Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1897-12-22
PONIES or ICELAND.
PERFECT MAavELs OF ENDURANCE.

PERFECT MARvELs OF ENDURANCE.
Thew Have Peculiar Pacing Gait Which
Under Great Weight Conquers Space
Can Swim Like Fish and Climb Like
Goat.
If the camel is the ship of the desert,
the Iceland pony is the cab, train,
omnibus and tramcar of the wonderful
country to which ne belongs. To be-
gin with, he is a misnomer. He is not
pony, in the ordinary sense OF the
word; he is a horse; in bone and
sinew, in strength and endurance, In
manners and departments horse in
everything, in fact, except in inches;
and sober, steady, hard-Worklng
horse, too. He is very "multum IN
paryo," a Concentrated essence OF
horsefesh. He can swim like FISH,
climb like goat and jump like deer.
He sticks at nothing, and takes every
variety of travel--bog, lava bed, sand,
powders and grass mounds-with un-
disturbed eQuanimity. If he has to
ford one or two rivers with strong cur
rents flowing girth-deep, it Is all ii
the days work. Only give him tin e
and periodical halts for refreshmenl
and he will do his fifty miles per day,
and thrive upon it.
Iceland ponies are bred in hundreds
in the large grass plains in the south
ern districts Of the islands. Little or
no care is taken in selection, so that
half hands, though here and there one
improved, the average pony standing
from eleven and half to twelve and a
half hands, though here and there one
will reach to nearly thirteen hands.
Every variety Of color is seen, but
skewbalds of many shades are the
commonest. The chestnuts, as rulc.
are the finest, and the browns the
hardest. Beautiful cream colors, with
light points, are not infreQuent; black
is very rare, and roam also. Their
PAGES are fast, considering the size
of the animal, a journey Of thirty-two
miles being often done in six hours or
less, with heavy baggage. They trot,
canter and gallop, but the pace most
esteemed by the natives is the amble
or "skeid," in which the fore and hind
legs on side are advanced stimuli
taneously, giving running action,
very smooth to the rider. A good
"pacer" is considered very valuable,
and often cold for high figure. Some
Of these ponies amble so fast that they
keep ahead of another going at 4
hand-gallop, and they maintain the
pace for a days journey under q
weight Of eleven to fourteen stone. Ice
land ponies are steady and fast in har-
ness, though wheels are a compare
lively new departure in their country.
They travel mostly in strings, often
tied head and tail. Hay, baggage and
household goods are thus transported,
and building material also. You meet
a "timburlestur, or timber team, of
from eight to ten ponies, one carrying
planks trailing on each side, another
strips of iron, another bundles oftools;
a number of spare animals run
ming loose, and not infrequently foal
or two.
It is as rare to see a dead Iceland
pony as dead donkey though their
skulls are often visible, half trodden
into the miry ways surrounding the
farms. The pony begins work at six
or seven years-hard work, that is to
say. He is early apprenticed to his
trade by following his mother at her
avocations, and when he is foot sore
is strapped upon her back. He works
well up to twenty years and over, and
often remains fairly sound to ripe
old age. He feeds on the fat of the
land in the summer, and in. the winter.
If his owner is poor, must live on his
wits and his stored condition. Farm
ers who are fairly well off keep their
animals in during the winter and feed
them on hay; but, Notwithstanding.
many of the ponies have hard time
of it. The Icelanders,h owever, keep
their steeds as we'll as their means al
low, and treat them altogether in q
brotherly fashion.