HORSE AND PONY BREEDS

Text | Christie Wolhuter

7. THE SHETLAND PONY

Name: Shetland

Breed purpose: Farm work, riding

Breed size: Up to 10.2 hands

Coat colour: Any except spotted

Place of origin: Scotland

Ancestors: Unknown but has links to the Icelandic horse

Continuing our tour around the British Isles profiling the breeds native to the area, we bring you the Shetland Pony. The Shetland is arguably one of the cutest pony breeds native to the United Kingdom and is a common choice for first ponies for young riders in the UK.

History

The Shetland pony has been roaming the moors of the Shetland Islands, which lie north of mainland Scotland since the Bronze Age. It is thought that the ponies are a hybrid of the native Highland-type pony of Scotland with a Scandinavian or Viking breed brought onto the Islands by Viking invaders in the 9th century CE. Shetland ponies are wonderfully adapted to the harsh, unforgiving north of Scotland, and, whilst nobody really knows for certain how they ended up on the Shetland Islands – they certainly survive there remarkably well.

Originally Shetland ponies were used to pull carts and carry peat, plough land, and carry coal and other items. Then, during the Industrial Revolution, the use of children for work in the coal mines was forbidden, and thousands of Shetland ponies were sent to mainland Britain to be pit ponies. Their docile and easy natures, alongside their incredible strength for their size, meant they were perfect for work in the coal mine. However, the work was hard and miserable, with the ponies working many hours a day underground pulling loads of coal. Many of these ponies died young. Coal mines in the eastern United States also imported some of these ponies.

Due to this use, interest in the pony was huge at the time and thousands of ponies left the Shetland Islands. This meant that local stock was declining in quality, as the best stallions were exported to meet the demands of the commercial markets.

A steady decline swiftly followed this boom in popularity. However, the wealthy continued to greatly enjoy the ponies, and Elizabeth, the future Queen of England and her siblings, rode Shetland ponies in childhood. After the 1930s, the demand for these ponies completely crashed as the Shetland pony was replaced in popularity by the Welsh pony, and the combustion engine was invented, which meant they were no longer needed for mining and transportation.

The establishment of the Shetland Pony Stud Book Society was a major factor in saving the breed. Since the stud book only accepted ponies less than 107cm high, it assured breeders were not tempted to breed bigger Welsh-typed children’s ponies.

DID YOU KNOW?

Ponies and their foals grazing on the Shetland moors are a common sight in the Shetland Islands. The ponies roam free but are all owned by local crofters (farmers), who keep a close eye on them.

DID YOU KNOW?

Local fishermen in the Shetland Islands used the ponies’ tail hairs for fishing lines!

The breed

A spokesperson for the Shetland Society had this to say about the breed. “No place in Shetland is further than four miles from the sea and it is legendary that during the worst winters, lack of grazing on the scatthald would drive some ponies to forage for seaweed along the shores”.

Only the toughest and most intelligent ponies survived in this harsh landscape, and they have bred to produce the wonderful breed we know today.

Today the ponies are popular first ponies for many children and are loved the world over!