What Is A Pony? | ||
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What Is A Pony? | ||
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All horses, from the largest draft horse to the smallest pony, are part of the same species - Equus caballus. Although zebras, donkeys and the various asses are related, they belong to a separate subspecies. An equine measuring less than 14.2 hands high is called a pony. It is probable that all of the ancient horses were pony size. Also many members of light breed breeds are technically ponies, and it is quite common to find an Arab or Morgan under 14.2 hands. Such modern ponies as the Chincoteague and Banker ponies are stunted horses.
Natural selection favors small size where conditions are harsh developing a small breed able to survive where a larger animal, which required more food, could not. True pony types are compact and powerful, and they are well-proportioned. A pony is more intelligent, thriftier, and hardier than a horse. A pony is patient, cheerful and docile, and because they are both curious and highly intelligent, they can learn both good and bad habits quite quickly. Ponies are extremely adaptable animals making them the most highly distributed animals.
Ponies in Great Britain. Since prehistoric times there have been ponies in the British Isles, and they are the ancestor of many of today's larger horses. In Britain's obscure past, ponies were the only equines in the islands, and it is not certain whether man or pony was there first. The wild herds of ponies may nave wandered from Europe to Great Britain when the English channel was only a valley (ca. 12,000-10,000 BC). Or they might have been driven by early settlers who first hunted them, and later raised them as for meat and skins (for clothing). The Neolithic cave paintings showed Celtic-type ponies, and Stone age men hunted wild horses for food.
Only after the Celts arrived (ca. 750-500 BC) were the ponies domesticated. Those tribes which domesticated the horse would reach a higher level of civilization than tribes that did not. Although some authorities believe that all British ponies descend from the Celtic stock, the Celts came from northern Europe, from what is now Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. The Celts were described by the Romans as tall, blond and muscular, and they were a war-like people of fighting, feasting, song and strong drink. The Celts brought their horses and horse-skills to the British Isles. They make weapons of iron and bronze, and their early domestication of the horse enabled them to overrun and pillage much of Europe.
When the Roman legions came to Britain in 55 BC, there were wild ponies in the islands. They were sturdy and versatile "little fellows" to make ideal horses for Queen Boadicea (or Boudicca), who bred 'Celtic' ponies (a type rather than a breed). She was a queen of ancient Britain and is famous for the bloody and tragic revolt she led against the Roman conquest of Britain. Prasutagus, king of Iceni, a Celtic tribe northeast of London, was her husband. Prasutagus died without male heirs and he left some of his wealth to Nero, the Roman Emperor, as a gesture of peace. However, the Romans seized the land of Iceni and mistreated Boadicca, and she led a revolt in which half of Britain joined. In the absence of the Roman governor, the Britons destroyed a Roman legion, captured and burned several cities and massacred about 70,000 Romans and other foreigners. The Governor returned bringing two legions reestablishing control for the Roman Empire. Boadicca committed suicide by taking poison in 62 AD, and Rome's' victory brought control over southern Briton. The bones of these ponies have been found on ancient camping sites of famous army units, in one instance dating to 79 AD.
Man made use of the smallest horses for riding for thousands of years. On the backs of these small equines much of the world's history has been made.
There was a great attempt to improve Britain's native breeds and increase their height for use in the army by importing larger stallions. King Henry VIII of England, who had a way of disposing his wives whom he didn't like, also disliked ponies. By putting forth a decree in 1540 making it illegal to breed "any paltry pony of less stature than 13 hands full," he was the first to make laws regarding the wild ponies of Britain. From another source, the decree is stated that "no stallion under 14 hands should be used or turned out on the moors or forests to breed, under penalty of being destroyed" and in certain shires (or counties) the limit was 15 hands. (This is perhaps the first attempt to fix a height standard to distinguish horses from ponies, and no doubt that sometime later the average between 14 and 15 hands was selected - 14.2.) In that time, the law also required all farmers in receipt of stated incomes, all owners of parks, and many others, to keep a certain number of brood mares of a height not less than 13 hands. The Crown required breeding of these horses as a source of army mounts, and the owners were required to surrender to the Crown upon demand, for which failure to comply brought stiff penalties.
The ponies were very numerous at that time and roamed like deer and other wild animals. They not only lived in Britain's wilds, but they came down to the cultivated lands and did a great deal of damage. These new laws caused many of these ponies which could be reached to be slaughtered. The banishment from cultivated lands was so complete that wild ponies hid out in the moors and forests. They existed on remote terrain as rough mountain sides, steep, rocky valleys and bleak, wind-swept moors. These ponies were found in areas as New Forest, Dartmoor, Exmoor, the mountains of Wales, the English Lake District, the Highlands of Scotland, along both sides of the Pennine Mountain Range and in the rugged South West corner of Scotland (which is known as Galloway).
Unfortunately, many of the useful strains have completely disappeared. The Galloway is one such strain, and is the ancestor of the Highland, Dales and Fell ponies. The Galloway was used for a polo pony and for racing before an institution of it was made of it at Newmarket. The Galloway was described as docile and vigorous, and said to derive from Andalusian horses that came ashore from the Armada shipwrecks.
Later the wild ponies were captured and put to good used, ultimately all of them coming under ownership. While all of these ponies are believed descended from the one native stock of British pony, they have been divided into very distinct types. These types have been created by time, environment, and through man's interference and the purposes for which man required the ponies for. The pony "tribes" lived for generations without shelter and without food other than the often sparse natural herbage of their districts, which were mountains and moorlands. The results over the years have made these ponies often sturdier than their larger brothers, horses.
Lord Arthur Cecil founded the Polo Pony Society Council in the 1800s, and the breed characteristics were documented on the native ponies throughout Great Britain. A statement by Lord Cecil is printed in the Polo Pony Stud Book which notes the common features of native breeds. One of the characteristics in common was that they had a tendency to be brown with light tan or mealy points. Around the turn of the century (1900), there were still traces of the common ancestral type in individuals, but most of the native breeds were already on the path to developing their own distinctive characteristics.
These ponies were named for the mountain and moorland districts from which they came Exmoor, Dartmoor, Welsh, Connemara, Shetland, Highland, Fell, Dales, and New Forest. Each breed has its own history, purpose, and story to tell. The term "pony" has since been applied to other equines outside of Britain with the same characteristic features and height standard as the British ponies.
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© 1997-2007
NW Breyer Horse Club & Refiner of Gold Creations Equinealities in place since 1997, Section in place 2001, Updated 3/13/2007 |
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