in the foregoing pages, is unknown. Mr. James Goudie, whose essay
on _The Early History of the Shetland Pony_ is published in the
first volume of the _Shetland Pony Stud Book_ thinks there is every
likelihood that it was brought to the islands from Scotland at some
very early period. The “Bressay Stone,” a sculptured slab which was
discovered in Bressay in 1864, bears, among other designs in low
relief, the figure of a horse on which a human figure is seated. “As
this monument is admitted by authorities on the subject to belong to a
period before the Celtic Christianity of the islands disappeared under
the shock of Norwegian invasion [A.D. 872], it may be inferred ...
that the animal was known and probably found in the islands at this
period.” Early writers state that the Scandinavian invaders introduced
the foundation stock some time prior to the fifteenth century.
Buchanan makes passing reference to the Orkney and Shetland ponies in
his _History of Scotland_, written three centuries ago: but the first
description which has completeness to recommend it is that of Brand,
who visited the islands in 1700 and wrote _A Brief Description of
Orkney, Zetland, Pightland, Firth and Caithness_, which was published
at Edinburgh in the following year. This author writes:—
“They are of a less size than the Orkney Horses, for some will be
but 9, others 10 nives or hand-breadths high, and they will be
thought big Horses there if 11, and although so small yet they are
full of vigour and life, and some not so high as others often prove
to be the strongest.... Summer or winter they never come into an
house but run upon the mountains, in some places in flocks; and if
any time in Winter the storm be so great that they are straitened
for food they will come down from the Hills when the ebb is in the
sea and eat the sea-ware ... which Winter storms and scarcity of
fodder puts them out of ease and bringeth them so very low that
they recover not their strength till St. John’s Mass-day, the
24th of June, when they are at their best. They will live to a
considerable age, as twenty-six, twenty-eight or thirty years, and
they will be good riding horses in twenty-four, especially they’le
be the more vigorous and live the longer if they be four years old
before they be put to work. Those of a black colour are judged to
be the most durable and the pyeds often prove not so good; they
have been more numerous than they now are.”
Bengie, in his _Tour in Shetland_ (1870), after remarking on their
sure-footedness and hardiness of constitutions, suggests that the
sagacity, spirit and activity for which they are remarkable may be due
to the freedom of the life they live on the hills. “They are sprightly
and active as terriers, sure-footed as mules and patient as donkeys.”
They stand, he adds, at the head of the horse tribe as the most
intelligent and faithful of them all; and he compares the intelligence
of the Sheltie with that of the Iceland pony much to the advantage of
the former. “Shorter in the leg than any other kind,” says Mr. Robert
Brydon, of Seaham Harbour, “they are at the same time wider in the
body and shorter in the back, with larger bones, thighs and arms; and
therefore are comparatively stronger and able to do with ease as much
work as average ponies of other breeds a hand higher.” The Shetland
Stud Book Society will register no pony whose height exceeds 10 hands
2 inches, and the average height may be taken as 10 hands: many do not
exceed 9 hands, and a lady who wrote an account of a visit to Shetland
in 1840 speaks of one reared by Mr. William Hay, of Hayfield, which was
only 26 inches, or 6 hands 2 inches high! It is however, unusual to
find a pony measuring less than 8 hands at the shoulder, and we may
perhaps doubt whether the 26-inch specimen was full-grown.
In colour the Shetlander varies: bays, browns and dullish blacks are
most common: sometimes these hues are relieved by white markings and
occasionally white specimens occur: piebalds are rare. The coat in
winter is long, close and shaggy, fit protection against the inclemency
of the weather the pony endures without cover or shelter: in spring the
heavy winter coat is shed, and in the summer months the hair is short
and sleek.
In former times it was customary to hobble the ponies; but this
practice, which must have done much to spoil their naturally good
action, has been abandoned for many years.
It is now usual to give the ponies a ration of hay in the winter months
when the vegetation is covered deep with snow, and thus the losses by
starvation, which formerly were heavy in severe winters, are obviated.
Otherwise the Sheltie’s conditions of life to-day differ little from
those that prevailed three centuries ago. Mr. Meiklejohn, of Bressay,
states that in April, generally, the crofters turn their ponies out
upon the common pasture lands, and leave them to their own devices. On
common pastures where there are no stallions the mares are caught for
service and tethered until the foal is born and can follow freely, when
mother and child are turned out again.
In autumn when crops have been carried the ponies come down from the
hills to their own townships, where they feed on the patches of fresh
grass which have been preserved round the cultivated areas. The nights
being now cold, they remain in the low-lying lands sheltering under the
lee of the yard walls; and “when winter has more fully set in the pony
draws nearer his owner’s door, and in most cases is rewarded with his
morning sheaf on which, with seaweed and what he continues to pick off
the green sward, the hardy animal manages to eke out a living until the
time rolls round again that he is turned on the hill pasture, never
being under a roof in his life.”
At one period the ponies were apparently regarded almost as public
property; for, among the “Acts and Statutes of the Lawting Sheriff and
Justice Courts of Orkney and Shetland,” was one passed in the year 1612
and frequently renewed, which forbade the “ryding ane uther manis hors
without licence and leave of the awner,” under penalty of fine; and
also provided that “quhasoever sall be tryet or fund to stow or cut ane
uther man’s hors taill sall be pwinischit as a theif at all rigour in
exempill of utheris to commit the lyke.”
The number of ponies on the islands has decreased in recent years
by reason of the steadily growing demand from without. The latest
available Government returns are those of 1891, and for the sake of
comparison the returns of 1881 are given below:—
1881 1891
Horses (including ponies) as returned by occupiers
of land used solely for agriculture 921 787
Unbroken horses and mares kept solely for breeding 4,323 4,016
————— —————
5,244 4,803
————— —————
The ponies are little used for farm work in the Shetlands; they carry
loads of peat from the hills to the crofts, and apart from this are
used only for riding; they are beyond question the most wonderful
weight-carriers in the world, a 9-hand pony being able to carry with
the greatest ease a full-grown man over bad ground and for long
distances.
They owe their value to the combination of minuteness and strength,
which renders them peculiarly suitable for draught work in the coal
mines. Many ponies will travel thirty miles a day, to and fro in the
seams, drawing a load, tilt and coals included, of from 12 to 14
cwt. The Sheltie’s lot underground is admittedly a hard one, but his
tractable disposition usually ensures for him kindly treatment at the
hands of the boy who has him in charge.
These ponies, says Mr. Brydon, were first used in the coal pits of
the North of England about the year 1850. Horse ponies from 3 to 5
years old could then be purchased for £4 10s. each delivered at the
collieries. Since that time prices have risen enormously, though for
the smallest animals they fluctuate from time to time in sympathy with
the price of coal. As the cause of the influence of the coal market
upon the price of Shetland ponies is perhaps not quite obvious, it
must be explained that the chief value of these little animals is
their ability to work in the low galleries of thin-seamed pits; when
the price of coal sinks to a certain point these thin seams cannot be
profitably worked, the pits are “laid in,” or temporarily closed, and
the ponies withdrawn. In 1891 the average yearling was worth £15 and
a two-year-old £18, while full-grown ponies were scarcely procurable.
In 1898 a four-year-old could be bought at from £15 to £21, owing to
the depression in the price of coals and the suspension of work in
thin-seamed pits.
It will be understood that only small animals of the commoner sort
suitable for pit work are affected by the coal market. Horse ponies
of the right stamp with good pedigree and suitable for the stud still
command from £30 to £50, and in some cases even more. Mare ponies of
good pedigree also command high prices; at the last Londonderry sale,
the mares, Mr. R. Brydon informs me, sold at an average of £19 per
head; but the average obtained for second-class mares would little
exceed six guineas per head.
The docility and good temper of the Shetland pony make him, above all,
the best and most trustworthy mount for a child. Captain H. Hayes
has remarked that “a comparatively high degree of mental (_i.e._,
reasoning) power is not desirable in a horse, because it is apt to make
him impatient of control by man.” The Shetland pony is the rule-proving
exception; for he combines with the highest order of equine
intelligence a disposition curiously free from vice or trickiness. Mr.
Brydon has never known a Sheltie withdrawn from a pit as wicked or
unmanageable; withdrawal for such reasons being very frequent with
ponies of other breeds.
[Illustration:
_Engraved by F. Babbage._
CHILD’S SHETLAND PONY.
The property of Sir WALTER GILBEY, Bart.]
It may be observed that about the middle of the century there were a
number of Shelties in Windsor Park, which were used to do various kinds
of work.
During recent years a demand for mares for breeding purposes has grown
up in America, much to the advantage of the crofter, who finds a market
in the colliery districts for horse ponies only.
Many attempts have been made to increase the size of the Sheltie.
About the middle of the last century Norwegian pony stallions were
introduced into Dunrossness with the result that a distinct variety was
established and still continues; this is called the Sumburgh breed;
in size these ponies range from 12 hands to 13·2. Another variety
known as the Fetlar breed owes its origin to the introduction by Sir
Arthur Nicolson of a Mustang stallion named Bolivar over half a century
ago; the Fetlar ponies run from 11 to 13 hands, and are described as
remarkably handsome, swift and spirited, but less tractable than the
pure Shetlander. The Sumburgh and Fetlar varieties deserve mention
only as experiments; the result having been to increase the height of
the pony, it follows, after what has been said on a former page, that
these cross-bred animals are of comparatively small value.
Far more importance attaches to the efforts which have been made to
improve the pure breed while preserving its diminutive size. The
Marquis of Londonderry, some twenty-five years ago, acquired grazings
on Bressay and Moss Islands; and having procured the best stock
obtainable from all over the Shetlands, began breeding on judicious and
methodical lines. Twelve or fifteen mares with a carefully selected
stallion are placed in an enclosure, and the young stock, after
weaning, are turned out on the hills; they are hand-fed in winter,
but are never given the protection of a roof, whereby their natural
hardiness is preserved. The Marquis of Zetland in Unst, and Mr. Bruce
in Fair Isle, follow a somewhat similar method of mating and rearing.
Messrs. Anderson & Sons have on Northmavine done much to promote the
interests of the breed by purchasing good stallions, often at Lord
Londonderry’s annual Seaham Harbour Sale, and distributing these over
the common pastures. The benefits which have accrued from this policy
are very marked; and though the crofters yield to the temptation of
high prices, and sell their best animals for export, the endeavours of
the gentlemen named above to maintain the quality of the breed in its
native habitat cannot fail to largely counteract the evil results of
such sales.
Among the studs on the mainland the best known, perhaps, is that of the
Countess of Hopetoun at Linlithgow. Her ladyship’s success has been due
in no small measure to that beautiful little sire the Monster. This
pony is a perfect example of the Shetland stallion, as may be gathered
from his showyard record: he was first in the class for Shetland
ponies under 10 hands 2 inches at the Royal Agricultural Society’s
Show in 1895, at Darlington, and has been preferred by judges to Lord
Londonderry’s Excellent and the Elsenham pony, Good Friday, Excellent
having taken many first prizes, and Good Friday five firsts at the
London shows.
Mr. James Bruce has a drove of Shetland ponies at Inverquhomery,
Longside, Aberdeenshire. These are descended from two mares and a
stallion imported in the year
1889. Three years ago Mr. Bruce replenished his breeding stock by the
purchase of five more mares. A noteworthy feature of this stud is the
colour, which in every case is chestnut, Mr. Bruce’s 1889 importations
being of that rare colour among Shelties.
Since the establishment of the _Shetland Pony Stud Book_, several
studs have been founded in Scotland and England. The chief difficulty
the owners have to contend with is the proneness towards increase of
size due to milder climate and richer feed. This tendency can only be
checked by the periodical importation of stock from the Shetland Isles.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by J. Doyle._ _Engraved on wood by F. Babbage._
H.R.H. PRINCESS VICTORIA IN HER PONY PHAETON.]
USES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PONY.
It would be difficult to name a class of work in which the pony is not
employed. He is used by all, from the sovereign to the peasant and
costermonger. Pony racing has been recently re-established as a sport
after temporary suspension, due to no shortcoming on the pony’s side.
It is rare that a meet of hounds is not attended by a sprinkling of
ponies carrying future sportsmen and women, and it is safe to assert
that every master of hounds and every man who takes his own line across
country served his apprenticeship to the saddle on the back of a pony.
The reason is that few men who do not learn to ride in early boyhood,
when a pony is the only possible mount, completely master the art in
later life; hence we meet few good horsemen who do not receive their
first riding lessons on a steady pony. There is no stamp of vehicle
which is not drawn by ponies. Her Majesty, for many years, drove a
pony in her garden-chair; in double or single harness we find the pony
driven in victoria, dog-cart, governess cart, and Irish car; in the
tradesman’s light van and in the market cart drawing wares of every
description; in the itinerant fishmonger’s, coster’s and hawker’s
nondescript vehicle.
The country clergyman and doctor would be in sore straits without the
thirteen hand pony, which does a horse’s work on one-half a horse’s
feed, and requires no more stable attendance than the gardener or
handy man can spare time to give him. As shown in the foregoing pages,
his labours are not confined to saddle and harness; in some parts of
the country he is still used for pack-work, carrying agricultural
produce and peats from the hills and moorlands to the farmstead; and
in the low seams of the coal-pits which the horse cannot enter he is
indispensable. Large though our native stock of ponies is, we do not
breed them in numbers nearly sufficient for our needs, and each year
brings thousands of small cheap ponies to our ports from Norway, Sweden
and Russia. These, like the gangs purchased from breeders on Exmoor
and elsewhere, are driven from one fair to another, to be sold by twos
and threes all over the country by persons who cannot afford to keep a
horse, but are obliged to provide themselves with a cheap and useful
beast for draught or carriage.
[Illustration:
_Engraved by F. Babbage._
THE FIRST LEAP.
From the picture by Sir EDWIN LANDSEER, R.A.]
It is very generally admitted that the intelligence of the pony is of
higher degree than that of the horse; and the fact, we cannot doubt, is
attributable to the different conditions under which ponies and horses
are reared. The former, foaled and brought up on the hills and wastes,
develope ability, like other wild animals, to look after themselves,
and the intelligence so evolved is transmitted to generations born
in domestication. The horse, foaled and reared in captivity, with
every precaution taken for his security, has no demands made upon
his intelligence, and his mental faculties remain to a great extent
undeveloped. The same causes operate to furnish the pony’s stronger
constitution and greater soundness; greater soundness not only in limb
but also organic; roaring and whistling are unknown in the pony, common
as they are in the horse.
This superiority of constitution accounts for the marked superiority
of the pony over the horse in endurance. The small and compact horse
is always a better stayer than the large, loosely-built animal, and
in the pony we find the merits of compactness at their highest.
Numberless instances of pony endurance might be quoted, but two or
three will suffice. Reference has been made on p. 30 to Sir Charles
Turner’s achievement of riding a pony ten miles and over thirty leaps
in forty-seven minutes, and to the conveyance of news from Holyhead to
London by relays of ponies at the rate of twenty miles an hour. Whyte,
in his _History of the British Turf_, states that in April, 1754, a
mare, 13 hands 3 inches high, belonging to Mr. Daniel Croker, travelled
300 miles on Newmarket Heath in 64 hours 20 minutes; she had been
backed to perform the journey in 72 hours, and therefore completed her
task with seven hours and forty minutes to spare. Her best day’s work
was done on Tuesday, April 23. Mr. Whyte gives the following details
of this extraordinary performance:—“24 miles and baited; 24 miles and
baited; 24 miles and baited; 36 miles without baiting; total 108 miles.
On the Monday and Wednesday she covered 96 miles each day. She was
ridden throughout by a boy who scaled 4 stone 1 lb. without reckoning
saddle and bridle. Another performance worth citing as proof of pony
endurance was Sir Teddy’s race with the London mail coach to Exeter, a
distance of 172 miles. Sir Teddy, a twelve hand pony, was led between
two horses all the way, and carried no rider himself. He performed the
journey in 23 hours and 20 minutes, beating the coach by fifty-nine
minutes.”
We generally find that great feats of endurance, involving capacity
to thrive on poor and scanty food, have generally been performed by
ponies.[9] In the Nile Campaign of 1885 the 19th Hussars were mounted
on Syrian Arabs, averaging 14 hands, which had been purchased in Syria
and Lower Egypt at an average price of £18. The weight carried was
reduced as much as possible in view of the hard work required of the
ponies, but each of the 350 on which the Hussars were mounted carried
about 14 stone. Their march from Korti to Metammeh as part of a flying
column showed what these little horses could do; between the 8th and
20th of January, both days included, they travelled 336 miles; halting
on the 13th. On the return March from Dongola to Wady Halfa, 250 miles,
after nearly nine months’ hard work on poor food they averaged 16 miles
a day, with one halt of two days. Colonel Burrow, in reviewing the
work performed by these ponies, says: “Food was often very limited,
and during the desert march, water was very scarce. Under these
conditions I venture to think that the performances of the regiment
on the Arab ponies will compare with the performance of any horsemen on
record.”[10]
[9] See _Small Horses in Warfare_. By Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart. Vinton &
Co., Ltd., 1900.
[10] _The XIXth and Their Times_, Colonel John Biddulph. Murray, 1899.
Captain Fred Burnaby, in his well-known work “A Ride to Khiva,” bears
witness to the wonderful endurance of a fourteen-hand Tartar pony
which he purchased with misgivings for £5, in default of any better
mount. This pony, he tell us, was in such miserable condition, his men
complained among themselves that it would not be worth _eating_, they
looked upon the little beast as fore-doomed from the moment Captain
Burnaby mounted it. Yet this pony, its ordinary diet supplemented by
a few pounds of barley daily, carried its rider, who weighed twenty
stone in his heavy sheepskin clothes, safely and well over 900 miles
of bad roads, often through deep snow, and always in bitterly cold
weather, the thermometer being frequently many degrees below zero. On
the concluding day of the return journey this pony galloped the last 17
miles in 1 hour and 25 minutes. It would be easy to multiply examples
of pony endurance; but we forbear.
The greater stamina of the pony is evidenced in another direction,
namely, length of life. Instances in which ponies have attained to
a great age are more numerous than those recorded of horses, and
further the pony lives longer. Mr. Edmund F. Dease, of Gaulstown, Co.
Westmeath, lost a pony in December, 1894, which had reached the age
of 39 years; in 1896, Mrs. Pratt, of Low Pond House, Bedale, Yorks,
lost a pony mare aged 45 years; on Christmas Day, 1863, there died
at Silworthy, near Clovelly in North Devon, a pony which had arrived
within a few weeks of his sixtieth year. Accounts of ponies which
lived, and in some cases worked, until they reached 40, 38, 37, and 35
years also recur to mind.
There is a degree of cold beyond which the horse cannot exist; and as
he approaches the latitude where the limit prevails, the effect of
climate is apparent in his conformation.
The frozen and ungenial country of Lapland has its small ponies; they
are employed in drawing sledges over the snow and transporting forage
and merchandise, which in summer are conveyed in boats. In Iceland he
is dwarfed to a Liliputian size, and thriving in the comparatively mild
climate of the Shetlands we find a pony smaller than any other in the
British Islands.
It would seem from the facts it has been possible to collect that the
New Forest, Welsh, Exmoor and Dartmoor, Fell and Connemara breeds
of ponies are in their natural state of small value to man, though
they owe to the natural conditions under which they exist qualities
which may be turned to very valuable account by judicious crossing
with breeds of a recognised stamp. Improvement must involve partial
sacrifice of qualities such as ability to withstand exposure and
cold on insufficient food, sure-footedness, and the sagacity which
avoids bog and treacherous ground. These qualities, in their highest
development, are indispensable to a wild animal; but the improved pony
obtained by crossing is not destined for a wild life on the hills and
wastes, and is less dependent upon them.
Partial loss of such attributes, therefore, is a price well worth
paying for the increased size and better conformation which render
the produce suitable for man’s service with the more artificial and
luxurious conditions of life inseparable from complete domesticity. The
remarkable soundness of limb and constitution, developed by centuries
of free life on the hills, are enduring qualities which appear in
generation after generation of stock descended on one side from the
half-wild breeds; and these are the qualities which above all it is
desirable to breed into our horses of all sizes and for all purposes.
The advantage to be gained by systematic improvement of these wild
breeds of ponies is therefore not by any means advantageous to one side
only.
The Polo Pony Society at their meeting of 7th December, 1898, resolved
to set apart a section of their Stud Book for the registration of
Welsh, Exmoor, New Forest and other breeds of ponies; and with
reference to this step Lord Arthur Cecil, in his Introduction to the
fifth (1899) volume of the Polo Pony Stud Book, says:—