Page:Hints to Horse-keepers.djvu/78

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70
PONIES—THEIR DIFFERENT BREEDS.

which were some years ago much the fashion for ladies' pony carriages. They ran from ten to eleven hands high with softer and finer coats than the Shetlanders, and with manes and tails which, though full and flowing, were not so abundant and massive as those of their little congeners. They were not unfrequently albinoes, having blood-red pupils to their eyes, which tends to confirm suspicion of their Hanoverian origin. Persons who remember the drive in Hyde Park and the corner of Rotten Row in the days when George IV. was King, will not easily forget the beautiful turn-out of the beautiful Lady Foley, a four-in-hand of snow-white ponies, scarcely bigger than the rats which furnished Cinderella's carriage-horses, and two little ten-year-old outriders mounted on two others of the same stamp, in full uniform of top boots, leather breeches, and miniature hunting whips. These pretty Hanoverians are, however, only pretty playthings for pretty women, for they have none of the stamina of the Shetlanders. Shetland ponies of the true breed are not often imported into America, although of late years a good many of the larger Scottish and Welsh ponies are being introduced, and, if black, are often erroneously called Shetlanders. At the State Fair of New Jersey, held at Newark, in 1857, we noticed a very neat, very small dark grey pony, not above ten hands high, but finer coated and less shaggy than the ordinary run of Shetlanders. He was in the care of a very large, very green Hibernian, between whom and ourselves passed the following colloquy.

"That's a very nice pony, my man; who owns him?" "He is. Gin'ral Moore, of Belleville." "Is he a native pony, or imported?" "He is." "He is what?" "He is that!" "Yes, I see—where did he come from?" "He come from New York; the Gin'ral got him there!" "Ah, I understand. But did he come from across the sea, or