r) that
the climate of the Soudan is most suitable
for horses, (2) that the Syrian horse has a
wonderful constitution, and is admirably
suited for warfare in an Eastern climate.
Colonel Barrow's opinion on the suitability
of the Eastern climate for horses must not
be read as meanino- for horses of all breeds.

II

On the contrary, Colonel Biddulph, in words
quoted on a previous page, states that ex-
perience had shown that English horses
could not withstand the conditions of cam-
paigning in the Soudan.

Sir Richard Green Price, writing over the
familiar pen-name of " Borderer," in Bailys
Magazine, has uro^ed the formation of a rea^i-
ment of Lilliputian horse, to consist of men
under five feet, or five feet six inches, weigh-
ino- not over eleven stone, of o'ood chest
measurement : these he would mount on
ponies not over 14.2 and equip with light
arms and accoutrements. As he points out,
increase in our cavalry is an admitted
necessity, and this branch of it in particular
appeals to the common sense of the people
as a quick and handy service :

" After many years of practical experience of what
ponies can and do accomplish, especially well-bred
ones hardily reared, I do not hesitate to say that
they will beat moderate horses of double their size,
and that very few of our present cavalry horses could
live with them in a campaign — they are more easily
taught, handled and mounted than bigger horses,
and with twice their constitution and thrice their
sense — with riders to suit them, where are the draw-
backs to their employment ? "

Sir Richard, in brief, urges the creation of
a regiment of scouts or mounted infantry

whose horses shall be of much the same type
of those described by Colonel Barrow.

The special correspondent of the Times
with the Modder River force, in course of
an article on this arm, which appears likely
to play a large part in the wars of the
future, writes thus of the animals used by
the Colonists and Boers : —

" Here in Soutli Africa the country-bred pony,
tractable, used to fire, and taught to remain where
he is left if the reins be dropped from the bit, is
already a half-trained animal for these purposes, and
the work of training has been slight in consequence ;
but in Afghanistan, and other places where the
mounted infantry man has been tried in a lesser
degree, the chief cause of trouble has been found in
his mount."

The South African ponies ridden by the
Colonial scouts and mounted infantry have
acquired their education as shootino- ponies
on the veldt under conditions very similar
to those prevailing- in warfare. There is
radical difference between animals so trained
and ill-broken Indian country-breds whose
tempers have been far too frequently spoiled
by rough usage in native hands. The
mounted infantry in Afghanistan might well
find trouble with such ponies.

ONE OF REMINGTON'S HORSE.

Showing type of horse used by vioitnted infantry and scouts in the South Ajrican War.

(By permission of the Proprietors of the " Daily Graphic.

13
Burnaby's Ride to Khiva.

Captain Burnaby, in his well-known book,
A Ride to Khiva, describes the animals
brought up for his inspection at Kasala,
in Turkestan, when his wish to buy a horse
was made known : —

"The horses were for the most part of the worst
description, that is to say, as far as appearance was
concerned. . . . Except for their excessive lean-
ness, they looked more like huge Newfoundland dogs
than as connected with the equine race, and had
been turned out in the depth of winter with no other
covering save the thick coats which nature had given
them. . . . At last, after rejecting a number of
jades which looked more fit to carry my boots than
their wearer, I selected a little black horse. He was
about 14 hands in height, and I eventually became his
owner, saddle and bridle into the bargain, for the sum
of £!'5, this being considered a ver}- high price at
Kasala."

The reader may be reminded that the
winter of 1876-7, during- which Captain
Burnaby accomplished his adventurous jour-
ney, was an exceptionally severe one even
for that part of the world, where long and
severe winters are the rule. On the day of
his departure from Kasala the thermometer
stood at eight degrees below zero. The
traveller was by no means favourably im-
pressed with the powers of the horse he had
selected as the least bad of a very poor lot,

and the native guides started apparently
satisfied that it would break down under its
heavy rider clad to resist the penetrating
cold.

After his second march, Captain Burnaby
began to acquire a certain measure of respect
for this pony : —

" What had surprised me most during our morning's
march was the extreme endurance of our horses.
The guide frequently had been obHged to dismount
and to clean out their nostrils, which were entirely
stuffed with icicles ; but the little animals had ploughed
their way steadily through the snow. . . . The
one I rode, which in England would not have been
considered able to carry my boots, was as fresh as
possible after his march of seventeen miles. In spite
of the weight on his back — quite twenty stone — he
had never shown the least sign of fatigue."

Again, a few days later, the conditions of
the journey having been no less trying : —

" From Jana Darya we rode forty miles without
a halt. I must say that I was astonished to see
how well the Kirghiz horses stood the long jour-
neys. We had now gone 300 miles ; and my little
animal, in spite of his skeleton-like appearance,
carried me quite as well as the day he left Kasala,
this probably being owing to the change in his
food from grass to barley. We are apt to think
very highly of English horses, and deservedly as far
as pace is concerned ; but if it came to a question of
endurance, I much doubt whether our large and well
fed horses could compete with the little half-starved
Kirghiz animals. This is a subject which must be

15

borne in mind in the event of future complications
in the East."

It is clear that Captain Burnaby was some-
what puzzled by the qualities displayed by a
steed which looked so unpromising ; he seeks
to explain its performance by the better food
it had enjoyed while on the march, and
begins to compare the staying power of
English horses with those of the Kirghiz
pony with doubts as to the superiority of
the former. At a later date he records
without surprise that his party travelled forty
miles in six hours, the horses having gone
all the time at a slow steady trot. On his
return journey, while staying at Petro-
Alexandrovsk, he was given a mount on a
little bay, hardly 14 hands high, for a day's
hunting; and records that it " danced about
beneath me as if he had been carrying a
feather-weight jockey for the Cambridge-
shire." The Kirghiz and Bokharans who
accompanied him evidently thought his
weight would prove too much for the pony,
and when there was a ditch to be jumped
looked round to see how the bay would
manao-e it. "Never a stumble . . . the

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hardy little beast could have carried Daniel
Lambert if that worthy but obese gentleman
had been resuscitated for the occasion."

i6

Finally, Captain Burnaby sums up the
performance of this fourteen-hand pony : —

"We had ridden 371 miles in exactly nine days
and two hours, thus averaging more than 40 miles a
day ! At the same time it must be remembered that,
with an interval of in all not more than nine days'
rest, my horse had previously carried me 500 miles.
In London, judging by his size, he would have been
put down as a polo pony. In spite of the twenty
stone he carried, he had never been either sick or
lame during the journey, and had galloped the last
17 miles through the snow to Kasala in one hour
and twenty-five minutes."

The same author describes a remarkable
forced march made in the summer of 1870
by Count Borkh in Russian Tartary. The
Count's mission was to test the possibility
of taking artillery over the steep and diffi-
cult passes in a certain district, and his force
consisted of 150 cossacks, and 60 mounted
riflemen and a gun. The troops accom-
plished their journey out and back, 266
miles, in six days ; the heat was excessive,
the thermometer marking sometimes as
much as 117° Fahr. during the day ; yet
the ponies were none the worse of their
exertions, the " sick list " at the end com-
prising only twelve, all of which suffered
from sore backs caused by careless saddling.
Other expeditions under similar conditions
are mentioned ; these go to prove that the

17

endurance of the Tartar pony is affected as
little by heat as by cold.

Post Horses in Siberia.

Mr. H. de Windt, in his book From
Pekin to Calais, bears witness to the
wonderful endurance of the small post-horses
supplied to travellers in Siberia. He de-
scribes them as very little beasts ranging
from 14.2 to 15 hands. "Though rough
and ungroomed, they are well fed, as they
need to be, for a rest of only six hours is
allowed between stages." The speed main-
tained depends upon the condition of the
roads; and the number of horses furnished
for each tarantass is regulated by the same
factor ; three horses sufficing in good
weather and as many as seven being re-
quired when the roads are heavy from rain
or snow.

Ponies in India.

Captain L. E. Nolan, in Cavalry History
and Tactics (i860), gives an account of
an experimental march made by 200 of the
15th Hussars from Bangalore to Hyderabad
and back, 800 miles. The objects of the
march were to test the capabilities of the
troop horses and to ascertain if there were

i8

anything to choose between stallions and
geldings in respect of endurance. To arrive
at a solution of the latter question, one hun-
dred of the men were mounted on entires
and the other hundred on horses which
had been castrated only six months pre-
viously, regardless of age, for the purpose
of making the experiment.

The squadrons marched to their destina-
tion, took part in field-days and pageants,
and started to reach Bangalore by forced
marches ; they accomplished the last i8o
miles at a rate of thirty miles per day,
bringing in only one led horse, the remainder
being perfectly sound and fit for further
work. One horse, a 14.3 Persian, carried a
corporal who, with his accoutrements, rode
22 stone 7 lbs. It may be added that there
was nothing to choose between the perform-
ances of the stallions and geldings ; though
the fact that the latter had so recently been
castrated was held to make their achieve-
ment the more creditable.

A forced march such as this has far more
value as testimony to staying power than a
more trying feat performed by a single
animal ; but mention must be made of
Captain Home's ride. This officer, who
belonged to the Madras Horse Artillery,

19

undertook in 1841 to ride his grey Arab,
"Jumping Jimmy," 400 miles in five days
on the Bangalore race- course ; and accom-
plished his task with three hours and five
minutes to spare, the horse doing the last
79 miles 5 furlongs in 19 hours 55 minutes,
and being quite ready for his corn when
pulled up. General Tweedie, in his work
on The Ai^abian Horse (1894), quotes the
above particulars from the Bengal Sporting
Magazine, in whose pages full details are
given.

Captain Nolan, in the work from which
quotation has been made above, sums up
the shortcomings of the cavalry trooper of
his day in the following pithy sentences : —

"Our cavalry horses are feeble; they measure
high, but they do so from length of limb, which is
weakness, not power. The blood they require is not
that of our weedy race-horse (an animal more akin to
the greyhound and bred for speed alone), but it is the
blood of the Arab and Persian, to give them that
compact form and wiry limb in which they are
wanting."

The great value of the pony in India was
insisted on by Mr. J. H. B. Hallen, formerly
the General Superintendent of the Horse
Breeding Department, in a memorandum
published at Meerut in 1899. Pointing out
the many spheres of utility open to the

20

pony, he urged the local authorities and
agricultural societies to foster and develop
pony breeding by providing suitable stallions
for public use. As proving the value of the
pony, Mr. Hallen points out that in the two-
wheeled cart called an ekka, used by the
natives of Northern India, a pony will draw
a load of from 4|- to 6 cwt. over long dis-
tances at a rate of 5 or 6 miles an hour.

Ponies all over India are equally in request
for riding and driving, and in the northern
parts for pack purposes. Indeed, adds Mr.
Hallen, " the pony may be said to be all
round the most useful animal." The supply
is not equal to the demand.

Captain H. L. Powell, R.H.A., writing in
Bailys Magazine of March, 1 900, says : —

" I am a great believer in the Arab for officers'
chargers, Hght cavalry and mounted infantry in
this campaign. The Arab is a hardy little beast,
and will thrive and do well on what would be
starvation rations for an ordinary troop-horse. As
a rule the Arab is rather light of bone, but his
bone is twice as strong as that of an underbred
horse. I have an Arab pony about 14.2 which I
am looking after for his owner who went out to the
war, and who is now, I am sorry to say, enjoying Mr.
Kruger's hospitality in Pretoria. The pony carries
my 15 stone as if it was a feather, and never seems
to tire."

The superiority of the Arab over the

21

Indian country - bred is reflected in their
respective cost. Mr. Hallen, in the memo-
randum before referred to, says stalhons of
the country-bred class can be obtained a
from about £6 los. to ^13, while suitable
Arab pony stallions cost from £\6 los. to

Ponies in Northern Africa.*

The best authority on the breeds used by
the Arabs of Northern Africa is probably
General E. Daumas, who held high com-
mands in Alof-eria and was for a time the
French Consul at Mascara. The Chasseurs
d'Afrique are mounted on Barbs, and thus
the capabilities of these horses were of prac-
tical importance to this officer ; moreover, he
took a very keen personal interest in all
matters relating to the horse, and spared no
endeavour to inform himself concerning the
breed of the country in which he resided.
Hence the description in General Daumas'
book, The Horses of the Sahara : with Com-
mentaries by the Emir Abd El Kadr (1863)
is accepted as the standard on the Barb.

'•' The Barb, there is no possible doubt, is of pure Arab
origin : in the seventh century, when the Fatimite sect of
Mohammedans held sway in Egypt, numerous Arab tribes
migrated to Africa and gradually spread over the whole of
the northern portion of the continent ; the horses they
brought with them spread in like manner.

22

The letters of the famous Emir to General
Daumas, containing categorical replies to
questions put by the latter, show that the
Barbs possess endurance in a very remark-
able degree. Their average height is
nowhere mentioned in this work, but they
are, as we believe, somewhat smaller than the
Arab in his native country and in India.
There is a suo-^estive hint of their small size
in a remark by General Daumas : he says
that inexperienced horsemen with their spurs
"sometimes prick the animal on the knee-
pan and so lame him if the wound be deep."
Assuming that the average height of the
horseman be 5 feet 6 inches, and making-
due allowance for the "straight-legged " seat
of the cavalry man, the General's remark
points to a horse certainly not over 14
hands.

In answer to General Daumas' enquiry as
to the amount of work a Barb can do, the
Emir replies : —

" A horse sound in every limb and eating as much
barley as his stomach can contain can do whatever
his rider can ask of him. For this reason the Arabs
say, " give barley and over-work him," but without
tasking him over much a horse can be made to do
about sixteen pavasangs (equal to about fifty English
miles) a day, day after day. It is the distance from
Mascara to Koudiat Aghelizan on the Oued-Mina :

23

it has been measured in cubits. A horse performing
this journey every day, and having as much barley as
it likes to eat, can go on without fatigue for three or
four months without lying by a single day."

The Arabs on their razzias, or cattle-
stealing expeditions, of necessity travel with
as little encumbrance as possible : on such
expeditions, which may require twenty or
twenty-five days' rapid travel, each horse-
man carries only enough barley to give his
mount eight feeds. In some parts of the
Sahara green food is never given ; frequent
watering is recommended by all Arab horse-
men.

An Arab of the Arbaa tribe orave General
Daumas full particulars of a ride he once
undertook to save a highly prized mare from
the hands of the Turks. In twenty-four
hours he rode her eighty leagues, and during
the journey she obtained nothing to eat but
leaves of the dwarf palm, and was watered
once.

More directly bearing on our present
enquiry are the particulars furnished by
Colonel Duringer of the weights carried
in most of the expeditions by the horses of
the Chasseurs d'Afrique. These details were
ascertained by the Colonel at the moment
of departure of a column : — Horseman, i8o

24

lbs.; equipment, 53 lbs.; pressed hay for five
days, 55 lbs. ; barley for same period, 44 lbs.
The man's own provisions brought up the
total burden to about 350 lbs. English = 25
stone ! Daily consumption of hay and grain
would reduce this colossal burden gradually ;
but the horse would never carry less than
16 stone 9 lbs. at the end of his journey,
starting with the load described.

As regards forced marches of compara-
tively short duration, Colonel Duringer states
that

'* A good horse in the desert ought to accompHsh
for five or six days, one after the other, distances of
25 to 30 leagues. After a couple of days' rest, if
well fed he will be quite fresh enough to repeat the
feat. It is no very rare occurrence to hear of horses
doing 50 or 60 leagues in twenty-four hours."

Ponies in Morocco.

Mr. T. E. Cornwell, who has had twenty
years' experience of travel and residence in
Morocco, gives the ponies in common use
in that country a high character as weight
carriers and for endurance on scanty food ;
they are also very sure-footed. These
horses he describes as Barbs, very hardy
with thick shoulders; they average 14
hands 2 inches, rarely attaining a height of
15 hands. They generally receive a feed

Here they come .

J '•

There they are ! « '. .

Oft the Look Out. .- ,.-% ,''i.- -1 »'. • ' On the Look Out.

Chaj'pins: on them.

Receiving the Charge

From original penal sketches by Henry Aiken.

25

of rouofh straw in the mornino- and a ration
of barley, from 6 to 7 lbs., at night ; they
are watered (when water can be obtained)
once a day. Grass can be had at some
seasons of the year, but the horses, being
tethered during halts, cannot graze, and as
the task of cutting grass would entail delay
it is never used.

Mr. Corn well, a 14 stone man, has ridden
one of these ponies for thirty-two consecutive
days, with only one day's rest, covering an
average of thirty miles per day.

General Maclean, who for a long period
was the " Kaid " or Commander-in-Chief of
the Sultan's forces in Morocco, once tried
the experiment of stabling his horses instead
of picketing out in the open, which is the
usual practice. The experiment did not
answer, for on his next expedition every
horse died ; shelter for a period had no
doubt rendered them susceptible to maladies
brought on by exposure at night. These
ponies could be purchased at a figure ranging
from £8 to £ 11 per head. An export duty
of ^3 I OS., which is levied on every horse
sent out of Morocco, must be added to these
rates by foreign purchasers.

Mr. Cornwell states that an infusion of
English blood does nothing to improve these

26

hardy Morocco ponies. Blood horses from
England have been imported and crossed
with the native mares, but the produce have
always been leggy and less capable of con-
tinued hard work than the native breed.

Ponies in Eastern Asia.

The pony commonly used in China is
bred in the northern part of the country.
According to a writer in Bailys Magazine,
immense droves of ponies run on the plains
three or four hundred miles from Pekin, and
the breeders bring them down every year
for sale in the more populous districts.
They average about 13.1 in height, and
though in very wretched condition when
brought to market, pick up rapidly on good
food. They are usually short and deep
in the barrel, have good legs and feet,
and fairly good shoulders. Speed is not
to be expected from their conformation ;
but they can carry heavy weights, are of
robust constitution and possess great en-
durance.

The Burmese ponies are smaller than the
Chinese, averaoinq- about 12 hands 2 inches,
a thirteen-hand pony being considered a
big one. They are generally sturdy little
beasts with oood shoulders, excellent bone

and very strong in the back ; sound, hardy
and enduring, capable of doing much con-
tinuous hard work under a heavy weight on
indifferent food. Like the Chinese ponies,
they are somewhat slow, but they are
marvellous jumpers.

Before the annexation of Upper Burma
in 1885 the lower province was dependent
upon the breeders of the Shan Hills and
on the breeders in independent Burma for
its ponies, as the export of stallions and
mares was forbidden.

Since the annexation the Indian Govern-
ment have sought to improve the native
breed by the introduction of Arab pony
stallions ; the superior size and good looks
of the " Indo-Burman," as the cross-bred is
called, are, the writer understands, steadily
leading to the disappearance of the pure
Burmese. The half-bred Arab has much
to recommend him over the pure Burmese
pony in greater docility and speed; but these
advantages appear to have been gained at
some sacrifice of weight-carrying power and
endurance.

Captain Al. H. Hayes, in The Points of
the HoT'se, states that the ponies of Sumatra,
averaging about 1 2 hands 2 inches, are the
stronofest for their size he has ever seen.

28

He describes them as "simply balls of
muscle," and notes the beauty of their heads,
which would seem to distinoruish them as
a breed from the ponies found on the main-
land. The Corean pony is the smallest of
Eastern breeds, but his extraordinary weight-
carrying power makes him a marvel : averag-
ing about ten hands in height and slight of
build, he is nevertheless able to carry a
full-grown man, on a saddle secured over
a pile of rugs to atone for his small size,
and to do a long day's work under a burden
wholly disproportionate to his inches.

Ponies in xA.ustralia.

The Australian " mail-man," or mounted
postman, whose duty it is to distribute and
collect letters at the remote and scattered
" stations " far from railway centres, prefers
small horses for his arduous work, which
demands endurance and speed. Thus they
are described by "Australian Native" in
the Field of June 1 1, 1892 : —

" The mail-man's riding horse is of an entirely
different class [from the pack horse which carries the
bags] , and is probably best described as a 'big little'
animal, or a symmetrical, typical English three-
quarter bred hunter of 16 to 16.2 focused into 13.2 or

29

13.3, with slightly higher withers, which gives the
appearance of a somewhat low back."

" Bearing in mind the character of mail-men's duty,
it becomes evident that of necessity their horses must
possess combined stamina, high courage and speed.
The stamp described have these qualities in a marked
degree, and, in addition, their natural paces of jog —
not an amble — and daisy-cutting canter not only
enable them to get over the ground with great ease
to themselves but also to their riders. Moreover,
these small animals are not readily knocked up, but
when they do get stale and leg-weary through extra
hard work on little food, a few days on good grass
is sufficient for them to regain their vitality. In
Australian parlance, they are " cut-and-come-again
customers," and unlike big horses, which, when they
knock up, knock up for an indefinitely long period.

" The smartest stock horses, those in use for drafting
cattle, are also small, handy and well up to 12 stone,
and as their prices are the same as mailmen's nags,
from ^4 to £8 per head, the evidence in favour of
small horses for utilitarian purposes, and also on the
score of economy, preponderates. Would such small

animals, withal tough and wiry, be suitable for light

cavalr}' ? "

The answer to the concluding- query is
undoubtedly "Yes."

Ponies in America and Texas.

The ponies of North-West America are
famed for their powers of endurance, which
are the more remarkable in view of their
make and shape. These animals are with-
out doubt the descendants of stock intro-
duced by the Spaniards when they invaded

30

Mexico early in the i6th century ; the
offspring of these Spanish horses in course
of time spread over the whole continent.

Colonel Richard Irvino- Dodofe remarks,
in his work Our Wild Indians (1882), that
the horses introduced by the Spaniards must
have been very inferior in size, or the race
has greatly degenerated ; as compared with
the American horse, the Indian pony is very
small. As the subsequent observations of
Colonel Dodge prove, these ponies, if they
have lost size have lost absolutely nothing"
in working qualities ; they have become
adapted to their conditions of life and have
probably gained in hardiness of constitution
and endurance. He writes : —

" Averaging scarcely fourteen hands in height,
the Indian pony is rather sHght in build, though
always having powerful fore-quarters, good legs, short,
strong back, and full barrel. He has not the slightest
appearance of ' blood,' though his sharp, nervous ears
and bright, vicious eye indicate unusual intelligence
and temper. But the amount of work he can do and
the distance he can make in a specified (long) time
put him fairly on a level with the Arabian or any
other of the animal creation. . . . Treated properly,
the pony will wear out two American horses, but in
the hands of the Indian he is so abused and neglected
that an energetic cavalry officer will wear him out."

The North-West American Indian, though
a marvellous horseman as a "trick rider,"

3^

has apparently no idea whatever of saving
his mount, whatever the distance he has to
travel. Accordino- to Colonel Dodo-e, who
has enjoyed many opportunities of informing"
himself on Indian usages, more especially
as an enemy, he will gallop his pony till it
drops from sheer exhaustion.

As showing what a good pony can do
in the hands of a man who knows how to
make the most of him, Colonel Dodge states
that he once tried to buy an animal which
pleased his eye, offering forty dollars for it ;
whereupon the owner replied that the price
was six hundred dollars. Repeating the
incident to someone who knew the pony, he
was informed that the owner had not been
actuated by any boastful spirit ; that he had
good reason for attaching a very high value
to it. The man, it appeared, had been
employed to carry the mail bags between
Chehuahua and El Paso, nearly 300 miles
apart, during a period of six months, when
the roads were closed for ordinary travel
by marauding bands of Apache Indians on
the watch for white men.

He had to make the perilous journey
once a week, and he performed it on the
pony, riding all night for three successive
nights, and hiding by day. The Indians,

32

it may be added, are deterred by supersti-
tion from risking death by night; hence an
additional good reason for the express rider's
choice of time to travel. For six months
the pony carried him between ninety and
a hundred miles on three consecutive niorhts
in each week ; he went one week and re-
turned the next in the same way. And
Colonel Dodge adds that this tax upon his
powers " had not diminished the fire and
flesh of that pony."

Writing of the breed in another work,
The Hiuiting Groiuids of the Great West,
Colonel Dodge observes that civilisation
spoils this pony ; accustomed on the ranche
and prairie to pick up his own living when
turned out after a long day's work in
summer, and used to semi-starvation in
winter, when stabled, shod, and fed on corn,
his character undero'oes a chanore. He
either becomes morose, ill-tempered, hard
to manage and dangerous, or he degenerates
into a fat, lazy, short-winded cob, "only fit
for a baby or an octogenarian." The latter
change is the more usual. We can well
understand that such would be the result.

Colonel Dodge has no doubt but that the
Indian pony is identical with the Texan
mustano- or wild horse, concernino- whose

33

qualities we may take the evidence of a
contributor to \\\q. Field. "C. E. H." writes,
in an article on " A Texas Fair," published
in 1891 : —

" The native stock for endurance and soundness
of constitution cannot be surpassed. We have
owned many of these animals of from fourteen to fif-
teen hands, and never had an unsound one yet.
They will carry one 70 miles a day without tiring ;
and we sold a horse aged 8 years ten years ago,
which was lately disposed of for only ^"3 less than
the sum we then received for him."

The horses raised on the plains of Uru-
guay, on the River Plate, have much in
common with the mustang, but retain to a
o-reater decree the characteristics of their
remote Spanish ancestry in the small lean
head and well-turned limbs. They are
somewhat higher than the mustang, varying
between 14 and 15 hands, seldom exceeding
the latter heisfht ; but the natives attach no
importance to hands and inches, it being an
acknowledo-ed fact that the smallest horses
are in many instances the best. Accustomed
to run at laroe until between four and five
years old, these horses are sound and hardy,
capable of carrying fourteen or fifteen stone
all day without tiring and able to perform
hard and continuous work on little food.
3

34

Army Horses of the Future.

Let it not be supposed for a moment
that in urg^ino- the merits of small horses the
writer seeks to asperse the value of heavy-
cavalry. Weight in men and size in horses
are Indispensable for such work as our heavy
cavalry are called upon to perform ; even
the civilian mind can appreciate the mysteries
of tactics so far as to recognise that a charg-e
of heavy cavalry can effect infinitely greater
results upon an enemy than men mounted
on ponies of fourteen hands or fourteen
hands two inches.

Authorities on military affairs seem agreed
that the great improvements made in small
arms of precision since the Crimean War
have done much to impair the former value
of heavy cavalry for direct attack ; it needs
no trained intellio-ence to recoonise that
cavalry advancing in close rank might well
be shot down to a man in attempting to
charge a foe, not necessarily under cover,
over a thousand yards of fairly open ground
on which such a manoeuvre is possible to
cavalry. For artillery and transport, how-
ever, we shall always need powerful horses,
and the draught power required is only to
be obtained with height.

35

When it was made evident that very
much larger numbers of mounted infantry
were required for the South African cam-
paign than had been anticipated, the re-
mount agents were instructed to purchase
cobs, and to obtain these in quantity it was
necessary to go to foreign countries, the
United States Argentina and Hungary,
where they could be procured. Had the
demand been made for ponies, a very large
proportion of our Army's need could have
been bought cheaply and quickly in this
country. F'or in the ponies of Exmoor,
Wales, the New Forest and other districts,
we possess large numbers of animals whose
small size bears no relation to their weight,
carrying power, and whose mode of life is
the best possible preparation for "roughing
it " in South Africa. Very different is the
case with the animals shipped from England.

For generations, now, horses for the saddle
and lighter draught work have been very
largely bred less as necessaries than luxuries ;
the conditions of their lives are artificial in
a high degree, and the constitution which
could formerly withstand exposure, hard and
continuous work and scanty feed, has been
softened by pampering. To take such
horses out of their stables where the tern-

36

perature is regulated, where they are warmly
clothed and regularly fed, and despatch
them to endure the hardships of campaign-
ing in countries where hay and oats are
unknown or unprocurable, and the forage
obtainable is unsuited to English chargers —
in short, to most severely tax their powers
under a set of conditions entirely opposed
to those to which they are accustomed — is
to invite heavy mortality.

The sacrifice of useful qualities to the
'* god of inches " is deplored only in so far
as it applies to horses for mounted infantry
and light cavalry. The utility of large and
powerful horses is not, and never has been,
questioned. In point of fact it is their value
for the work in which they are employed
that has done something to blind us to the
very real value — for special tasks — of ponies :
and if the foregoing pages do anything to
prove that there is in modern warfare a
place of the highest importance which can
only be filled by the small horse of 14.2
or thereabouts, their object has been ful-
filled.

Breeding Small Horses.

Assuming that the peculiar suitability of
horses between 14 hands and 14 hands

37

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 stand-
ing 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* 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.

What is required is an animal between
14.0 and 14.3 hands ; it must be stout and

* See Fo7iics Past tutd Present^ by Sir Walter (iilbey, Bart.
Vinton & Co., Ltd.

38

able to carry weight, capable of covering
long distances at fair speed, able to subsist
on coarse or poor food for weeks together
without losino- condition, stronof of constitu-
tion 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 mioht use a small Thoroufjhbred
with excellent results, but having regard to

39

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 Poorest and Moorland dams it
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 1 706, 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 un-
desired 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 in-
fantry cob must not be, saving only in

40

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 quahties our race horses
boasted a century and a half or two cen-
turies ago, when they stood 14 hands to
14.3 — the famous Gimcrack is said to have
measured 14 hands oj 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 breed-
ing the Thoroughbred for speed and speed
only, Arab breeders have continued to breed
for stoutness, endurance and good looks. By
ofoinor to Arab stock for our sires we mig-ht
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

^

^ 55<^' . J- ;if

41

qualities of the dam. Those qualities, the
hardiness, robustness of constitution, sure-
ness of foot, and ability to thrive on poor
feed, are the natural outcome of the con-
ditions 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
ria-Qurs 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 en-
courage undue physical development while
undermining that capacity for endurance of
hardship which is so essential.

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

42

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 watchful-
ness 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 con-
stitution, and the free, natural existence,
which may prove fatal to the cross - bred
youngsters and will certainly check their
"growth.

Having showm the great utility of small
horses for w^ork requiring endurance, hardi-
ness, 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 experi-
ence, we may briefiy summarise what has
been said in regard to the foundation stock
we possess.

43

( 1 ) The pony dams of our Forest and
Moorland breeds cannot be surpassed.

(2) The sire chosen should be a small
thorouQ-hbred 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 :

{I)) Should exist, as far as possible, on
natural herbage : as in all cases artificial
feeding tends to render them less hardy and
endurino-.

APPENDIX.

Since this little book was placed in the printers'
hands, a work published in 1836 has come under the
writer's notice. This is entitled A Comparative View of
the Form and Character of the English Racer and Saddle
Horse during the Past and Present Centuries/'' It was
written wath the view of showing that the natural
qualities of the horse — endurance, weight-carrying
power and speed maintained over long distances,
are found at their best in the horse which has been
reared under natural conditions and whose stature
has not been increased by " selection " in breeding
and by artificial conditions of life. In the opening
words of the Introductory chapter ;

" The main object of these pages is to investi-
gate the results of that structural enlargement of
animals which is unnatural, to point out those pro-
perties which may be acquired by certain of them
when fully reclaimed, and those which they are
likely to lose in this condition.

" The natural stature both of horses and cattle
is small compared with that which they acquire
when domesticated. The enlargement of their
structure is effected by grass made by art un-
naturally rich, or by food yet more foreign to their
nature. Supplied plentifully with either throughout
the year, horses acquire an increase of stature in
muscular power which enables them to carry or
drag a heavier weight. . . ."

* Illustrated by eighteen plates of horses. — Anon. Published by
Thomas Hookham, London.

45

The author proceeds to observe that in enlarging
the structure we seem to modify rather than im-
prove the vital powers of the animal ; and by way
of illustrating his meaning points out with great
truth that —

" In the human race any extent of skeleton or
amount of muscle which is unusually large is rarely
allied with a full amount of vital power. Still,
the man who has most muscle can make the
greatest muscular exertion. If we change the
nature of the trial and render it one of time or
privations, the greater vital power of smaller but
well-formed men is apparent."

Our author then proceeds to examine the proper-
ties which animals derive from nature, comparing
these with those they derive from art. In this con-
nection I have been much interested to observe that
he cites the greater strength, staying power and
activity of the hare of the downs over the hare of the
park and low pasture-land. The same comparison
was made by me* as proof of the advantages to an
animal of life-conditions that compel the free use of
limbs.

Nature, observes this author, erects her own
standard for measuring the constitutional power of
her creatures, and the individuals who no longer come
up to this perish prematurely. In other words, the
constitutional strength of animals is so regulated by,
and adjusted to, the conditions of feed and climate
under which those animals pass their lives, that they
thrive vigorously. We do not, for instance, find the
ponies of the Welsh hills or of Exmoor, a feeble and
delicate race ; the feeble individuals die off without
perpetuating their weaknesses, and those which come
up to the standard of vitality Nature has prescribed
survive to reproduce their kind.

* "Young Race Horses," pp. 21-2, by Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart.
Vinton & Co., Limited, 189S.

46

The following, which has direct bearing on the
subject matter of the foregoing pages, must be
noted : —

" Many facts have been recorded showing the

extraordinary power of ponies for travelling fast

and far, but these are so well known as to make it

unnecessary to specify them here."

Nevertheless on a subsequent page we find recorded

a very striking example of endurance, which compares

favourably with any of those quoted in the foregoing

pages and in my little work on Ponies : '''

"The late Mr. Allen of Sudbury, in Suffolk,
often during the course of his life rode from that
place to London and back (112 miles) in the course
of a day upon a pony. This task was performed
by several which Mr. Allen had in succession.
When he returned home from these expeditions
he was in the habit of turning the little animal he
had ridden at once into the lanes without giving it
a grain of corn. Mr. Allen, whose weight was
very light, rode at a smart canter. He always
selected Welsh ponies, saying that no others were
so stout."

The author adds that if any one of our enlarged
horses could be found capable of performing this task
it would certainly not be on a grass diet ; which is
undoubtedly true.

At the date this book was published, 1836, the
deterioration which our race horses had undergone
through the abolition of long-distance races was a
subject of comment. The author deplores the altered
conditions of the Royal Plates and the feebleness of
the horses bred only for speed, on the ground that
the change was producing ill effects upon all saddle-
horses.

The author puts the whole case for a changed

* "Ponies: Past and Present." By Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart
Vinton & Co., Ltd.

47

method of breeding in a nutshell when he writes that
" we want a class of horses bred under a system
which holds the balance even between speed, stout-
ness and structural power." As proving that the
balance can be struck, he points to the uniformity of
peed and stoutness which distinguishes a good pack
of foxhounds. None are markedly faster than the
others ; the aim is to get the hounds as even in all
respects as possible, and there are numerous packs
which prove to us that this aim can be achieved with
wonderful completeness. It goes without saying,
however, that it is infinitely easier to build up a level
pack of hounds than it would be to develop a given
number of horses all of which shall be alike !

It is exceedingly interesting to find that sixty-four
years ago this author, with the improvement of
horses in view, should advocate adoption of the step
which has been urged in the chapter (p. 36 and seq.)
on " Breeding Small Horses." He is in favour of a
National EstabHshment or breeding stud, but that
is a detail ; he explains that his only reason for
making it a Government department is to secure
that contmuity of policy which is otherwise unattain-
able. The nucleus of his scheme is to " obtain from
the East a considerable number of well selected
ponies. The better portion would be found to
possess much natural speed, stoutness under severe
exertion, with limbs and feet peculiarly adapted for
moving rapidly on a hard surface." The persons
commissioned to buy these ponies

"Would search in vain for these properties which
are acquired under a system of continued selection.
Looking only for natural qualities, they should
select animals as nearly in a state of nature as
they could find them ; ha\ing good symmetry,
a full amount of muscle and whatever natural
speed the best animals of the best race are found
to possess."
He would have these horses tested for speed when

48

brought home, the standard being a natural degree
of speed and not that of the Turf.

" The offspring of these small horses should be
tried in each succeeding generation ; and we
should be satisfied for a few years to see the
natural speed of the race gradually augment, retain-
ing only for breeding such as went through their
trials satisfactorily."

On a later page he suggests the propriety of
crossing these Eastern sires with our Forest and
Moorland ponies. He cannot doubt that the imme-
diate offspring of the first cross will prove suitable
for the saddle :

" The best saddle horses we possess being now
occasionally produced by crossing the race horse
with a pony mare. This experiment often succeed-
ing with one of the parents so ill fitted for taking
part in it as the modern racer, there is every
reason to conclude that, with parents properly
constituted on both sides, the breeding of the best
class of saddle horses might be accompanied with
little uncertainty."

Thus far we find that the suggestions for breeding
small horses set out on pp. 36-43 were anticipated
over sixty years ago. We must, before taking leave
of the author, glance at his plan for " renovating "
our half wild breeds of ponies. If it were practicable
to carry out the experiment he outlines, the results
would be of undoubted interest.

"To experiment properly in this matter it is
necessary that a public establishment should appro-
priate some extensive district of unreclaimed and
bad pasturage to the maintenance of a large body
of ponies. These should be interfered with only to
the extent of severe selection, founded on annual
trials ; taking the animals for this purpose from
their pasturage for a few days during the summer,
and tying them to pickets. Here they should be
closely inspected, and after the best formed had

49

been selected from the rest, they should be taken
ten or twenty at a time by rough riders of light
weight, and submitted to a trial of some hours'
duration. The animals which went through this
satisfactorily should be divided into two portions :
one should be returned to their old pasturage to
remain at their then stature; while the other portion
should be made to occupy a somewhat better pas-
turage in order that their offspring might acquire
greater stature, the rest to be drafted and sold.
When old enough the enlarged stock should be
tried, and such as went through it well should be
kept, and turned out into a little better pasturage
than that in which they had been reared, while
those rejected should be drafted and sold. It is
only in this very gradual manner that the stature
of a race can be increased to the point required.
Ponies of a pure race being so vigorous as to be
wholly unfitted for rich pasturage, they become
upon it balls of fat. None of our native ponies
under the plan now proposed would be enlarged
or withdrawn from their miserable pasturage un-
less their form and action were good ; the only
change then effected would be a pasturage a little
better. Any further enlargement would be made
to depend upon the manner in which they had
been found to bear the preceding one."
His plan has at all events the great merit that it
proposes to seek the limit of enlargement in the
half-wild ponies without risking loss of hardiness
and other valuable qualities by pampering.

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