Welsh Mountain Pony

Origin: Wales.

Height: Not over 12hh (usually not much smaller).

Color: Any color except piebald and skewbald. Gray, brown and chestnutare the most common.

Character: High-spirited pony with great intelligence, courage andendurance.

Physique: Small, Arab-type head, gaily carried, with open nostrils,slightly concave face, bold eye, and small, pointed ears. Graceful neck well-set on deep, sloping shoulders. Short, muscular back on a deep girth andwell-sprung ribs. Hindquarters lengthy and fine. Tail set high (anotherresemblance to the Arab) and carried gaily. Legs fine and hard, short in thecannon bone; the humerus is upright, so that the foreleg is not set in underthe body. Feet small, round and hard. The action, typical of a pony reared onmountainous terrain, is quick and free in all paces, moving well away infront, and with the hocks well flexed and under the body to give powerfulleverage.

This small, aristocratic-looking riding pony is considered by many to be themost beautiful of all the British mountain and moorland breeds. It is popularall over Britain, Europe and North America and is extensively bred outsideits native country, though breeders often import fresh blood from Wales tokeep their stock true to its native type.

Historical references to Welsh ponies go back surprisingly far. TheWelsh Stud Book refers to the Romans crossing Arabs with the mountainponies; which is wrong, but is entirely excusable not only because of theArab-like appearance of the pony but because the historical documentsfrom which they got their information are misleading. Records of breedingthe Welsh pony (or it would be fairer to say of pony-breeding in Wales) goback to Julius Caesar, who appears to have founded a stud at Lake Bala,Merioneddshire, and who introduced some Oriental blood. Here is thesource of the confusion, as translators of the original documents tended tointerpret a horse of Oriental breed as being "Arab", whereas in Romantimes the Arab was not a breed as such and "Arab" was not one of the 12breeds mentioned by the Romans.

Arabs did have a hand in it, but not until much later. Within the last twoor three centuries at least two Arab stallions have run wild on the Welshhills, breeding freely with the native ponies, and it is no doubt to them thatthe modern Welsh Mountain pony owes its Arab look. Cob, Hackney, andeven Andalusian blood is believed also to have contributed, albeit severalcenturies ago.

Herds of ponies still live wild on the mountains and moorlands of Waleson the principle of survival of the fittest, and so hardiness and resistance todisease remain inbred. Annual roundups for branding and for weedingout unwanted stock or selected stock for sale have attracted buyers fromall over Europe in recent times, and Welsh pony breeding has become a profitable business. In the light of modern prices it is strange to rememberthat as recently as 1948 a pony could be bought unbroken off the moors foras little as twelve shillings and sixpence (approx. $1.50).

It is a prime contributor tomost of Britain's hunting and show ponies, and is predominant in manyponies under 13.2hh.