In the November issue -of the China Journal of Arts & Sciences appeared an article from "the able pen of Mr. Arthur de Sowerby suggesting a possible definition of the China Pony" and as this article has been widely discussed by riding men perhaps the views of a breeder may be of interest.
There are, I think, few people who are better able than Sowerby to state the distribution in China of the various equine breeds amd it is to he hoped that he will continue to give us the benefit_of his observations.
As Mr. Sowerby points out there can be no doubt that the animal which is generally known as the China Pony is im reality the Mongolian pony and in view of the fact that there are other breeds of ponies in, China, such as the Szechuan pony, another distinct breed, it "would seem advisable to call him the Mongolian pony and not the China pony, Tt is generally admitted that the nearest representative of the pre-historic horse is Prjevalsky's horse (a pony in size) a breed which is only fownd South of the Altai Mountains, and that this "view is correct is supported by the fact that the ancestors of all living horses were inhabitants of Siberia after their. emigration from North America.
The breeds of the equine family that most closely approach in appearance Prijevalsky's horse are the Mongoliam pony, the Scotch Galloway, and the Iceland pony, whilst Hayes (i most practical observant enthusiast on the subject of the various breeds of equines) claims that the ponies of Bhootan, Nepal. Spite and Yarkand have no distinctive differences from the Mongolian pony.
A pony of the Mongolian type is' therefore widely distributed and there can hardly be any doubt but that all breeds of horses have evolved from such a type.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.