POLO PONY HEIGHTS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1536, 7 August 1901, Page 57

POLO PONY HEIGHTS

Some infornfation likely to be useful in ! coming to some definite understanding con-1 earning this vexed question may be glean- j ©d from -the action taken by the Royal J Agricultural Society of England at a meet- j ing held oni 20th May, when Mr J. W. Mac. ! fie moved “that the registration rules for the polo section passed at tbe meeting on 12th April be rescinded, and that the regu- ; lations remain as before." He quoted the given in Vol. I. of their stud; book:—“It is the wish of the society that a]l really good brood mares and stallions likely to produce riding ponies may be registered in the Stud Book, and that the produce shall also be entej-ed therein. It might be that a difficulty would arise in this way; it was possible that some of the produce of the animals in the StucL Book may be larger than, their parents. Say they grew ro tne size of 15 hands 2m, or 15 hands 3in, it seemed absurd to think that such animals should be in a pony stud book; but, after all, the object of the Stud Book was to encourage the breeding of valuable animals, and it would be impossible to imagine a more valuable 'one than, a pony bred animal of that size. Any colt ijroduce of the ponies in* their Stud Book exceeding the limit heignt of 14 : hands 2in would be excellent to mate with undersized mares entered in the book, and in the event of any colt produce being stunted in growth, they could be mated with mares not coming tmderthe 14 hands 2in standard. Under present stud book j conditions, no on© could breed a pony, eli- j gible for registration by virtue of pedigree, j unless it came directly from stock not over j 14 hands 2in. His own experience was! that breeding on these lines would lead to ’ producing in time ponies 'of a. smaller stat- j ure rather than of a larger height. j Upon the motion being seconded it was argued in opposition that if they admitted young produce, yearlings with one cross of thoroughbred blood would grow more than 14 hands 2in. Polo ponies, as opposed to true ponies, had so much blood other than pony blood that they could not ensure that the thoroughbred or hackney blood would not preponderate, and force the pony so bred above the 14 hands 2in limit. Objection was not taken to a cross of thoroughbred blood being put into the native blood, but "one cross would not make a true pony above that height, and if the breed was to be ker»t pony at all the smaller sized pony j stallion must be reverted to after at least \ two crosses. “Such a cross back might not be a polo pony, but it would be very much nearer the riding type than the foundation. After further discussion, it was resolved that the conditions passed at the last meeting be adopted, which was that “so far os the polo section "was concerned, they re- . quired that n 0 pony should be registered j with a number in the Stud Book till it was four years old, when its height must not exceed 14 hands 2 inches, confirmed by Hurlingham certificate, or a certificate of height, signed by a qualified veterinary ; surgeon, pedigree to be 'specialty consider- j ed, while in the absence of a pedigree, a pony must be inspected by “members of the society." '