The common defect of ponies is straight
thick shoulders and want of a proper place for the
saddle. This is general among the pure mountain
breed; probably hereditary grazing and
exposure to the weather are not favourable to
perfection of shape. Welsh ponies have a well-
deserved reputation, but it can scarcely be said
that they are of any particular breed. Since
civilisation spread into Wales in the shape of rich
squires and thorough-bred sires, the owners of
mountain herds have freely availed themselves
of Arab and racing crosses. The best ponies
are always found in places where the hilly nature
of the country creates a demand for small horses,
and where wastes on which full-sized horses
would starve, offer room for them as well as
for small cattle and mountain sheep.

Somersetshire and Devonshire, like North
and South Wales, are famous for excellent
ponies, because in hilly regions small horses do
all the work of the country better than the full-
sized animals, which Yorkshiremen seek to breed
and London dealers try to buy. In the great
horse-breeding counties, no one intentionally
breeds a pony, or even a small hack. These
dwarfs come by accident in the course of
attempts to breed tall hunters and taller carriage-
horses.

In Wales and North Devon, a well-shaped
pony is the best hack, and what would be
called a pony in the pasture counties—say
fourteen to fifteen hands—the best hunter.
Throughout North Devon and Somersetshire,
and wherever ponies are famed, the Exmoor
breed have a great reputation; not without
reason, for they are not only hardy and sure-
footed—from their earliest years the foals follow
their dams at a gallop down the "crees" of
loose stones on the steep moorland sides—but
they are extraordinarily active and courageous.
The writer once saw an Exmoor, only forty-four
inches high, jump out of a pound five feet six
inches high, just touching the top bar with his
hind feet. But Exmoor ponies are an example
of the inevitable effects of food and climate.
The late Mr. Knight, the father of the present
owner of Exmoor, expended a fortune in trying
to raise a breed of horses and larger ponies of
these wastes. Thorough-breds, Arabs, and even
the rare Dongola horse, imported at a cost of
thousands, were used; but, after all, in order to
breed a race capable of living through Exmoor
winters, it has been found necessary to fall back
on pure pony breeds, and be satisfied with an
average height of a little over forty-eight inches.
Among these, while all are excellent for
harness, occasionally specimens occur which
reproduce the blood and the symmetry of noble
ancestors.

The Shetlanders are undoubtedly of a
Norwegian stock, but, according to a doubtful
tradition, owe their thorough-bred look and
parti-colours to crosses with sires saved from
the wreck of the Spanish Armada. At any
rate, from selection, or some other cause,
Shetlanders are to be found, much more thorough-
bred than the dun cobs of Norway. Some of the
finest specimens of the blood ponies ever seen in
this country were from Sardinia, presented by
the present King of Italy to our Queen. They
were Arabs in miniature, from ten to twelve
hands high, of a better shape than Arabs usually
are, with that "quality" and "courage" which
are the cardinal merits of the African blood-
horse.

In choosing a pony on which your boys are
to learn to ride, take one as much like a good
hack in shape, and as little like a donkey, as
possible. In a large woodcut by John Leech,
of the First Meet of the Season, there is a
serious drawing, not a caricature, of a perfect
blood pony arching his neck proudly, and champing
his bit. A donkey is a very useful animal,
but he is the worst possible tutor for future
horsemen, because he has no mouth, or rather
a mouth of leather, which never objects to
being pulled.

A boy's pony should be narrow, so that his
little legs can have some real grasp. The fat
round barrels of the cob-model are very well for
carrying baskets or side saddle-pads; but a boy,
when eight or nine years old, and that is early
enough to begin to ride, should be able to sit in
as good form as when, in later years, he bestrides
a hunter. Some teach without stirrups; but as
in this civilised country every one rides with
stirrups, the advantage is doubtful, the danger
of serious injury is considerable, and the effect
is to give an awkward seat; but if boys do
ride without stirrups, it should be either bare-
backed or with a cloth and surcingle. A saddle
without stirrups is very dangerous.

Nothing is more absurd than the usual course
of instruction in riding. In every other art, the
tutors begin with the elements, and with those
one at a time; but the riding-school teacher
generally begins by encumbering a pupil who
does not know how to sit, with double reins and
a whip.

Teach the boy to sit first. Fasten the pony's
head into the right place with a pair of reins
buckled to the flaps of the saddle, and a standing
martingale if necessary. Then put the boy
into the saddle carefully, fit the stirrups to his
legs, tell him to keep his shoulders back, his
back slack, his heels down, and cross his arms
across his chest. Then, repeating the cabalistic
words "Heels down, back slack" over and over
again, lead the pony about at a walk for a day
or two until the boy gets his balance, or what
the French happily call "son assiette." Then
give him a single pair of reins, and explain that
in riding the hands are always to be kept lower
than the elbows, and generally as low as the
hips. Impress on him, "If you raise your hands
you are lost," and that the bridle is not a safety
handle to hold on with, but a pair of lines for
steering: "If you want to turn to the right,
pull the right rein; if you want to turn to the
left, pull the left rein." These were the maxims
of George D., the once celebrated steeple-chase
rider. He spent hours in instilling them into
his children, and with marvellous success.
At ten years old, his boy and girl rode