The Pony
The Wonderful Pony:
Many hunters, jumpers and Event horses owe their hardiness and ability to extricate themselves from tricky situations to a pony somewhere or other in there ancestry, but the exact defination of a pony, as such, is elusive.
As a generalisation it can not be based on height or conformation, pony type or temperament, but is a subtle combination of the lot, with different breeds having their own particular characteristics.
The history of the lovely little Welsh Mountain pony is lost in antiquity, but its looks show some Arabian ancestry. These ponies do not exceed 12 hands and have acquired an innate hardiness, courage and intelligence from running semi-wild on the Welsh hills for centuries.
They are the foundation stock of the Welsh Pony (Section B, up to 13.2 hands), the less familiar Pony Cob (Section C, same size), and the handsome versatile Welsh Cob.
The Welsh Mountain goes well in harness but in Britain is generally thought of as a good though spirited mount for small children. This outlook is applied to all British pony breeds and restricts them to only a few show classes.
Elsewhere, 'performance' classes are very popular, and in South Africa, where Welsh and other British ponies are in growing demand, many shows also feature classes for part-bred and 'Handy' Welsh ponies.
There are now several studs of American Welsh Ponies in the U.S.A. and most shows incorporate Pleasure Classes, driving, jumping and Western-style for this and other pony breeds.
New Forest ponies come of an ancient mixed stock, but are now bred true, and are valued as excellent 'all-rounders' of equable temperament. The modern trend is for larger ponies of more quality than the old-fashioned Forest type, and these are also bred in Denmark and other countries.
The sturdy all-purpose Fjordings of Scandinavia, good-natured ponies with shaped, upright manes, and the indispensable strong little Iceland ponies, of exceptional homing instinct, belong to the same Northern group as the Swedish Gotland, and Britain's well known Exmoor.
This old, pure breed run wild on their native moorland and are easily distinguishable by their characteristic wiry winter coat, and mealy coloring on belly, muzzle and around their typically prominent 'Toad' eyes.
Most of the ponies running on nearby Dartmoor are now crossbred, but a number of studs preserve the qualities of the true Dartmoor, one of the best and most attractive of the smaller riding breeds.
The sturdy, sure-footed pack ponies that were led across the fells and dales of Northern England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have been developed into the exceptionally strong, utility Dales pony, and the smaller, lighter Fell.
These ponies are good for every kind of work and like the Highland, for centuries the Scottish crofter's helpmate, have come into their own in the modern world through the vogue of trekking.
Ireland's Connemara is another of the larger breeds, an admirable riding and jumping pony, hardy and versatile, that has acquired quality from Spanish blood introduced in the Middle Ages and later, from the Arabian sources.
Until recently not well known outside Ireland, Connemara ponies are now being bred in England and elsewhere.
With the exception of Falabellas, miniatures under seven hands developed in the Buenos Aires province, Shetlands are the smallest ponies in the world. Indigenous to Orkney and Shetland they are now so popular in many European countries that Dutch-bred Shetlands are actually being exported to England.
For a long time they were the only pony breed known in Canada, but the Canadian Pony Society now recognizes Welsh, Dartmoor, Highland, Fell, Exmoor, New Forest and Iceland ponies as well. American Shetland ponies are shown under three types, Riding, Harness and Draft, and are matched in harness trotting races.
Some have been 'modernized' and these fast, spirited and comparatively leggy creatures bear small resemblance to the docile, shaggy little ponies so often ridden by quite tiny children throughout the countryside in Britain and elsewhere in Europe.
Few European countries possess an indigenous breed of pony, though the Haflinger of Austria and South Germany could be described as such, and is a typical mountain pony of much the same origins as Italy's larger A velignese.
They are widely used for agriculture and winter sleigh work, and several of them, with their innately calm disposition and compact strength, are proving successful in England as mounts for the heavier disabled riders.
France's 'wild white horses' of the Camargue are sometimes described as large ponies, but either way they have lived for centuries semi-wild in the marshlands at the mouth of the Rhone.
They are still used for herding the black Camargue bulls, and for treks connected with the rapidly developing tourist trade.
Mongolian, Chinese and Tibetan ponies, and the Indian hill ponies of the Himalayas, differ slightly from country to country and region to region, but basically they are the same, small, tough, frugal living and immensely strong, and are still used for every kind of work.
The famed Basuto ponies that commanded such respect during the Boer War, have degenerated to some extent through the circumstances of modern life. They are descendants of the Cape horse, and have Persian, Arab and Thoroughbred ancestry.
They first arrived in Basutoland as the result of nineteenth century Zulu raiding, and are still some of the hardiest and most sure-footed of ponies, capable of fast speeds up and down rough mountain tracks.
The Pony of the Americas, the youngest breed of all, described as 'a happy medium' of miniature Quarter Horse-cum-Arabian with Appaloosa colouring, was first registered in 1954.
The ponies were specifically evolved as handy, intelligent and equable mounts of 11.2 to 13 hands, for children up to 16 years old. They are equally at home drawing a sleigh, competing in jumping or Western-style classes or acting as the family stock horse.
When pre-historic man enlisted horses to his benefit, he ensured their remaining indispensable for nearly 4,000 years.
Now, although their function changes with time and conditions, horses and ponies are still important to an enormous and growing number of people.
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