THE HORSE OF IRELAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1727, 5 April 1905, Page 63

THE HORSE OF IRELAND.

Answering an inquiry in the “Journal of the Irish Department of Agriculture, ” as to the effect the soil arid climate- of Ireland have upon the size, bone hair, temper, and so forth oi the horse, a writer says : “A typical horse descended from animals bred in Ireland during a long period is of good size. Ins bone is well developed—indeed, . somewhat disproportioned, well developed as compared with the rest of Ins body; his legs are clean, flat, and hard, without- spongy > 1 mess of bone or ligament so characteristic of the British horse. The liair is fine and sparse all over the trunk, and though somewhat coarser on the legs, this coarse hair is practically confined to the back of the fef,cck. “The most pronounced characteristic of the Irish horse, as distinguished from horses of other countries, is liis high courage. These characteristics may-be stated to he fairly typical; but they vary, of course, in different parts of the country. The Connemara pony —a direct and, till recent years, an unpolluted descendant of the liorse which inhabited this island from time immemorial —though dwarfed by the climatic conditions of an exposed seaboard as well as by meagre fare, still retains the high courage and stamina of his ancestors, and though somewhat modified in shape, possesess the strength and bone so characteristic of the Irish horse. “Contrasting the horses bred in the eastern counties with those bred in the west of Ireland, we find that on the rich plains of -Meatn horses Avill not grow so big, are more fleshy, and though possessed of good bone scarcely equal me Roscommon horse in this respect. On the other hand, the Meath horse has more graceful lines—having more ‘quality’—than his Roscommon brother, who is angular and coarse! Still, both evince in equal measure the characteristic of high courage.”