To the Editor of the "NortH-Cuiya Dairy News."
Sir.—Now that our final meeting before the summer has taken place, and the slack season—not for libels—but so far as racing is concerned, is about to set in, the time is, nevertheless, all the more opportune for indulging in some reflexions, in a sober, sane, and leisurely way, on matters and ponies connected with the game, which has now such a hold on our community, whose members may be associated with it either by their active interest, or who are identified with the sport generally in other ways. It must be admitted in all parts of the world, people will always race whatever is available for racing wherever they happen to be. We would race donkeys, if we were denied anything more attractive. Nor can this spirit be considered a bad thing, when one recalls that it was Bismarck who said that "socialism would never make any headway in England, because racing was so firmly established there." By this utterance, I take it that he meant that though horses legally belonged to their owners, the whole country was so bound up in following their careers, progress and vicissitudes, that practically those horses belonged to the public, who had as much fun out of them as if they were their very own. Well. true to our traditions, out here we have for many years raced what was the best available, 1iz. the Tartar pony, and have managed to have wonderful fun, and sport. in every way, racing, polo, jumping, hacking, and cross-country riding, from them, and would. have continued -this way, and also have. been quite satisfied too, just as a schoolboy would be with his first solid-tyred bicycle.
Political causes and war, however, having altered all. the conditions in the parts from where our racing supplies came, it is surely high time to get busy. and take ful) advantage of being able to get a much more attractive: type to race, that is now available.
The Russians and Buriats havi" had their mobs raided and commandeered north of Mongolia, have been coming further and further south, with their herds of ponies, cattle and sheep, to get away from. Bolshevik headquarters, and when the writer was in Mongolia last summer, actually noticed, and knew of, huge mobs of them, even further south of San Petz, which is the name of the district of the plains -and breeding grounds, whence nearly all our ponies. and certainly all our best. ponies, used to come. As_ this migration has been gradually going on since 1916, it is only recently that the altered type of more pronounced foreign blood, has become available in the very parts where formerly we used to get our s0- called China pony.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.