Ponies past and present

by Sir Walter Gilbey

A pony well-known on Newmarket Heath and North Country racecourses about 1828.

THE WELSH PONY.

At the period when Wales was an independent kingdom live stock was protected by a singularly comprehensive series of laws. These were originally codified by Howel Dda (the Good), a prince who reigned from A.D. 942 to 948, and at a somewhat later period they were embodied in three distinct legal codes, the Venedotian, Dimetian and Gwentian, applicable respectively to North, South and South-eastern Wales, conforming to the local customs which prevailed in each area. Under these laws no Welsh serf was permitted to sell a stallion without the permission of his lord. The value of a horse (or, accurately speaking, pony, as the hill ponies were the only equine stock the country possessed in those days) was laid down without regard to individual merit till he reached his third year. A foal until a fortnight old was worth four pence; from the fifteenth day of his age till one year old, 24 pence; when a year and one day old he was worth 48 pence, and stood at that value till he began his third year when he was valued at 60 pence. When in his third year he was broken in, and his value depended on the work he was fitted for. A palfrey or sumpter horse was valued at 120 pence, and a working horse to draw cart or harrow 60 pence. It was not permissible to use horses, mares or cows for ploughing for fear of injury; oxen only might be employed for such labour. Any entire male animal was worth three females; thus a wild stallion was worth nine score pence to the mare’s value of three score pence.

If a horse were sold he was to be warranted against staggers for three nights, against “black strangles”[4] for three months, and against farcy for a year. He was to be warranted against restiveness until the purchaser should have ridden him three times “amid concourse of men and horses;” and if he proved restive the seller had to refund one third of the price he had received.

[4] The commentators believe the disease so termed to be glanders; but inasmuch as the warranty against farcy held good for twelve months, perhaps we should accept this reading with reserve.

The value of each part of the horse was strictly specified by these laws; the worth of his foot was equal to his full value; each eye was esteemed worth one third of his full value. For every blemish in a horse one third of the total worth was to be returned, his ears and tail included: a not obscure hint that cropping and docking were practised in Wales at this period, and that opinions varied concerning the desirability of the operations. That docking was in vogue is certain, for a special clause makes the “tail of a filly for common work” worth the total value of the animal. The peculiar value of the tail of a “filly for common work” lay in the fact that the harrow was often secured to the tail, as was the practice in parts of Ireland and Scotland until near the end of the last century. In Wales, as in other parts of Britain, the mare was preferably used for draught and pack work, horses being reserved for military service. The mane and bridle were worth the same amount, viz., four pence; the forelock and halter were also coupled as worth one penny each.

Howel Dda’s “Law of Borrowing” was equally comprehensive. The man who borrowed a horse and fretted the hair on his back was to pay four pence; if he broke the skin to the flesh eight pence; and if skin and flesh were broken to the bone sixteen pence. Borrowing without the owner’s leave was expensive: the borrower had to pay four pence for mounting, and four pence for each rhandir (supposed to be a league) he rode the horse. He also had to pay a fine to the owner’s lord.

If a hired horse fell lame or was injured by accident the owner had to furnish the hirer with one equally good until the injured horse recovered.

The laws which regulated compensation for trespass show that it was customary to fetter or clog the horses when they were turned out to graze. Trespass in corn by a clogged horse was to be compensated by payment of one penny by day and two pence by night. Trespass by a horse free of restraint was recompensed by half those sums. In this connection it must be noted that stallions were “privileged;” and though a broken-in entire ran at large for three seasons (season from mid April to mid May and the month of October), he did not lose the privilege which relieved his owner from fine for any damage he might do in the standing crops.

The Welsh pony is more numerous than any other breed. He wanders over the hills and waste lands in all the twelve counties of the Principality, and also on the borders of Shropshire, Herefordshire and Monmouth; whereas his congeners are limited to areas insignificant by comparison. The distribution is of course very unequal, the strength and number of droves varying with the character of the country; there are no statistics in existence nor has there been made any estimate of their number.