Small Horses in Warfare

Whether, by careful attention to mating and management, it would be possible to establish a breed of small horses as a fixed type is a question only prolonged experience will be able to answer. It is quite certain that we shall never be able to reckon on getting stock which, when fully grown and furnished, will neither exceed nor fall short of the limit of 14 hands 2 inches, at which the breeder will aim with the prizes of the polo pony market in his mind's eye. But there is sound reason to think that we can build upon an Arab and Forest or Moorland pony foundation a breed of small horses such as we need for mounted infantry.

There are difficulties in the way; and not the least is the peculiar care and watchfulness that must be exercised in order to hit the "happy medium" between artificial life, with its attendant drawbacks of probable overgrowth and certain delicacy of constitution, and the free, natural existence, which may prove fatal to the cross-bred youngsters and will certainly check their growth.

Having shown the great utility of small horses for work requiring endurance, hardiness, and weight-carrying power, as proved by the writings of authorities who, in several instances, employed them merely because they could procure no other animals, and learned what their qualities are by experience, we may briefly summarise what has been said in regard to the foundation stock we possess.

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

(2) The sire chosen should be a small thoroughbred or an Arab. If a half-breed sire is used his dam should be one not less than three parts thoroughbred.

(3) Inasmuch as the forest and moorland ponies owe their small size and soundness to the hardships of the free and natural conditions in which they live, their half-bred produce should —

(a) Lead a similarly free and natural life as far as climate permits, in order to inure them to the hardships of warfare and general work:

(b) Should exist, as far as possible, on natural herbage: as in all cases artificial feeding tends to render them less hardy and enduring.

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.4 It was written with 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 investigate the results of that structural enlargement of animals which is unnatural, to point out those properties 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 unnaturally 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…"

The author proceeds to observe that in enlarging the structure we seem to modify rather than improve 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 properties which animals derive from nature, comparing these with those they derive from art. In this connection 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 me5 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.

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:6

"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 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, stoutness and structural power." As proving that the balance can be struck, he points to the uniformity of speed 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 Establishment or breeding stud, but that is a detail; he explains that his only reason for making it a Government department is to secure that continuity of policy which is otherwise unattainable. 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; having 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 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, retaining 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 immediate 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 succeeding 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 appropriate 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 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 pasturage 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 unless 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.

1

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

2

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.

3

See Ponies Past and Present, by Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. Vinton & Co., Ltd.

4

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

5

"Young Race Horses," pp. 21-2, by Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. Vinton & Co., Limited, 1898.

6

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