Excerpt from Ponies, Asses, and Mules L. The distinction between ponies and horses is made almost entirely on a basis of size of the animals. In general, all horses, regardless of type or breed, that are less than 14% hands high are classed as ponies. The small size of ponies may be attributed largely to the adverse climatic conditions, the scanty supply of feed, and the inbreeding to which the animals were subjected for many generations. Distinct types of diminutive horses, or ponies, are found in almost all countries. Thus, in the western part of Asia, there are the Arab and its near allies, the Turk, the Barb, and the Persian ponies; in the eastern part of Asia, the Mongolian, the Japanese, the Korean, the Burma, and the Manipura ponies; in the northern part of Europe, the Russian and the Scandinavian, or Norwegian, ponies; in the British Isles, the Shetland, the Welsh, the Exmoor, the Dartmoor, the New Forest, the Scotland, the Galloway, and the Connemara ponies; in Iceland, the Celtic pony; and in America, the bron cos that were originally found in the southwestern part of the 'united States and the northern part of Mexico, the Indian ponies, found originally in the northwestern part of the United States and the western part of Canada, the Creole ponies of Louisiana, the Sable Island ponies, and the ponies of the South Atlantic States. Besides these regional breeds, or types, of ponies, there is a general class of ponies being developed for use in playing polo that are known as polo ponies. Only those ponies that are of mest importance in America, namely, the Shetland pony, the Welsh pony, the bronco, and the Indian pony, will be discussed in this Section. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.