Welsh ponyI hadn't actually planned to use this, but the above mention of pony, plus the fact that Wales has been on my mind a lot lately, made me decide this was a good way to end my week.
Horses (and ponies!) seem to get to people. I'm going to quote from a site I found on Welsh ponies. It, like the one on Tennessee Walkers, waxes lyrical to a point...well, judge for yourselves.
In selecting the one we want, we shall look for the great bold eye, the tiny head, short back, strong quarters, high set of tail, fine hair, hocks that do not turn in, the laid-back shoulder, the straight foreleg, and the short, so very short, cannon bone."
The original home of the Welsh Mountain pony was in the hills and valleys of Wales. He was there before the Romans. His lot was not an easy one. Winters were severe. Vegetation was sparse. Shelter, most often, was an isolated valley or a clump of bare trees. Yet the Welsh pony managed not only to survive, but to flourish.
Led by proud stallions, bands of mares and their foals roamed in a semi-wild state, climbing mountains, leaping ravines, running over rough terrain. This sort of existence insured perpetuation of the breed through only the most hardy of stock. Hence, the development of a pony with a remarkable soundness of body, a tremendous endurance, and a high degree of native intelligence.
Even an edict of Henry VII that all horses under 15 hands be destroyed did not eliminate the Welsh. Hiding in desolate areas where his persecutors were reluctant or unable to go, perhaps at Nant Llwyd, he continued to live and reproduce, preserving for mankind a distinctive strain of pony that today has generated enthusiasm among breeders and pony lovers all over the world.
The pure Welsh pony may be any color: black, gray, bay, roan, cream, or chestnut. He can never be piebald or skewbald. Further down on the page, it talks about Welsh cobs, too, and there are pictures.
http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/WELSH/index.htmWell, this concludes a week, for me. Perhaps this will work the same way Hogwash has been: as one lays down the gauntlet, others will pick it up in subsequent weeks?
