Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1884 — Value of Ponies. [ARTICLE]

Value of Ponies.

Everyone visiting England, says Col. M. C. Weld, must be stuck with the number of ponies in constant use, pot as ladies’ and children’s pets and playthings, but put to steady, light road work. Of course they are not adapted to hard labor and heavy draft, except in mines and peculiar situations, and in such one rarely sees. them. They are, however, used in many lines in preference to mules and donkeys, to which they are superior on account of their quickness, willingness, and docility. Singly or in pairs they are used in busyess by tradespeople, by farmers, market men, and others; in the towns for the delivery of orders by butchers, green-grocers, and all that class of dealers, and in the country for all sorts of errands and “hacking’ around." Many of them are well adapted to pleasure driving, and are extensively employed. They are often speedy, take a foffrminute gate and keeping it up, and somehow they seem to require less care than horses—less blanketing, less attention to keep them out of draughts

when warm, find all that. They have relatively better feet, for, while the horn of the hoof is no doubt fully as bard as that of horses, if not finer and harder, the wear and tear" of use on paved or macadamized roads can not be nearly so great; hence it is rare to find ponies with unsound feet. In size the ponies vary greatly, the common range being from 13 to 134 or 14 hand**: If larger, horses are called “cobs” in England if of the blocky, pony build, and are from 14 to 141 or 15 hands. Of this class we have a good number in this country now, but, of course, they may be improved in quality.