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Parent Issue
Day
12
Month
August
Year
1892
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A correspondent of The Rural New Yorker has obtained from a successful pony breeder, Dr. O. C. Jackson, Jamaica, L. L, some useful information about this branch of horse raising. The correspondent says: "The farm of 122 acres on which Dr. Jackson resides was first occupied by his father in 1833. The doctor engaged in pony breeding in November, 1888, and has been more than ordinarily successful in the bnsiness. He has on his place sixty-five ponies of the different breeds - Shetland, Welsh and Iceland- and the paddock contain ing them is a most attractive sight." At the head of the stud is Howland L, a foll blood Shetland, imported in 1887, 42 inches high and black as a coal. Superb is another Shetland, 38} inches high. Nabob is a mahogany bay, 47 inches high, and is a full blood Welsh. They are all of them beauties, and their get give the stres agood repntation. "Which of the three breeds do you like best?" "That depends somewhat on the use for which they are intended. If they are to be used by children exclusively and long drives are not a consideration, the Shetlands are the best. They are of distinctively pony build, are kindness personified, and the children can play with them, ride or drive them with absolute safety, always assuming that they have been properly broken and reared. Of course any sensible breeder knows that a pony can be spoiled by bad treatment. Welsh ponies are better drivers. Jnst look at this one. You see he is not pony built; he is a miniature horse. He is taller by five or sis inches than the Shetland, but weighs lesa. He looks like a reduced copy of a standard bred trotter. I would match a pair of well developed Welsh ponies against any team of horses weighing 2,400 pounds for a six days' trial. The ponies are light, wiry and nimble, and they would be sure to win. 1 have driven a team of ponies, half Shetland and half Welsh, forty-two miles to a one-man top buggy, between 1 and 7 p. m., in a rainstorm, and did not use a whip. The pair weighed only 720 pounds and were three years old. "I breed pe bloods and cross bloods, always having a definite aim in view. The Icelands are rather large. I cross them with Welsh to fine them up and to somewhat reduce their size. "Do you utüize the ponies on your farm?" "To a certain extent. 1 mowed eighteen acres of salt meadow with a team of them one season. The meadows were so soft that a horse would have mired too much to make his use practicable; so 1 put a pole to a one horse Buckeye mower and mowed the lot. It was harder work than cutting upland hay, but the little fellows did it well, and they drew the hay ofi on a broad tired wagon. I have small carts, as you see, and with a pony, cart out manure, etc. 1 drive them a great deal. I have a standard bred trotting mare in foal with a Welsh pony. I want to achieve a pony that can trot in three minutes, and I thintr I shall succeed." "What do you f eed?" "Generally equal parts by measure of wheat bran, commeal and oats. This they have twice a day, with a midday feed of good hay - clover, timothy or mixed meadow hay, as I have it. "Ponies mature younger than horses. At three years they are generally well matured for all purposes. I begin to break them when sis months old, using the greatest care, and every one I sell, recommended, is perfecüy broken. A Shetland pony, broken to harness, does not need any special training for the saddle. He takes to it naturally."

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Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News