INDIAN PONY. The name Indian Pony is rather a vague term, by which to designate any particular race of Indian horses. Those formerly known in the New England States, along the chain of the great lakes, both on the Canadian and States shores, were, and so far as they now exist, undoubtedly the descendants of the earlier French horses, dwarfed by generations of semi wild life, and hard fare; those of the South were undoubtedly the descendants of the earlier Span ish adventurers, which had escaped from confine ment. Those of the Indians of the plains, and of Texas, are the descendants also of Spanish horses resembling quite closely the mustang. Cer tain it is, the Indian pony of the North does not show Spanish blood, while those of the South, as we saw them many years ago, do. The Indian pony of the plains, of all the breeds of Indian horses, shows the most strongly his Spanish origin. The Indian pony is, as a rule, rounder and shorter barreled than the Canadian, and seldom over thirteen hands high. The neck is short and thick ; the mane thick, coarse and heavy; the forelock often almost concealing the eyes. The legs and hoofs are strong and like steel, being fully equal to the Shetland in this respect. They carry their heads high. are docile, intelligent, sure-footed and courageous in a journey to a remarkable degree. The Indian pony, however, must uot be confounded with the better class of pony horses, called Canadian ponies. Wherever found, they are dwarfed descendants of once larger horses. The ponies of Western Canada, of the West and of the South-west, have evidently been imbued with the Spanish blood of the plains, but as we go east we see more and more of French blood in them. They are now, however, as a race, nearly extinct. Hence, the description given by Frank Forester, as he saw them when they were comparatively plenty in the countiy, will not be uninteresting: On my first visit to Canada, he says, I had an opportunity of seeing great herds of these ponies, running nearly wild on the rich meadow lands about the Grand river, belonging to the Mohawk Indians, who had a large reservation on that river, near the village of Brantford, which took its name, I believe, from. the chief, who was a son of the famous Brant, Thayendanagea, of ante-revolutionary renown. These little animals,
which I do not think any of them exceeded thir teen hands, had all the characteristics of the pure Canadians, and, except in size, were not to be distinguished from them. They had the same bold carriage, open countenance, abundant hair, almost resembling a lion's mane, the same general build, and above all, the same iron feet and legs. I hired a pair of these, I well remember, both stallions, and they took me in a light wagon, with a heavy driver and a hundred weight, or upwards, of baggage, over execrable roads, sixty miles a day, for ten days in succession, without exhibiting the slightest distress, and at the end of the journey were all ready to set out on the same trip again. I was new at the time in America, and was much surprised and interested by the performance of this gallant little pair of animals. They were perfectly matched, both in size and color, very dark brown, and twelve hands and a half in height ; and where the road was hard and good, could spin along at nearly nine miles in the hour. They were very merry goers. It was their wonderful sure-footedness, sagacity, and docility, however, which most delighted me. They were driven without blink ers or bearing reins, and where, as was often the case, bridges seemed doubtful, the bottom of miry fords suspicious of quagmires, or the road other wise dangerous, they would put down their heads to examine, try the difficulty with their feet, and, when satisfied, would get through or over places, which seemed utterly impracticable. Whence this pony breed of Canadians has arisen, I am unable to say ; but I believe it to be almost entirely peculiar to the Indian tribes, wherefore I am inclined to think it may have been produced by the dwarfing process, which will arise from hardship and privation endured generation after genera tion, particularly by the young animals and the mares while heavy in foal. These animals had, I can say almost positively, no recent cross of the Spanish horse; but I have seen, since that time, ponies approaching nearly to the same type, which showed an evident cross of the mustang; and I have seen animals called mustangs, in which I was convinced that there was Canadian blood.