Small Horses in Warfare Part 3

In a word, we shall obtain a natural and not an artificial horse; the modern race-horse is practically everything the mounted infantry cob must not be, saving only in respect of speed, and speed for only a short distance is of no great use to mounted infantry. By using the Arab we may expect to obtain the qualities our race horses boasted a century and a half or two centuries ago, when they stood 14 hands to 14.3--the famous Gimcrack is said to have measured 14 hands 0-1/4 inch.

There is much to be said in favour of the policy of returning to the original Eastern stock to find suitable sires for our proposed breed of ponies. While we have been breeding the Thoroughbred for speed and speed only, Arab breeders have continued to breed for stoutness, endurance and good looks. By going to Arab stock for our sires we might at the beginning sacrifice some measure of speed: but what was lost in that respect would be more than compensated by the soundness of const.i.tution and limb which are such conspicuous traits in the Eastern horse.

Furthermore, the difficulty of size which confronts us in the Thoroughbred sire is much diminished if we adopt the Arab as our foundation sire.

By crossing the Arab on mares of our forest and moorland breeds we shall obtain the increased size and speed required, while it will be possible to preserve the valuable qualities of the dam. Those qualities, the hardiness, robustness of const.i.tution, sureness of foot, and ability to thrive on poor feed, are the natural outcome of the conditions under which they have lived for centuries; and to preserve them in the young stock, it will be necessary to rear the cross-bred foals under conditions as nearly natural as their const.i.tution will allow. What those conditions should be circ.u.mstances must determine; but it is possible to combine large measure of liberty with a certain amount of shelter from the rigours of winter, such as the foal with Arab blood in his veins would require. To take up the young stock as soon as weaned, stable and feed them artificially, though this course would preserve them from the risks of exposure, would produce failure in other directions. It would encourage undue physical development while undermining that capacity for endurance of hards.h.i.+p which is so essential.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From a drawing on stone by Gauci._ GIMCRACK]

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 const.i.tution, 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 surpa.s.sed.

(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 hards.h.i.+ps 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 hards.h.i.+ps 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 ent.i.tled _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;

[4] Ill.u.s.trated by eighteen plates of horses.--Anon. Published by Thomas Hookham, London.

"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 gra.s.s 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 ill.u.s.trating 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 me[5] as proof of the advantages to an animal of life-conditions that compel the free use of limbs.

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

Nature, observes this author, erects her own standard for measuring the const.i.tutional power of her creatures, and the individuals who no longer come up to this perish prematurely. In other words, the const.i.tutional strength of animals is so regulated by, and adjusted to, the conditions of feed and climate under which those animals pa.s.s 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]

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

"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 gra.s.s 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 nutsh.e.l.l when he writes that "we want a cla.s.s 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 const.i.tuted on both sides, the breeding of the best cla.s.s 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 antic.i.p.ated 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 b.a.l.l.s 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.

WORKS BY SIR WALTER GILBEY, BART.

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