Produced by F E H, MWS and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Transcriber’s Notes
Footnote anchors have been changed from numeric to an alpha plus
numeric sequence such as: [F1] [F2], to create a point of difference
between footnotes and endnotes which are also numeric.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_
Page 43—both spellings of ‘maiseys’ and ‘klibbar’ from the writings
of Hibbert of 1820’s and ‘maysies’ and ‘clibber’ from Cowies
writings of 1874 have been retained.
Other changes made are noted at the end of the book.
[Illustration: CHANGING QUARTERS.]
The Shetland Pony
BY
CHARLES AND ANNE DOUGLAS
With an Appendix on
The Making of the Shetland Pony
BY J. COSSAR EWART
_GRAVURO AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS_
William Blackwood and Sons
Edinburgh and London
1913
_ALL RIGHTS RESERVED_
PREFACE.
This account of the Shetland Pony is intended to give, in brief
outline, the chief facts of the history, and some idea of the present
character, position, and use of the breed. The time seems opportune for
placing on record some recent phases of its development which might
otherwise be forgotten.
We are much indebted for information and help to the Ladies Estella and
Dorothea Hope, to Mrs Wentworth Hope Johnstone, to Mr Robert Alexander,
R.S.A., to Mr Robert Brydon, to Mr R. W. R. Mackenzie, and to Mr W.
Mungall.
The illustration of Norwegian rock-drawings is reproduced from Du
Chaillu’s ‘The Viking Age,’ by kind permission of Messrs John Murray
& Son.
We are especially grateful that we are allowed to include, as an
Appendix to the volume, Mr Cossar Ewart’s very interesting discussion
of “The Making of the Shetland Pony.”
C. D.
A. D.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. THE EARLY HISTORY 1
II. THE PONY IN SHETLAND 24
THE FETLAR PONY 46
III. THE MODERN PONY 48
IV. THE MANAGEMENT OF SHETLAND PONY HERDS 79
V. THE PONY AT WORK 100
APPENDIX—
THE MAKING OF THE SHETLAND PONY 113
NOTES 173
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
CHANGING QUARTERS _Frontispiece_
A SCANDINAVIAN ROCK-DRAWING _Facing page_ 4
THE HORSE ON THE BRESSAY STONE ” 12
BY THE VOE ” 26
GOING SOUTH ” 30
COMING FROM MARKET ” 38
CARRYING PEAT ” 44
JACK (16) ” 50
ODIN (32) ” 54
MULTUM IN PARVO (28) ” 58
THOR (83) ” 60
PRINCE OF THULE (36) ” 64
SAPPHIRE (1276) ” 68
BOADICEA (998) ” 72
STELLA (1692) ” 76
FOALS IN SUMMER ” 90
A TEAM OF MARES ” 100
A CHIP OF THE OLD BLOCK ” 104
_By permission of the Proprietors of ‘Punch.’_
ON DUTY ” 108
ILLUSTRATION PLATES IN APPENDIX.
PLATE I. _At end_
Fig. 1. A 41-inch Java Pony.
Fig. 2. A Norwegian Udganger Pony.
Fig. 3. A 42-inch Pony of the Udganger type from Iceland.
PLATE II. ”
Fig. 4. Skeleton of Highland Chieftain, a 33-inch Shetland
Pony.
Fig. 5. Skeleton of Persimmon, a 66-inch Thoroughbred.
PLATE III. ”
Fig. 6. Skull of Eric, a 36·5-inch Shetland Pony.
Fig. 7. Skull of a new-born foal, Celtic type.
Fig. 8. Skull of a wild Prjevalsky horse, from Mongolia.
PLATE IV. ”
Fig. 9_a_. Cannon-bone, Eric.
Fig. 9_b_. Cannon-bone, _Protohippus_.
Fig. 9_c_. Cannon-bone, _Hypohippus_.
Fig. 10. Fore and hind foot, _Eohippus_.
Fig. 11. Fore and hind foot, _Orohippus_.
Fig. 11_a_. Forefoot, _Neohipparion_.
Fig. 11_b_. Engraving of a small-headed horse.
PLATE V. ”
Fig. 12. _Eohippus_, 12 inches.
Fig. 13. _Orohippus_, 16 inches.
Fig. 14. _Mesohippus_, 24 inches.
Fig. 15. _Hypohippus_, 40 inches.
Fig. 16. _Merychippus_, 36 inches.
Fig. 17. Shetland, 33 inches.
PLATE VI. ”
Fig. 18. Skeleton of fore-foot of _Mesohippus_.
Fig. 19. Forefoot of _Merychippus_ (or _Protohippus_).
Fig. 20. Forefoot of _Hypohippus_, the Miocene “forest” horse.
Fig. 21. Upper molar, _E. stenonis_.
Fig. 22. Upper molar, _E. fossilis_.
Fig. 23. Premolar and molars of a small mediæval? horse from
Aberdour, Aberdeenshire.
Fig. 24. Premolar and molars of a small horse from the Roman
Fort, Newstead.
The Shetland Pony.
CHAPTER I.
The Early History.
A breed of small horses appears to have been the first Scottish
domestic animal to attract that attention which British livestock now
commands so generally. Dion Cassius, as translated by Holinshed, says
of the “Calidons,” in the second century of our era, that “they fight
in wagons, and have little light and swift horses, which are also very
swiftie, and stand at their feet with like stedfastness;”[1] and “St
Austin” is said by Hamilton Smith to describe how “Mannii or poneys
brought from Britain were chiefly in use among strolling performers, to
exhibit in feats of their craft.”[2] This race of small horses survives
in the Shetland pony.
It has long been regarded as practically certain that the Shetland
Islands possessed a native pony before the Scandinavian invasion
and settlement of the ninth and subsequent centuries. Hitherto
this view has been supported only by the fact that the Bressay
Stone—an accredited relic of the period of Celtic Christianity in
Shetland—displays a representation of a pony or small horse. Now,
however, we are able to rely on a much more definite and conclusive
piece of evidence, bones having been found, in the summer of 1911,
buried in the kitchen midden of the Pictish _broch_ or village at
Sumburgh, which are identified (by Professor Cossar Ewart) as part of
the skeleton of a pony not more than twelve hands high, and as being of
ancient date. This fresh evidence places beyond dispute the fact that
the pony was a native of Shetland in very early times.
We also know from rock-drawings, which are so ancient that their origin
is lost in antiquity, that horses or ponies were found in Norway at
a time lying beyond the beginning of history; and coming nearer to
our time, we have clear and definite records showing that in the
sixteenth century breeds of small ponies were regarded as belonging
characteristically to Norway and Sweden. Olaus Magnus records that:
“There are many Herds of small Horses but they are very strong; for
by their strength and agility they exceed many greater bodied Horses;
and Forraign and Domestic Chapmen buy them for their pleasure, and
transport them into remote lands, to be sold as Wonders of Nature. For
they are most ingenious, that they can be taught by them to dance and
jump at the sound of the Drum or Trumpet; and it is their Exercise by
such shews to get gain. Moreover, they are taught to leap through
hoops of Iron or Lead, not very large, as Dogs do, and they will turn
themselves about with wonderful swiftness.
“Also being called by their proper names, they do it, more or less, as
they are commanded.
“These horses feed, when there is necessity, with nothing but broiled
Fish and Fir-tree wood; and they will drink ale and Wine till they be
drunk.”[3]
And again: “The Norway horses are small of stature but wonderful strong
and swift to pass over mountains and stony ways; but those of _Sweden_
and _Gothland_ will travel incessantly, and very swiftly with more
meat, over Lakes and high Hills and deep Thickets. But those of Oeland,
because they are small, are more for sight than service, though amongst
them there are found of a different kind that are notable for labour.
“Also the Finland horses are of good qualities.”[4]
[Illustration: A SCANDINAVIAN ROCK-DRAWING.]
The Scandinavian horses were not all alike in merit, for Gervase
Markham says:
“Next, then, I place the Sweathland horse who is a horse of little
stature, lesser good shape, but least vertue; they are for the most
part pied, with white legges and wall eyes; they want strength for the
warres, and courage for journeying; so that I conclude they are better
to look upon than imploy.”[5]
These records, combined with the strong family resemblance between
Norwegian ponies and certain types of Shetland pony, lead us to
conjecture that there is either some extent of common ancestry in
those two breeds or some cross, near or remote, of one with the other.
It is probable that the Scandinavian invaders, whose literature and
mythology[6] as well as their place-names display a deep interest in
horses, may have brought horses with them to Orkney and Shetland. With
this common element, however, we also find a real difference.
While some Shetland ponies of the present-day closely resemble
the Norwegian, there are others which belong to a wholly different
type—ponies whose characteristics can only be described by the general
term of “Oriental,” long-shouldered, fine-boned, small in head, and
with an unmistakable Arab outlook. Such a type as this does not occur
in the Scandinavian breeds; and its existence proves clearly the
presence in the Shetland pony of some ancestral element not found in
the Scandinavian horse. This is all the more clearly shown by the
fact that the Shetland ponies of this Oriental type do not form pure
continuous or separate strains within the breed, but crop out here and
there, sometimes the parents, and sometimes the progeny, of ponies
apparently purely Scandinavian. They are evidently reversions to an
ancestral type which has deeply influenced the breed as a whole and
remains an ineradicable element in it. No facts are yet available to
show whether these Shetland ponies of Oriental character could be so
interbred as to produce a race breeding true to this type. The attempt
has never been made; since the general tendency of recent breeders has
been rather to neglect and eliminate this kind of pony.
The existence of this strain in the Shetland pony is undeniable,
however we may account for it; but, in attempting to explain it, we are
almost entirely in the realm of conjecture. Two possible sources of an
actual Oriental cross offer themselves for consideration.
In the year 1150 Jarl Rögnvald of Orkney and Shetland, while visiting
Norway, became imbued with the idea of leading a Crusade to the Holy
Land; and two years later he set out from Orkney for Jerusalem, arrived
there after many adventures, returned by way of Constantinople to
Apulia, and travelled thence on horseback to Denmark.[7]
The Orkneyinga Saga records the journey: “From there they sailed west
to Púll (Apulia). Earl Rögnvald, Erling, Bishop William, and most
others of their noblest men left their ships there, procured horses and
rode to Rómaborg (Rome), and then from Róm until they came to Denmark.
From there they went to Norway where the people were glad to see them.
This journey became very famous, and all those who had made it were
considered greater men than before.”[8]
It remains a matter of wholly uninformed conjecture whether these
war-worn travellers were so bound in affection and admiration to the
equine companions of their journeys and adventures that, instead of
leaving them in Denmark, they brought them home to Orkney and Shetland,
just as in our day British soldiers brought back to our shores the
Basuto ponies that had won their hearts on the African veldt. It is a
question to which there is no answer.
We come scarcely nearer to anything that can be accounted as proof when
we bring the Shetland pony within the orbit of the vivid and entrancing
drama of the Spanish Armada.
Legend has always borne that the Armada, steering its stricken course
round the North of Scotland and through the Irish Sea, left horses
scattered along the coasts in Shetland, Lewis, Mull, Galloway,
and on the Irish shores. The records taken at close quarters come
tantalisingly near to evidence; but they never quite reach that level,
so far as Shetland is concerned.
It is beyond doubt that a Spanish ship, the _Gran Grifon, Capitana_
(flagship), was wrecked on the Fair Isle, and that this was the
flagship of the Armada de Urcas, commanded by Gomez de Medina.[9] But
“John de la Conido of Lekit in Biskey marriner,” under examination,
“saith after the English Fleet parted from them, the Spanish Fleet cast
out all the horses and mules into the sea to save their water, which
were carried in certain hulks provided for the purpose.”[10] These
hulks (urcas), therefore, contained the horses of the Armada; and the
fact that their flagship was wrecked on the Fair Isle seems to bring
the Spanish horses to the very coast of Shetland.
Whether they landed on that coast or not we may guess almost as we
please. But if they did attain it, what kind of horses were they?
The Spanish war-horse of that time, as we find it in the pictures of
Velasquez, is much more Belgian than Arab, and by no means a likely
source of Oriental type or of any good pony strain. On the other hand,
there is considerable weight of legendary evidence in support of the
view that horses carried by the Armada made an improvement in British
breeds. “The fame of Newmarket,” says Sheardown, “begins soon after
the destruction of the Spanish Armada. Some horses which had escaped
from the wrecked vessels are said to have been exhibited at that
place and to have astonished those who beheld their extraordinary
swiftness.”[11]
This record suggests that Spanish horses were the source of a distinct
improvement in the races with which they were crossed, and especially
in the matter of speed; and it is hardly possible to think that this
should have been the case unless they were themselves of Eastern
breeding.
Apart from these possible sources of an actual Oriental cross in
the Shetland pony, there remains the possibility that the original
pony of Celtic Shetland was itself similar in type and origin to the
Oriental horse, and was, in fact, derived from the same stock which,
in other conditions, has given rise to the Arab and the thoroughbred.
The investigations of Professor Cossar Ewart[12] and Mr Ridgeway[13]
point to the strong probability of a triple origin of the horse as it
is known to history; and the fact that the Shetland pony, as we have
it to-day, is sometimes of a purely Scandinavian type, sometimes of an
Oriental type, may perhaps be explained by regarding it as a composite
of two distinct races, one having a common origin with the Oriental
horse, and the other being identical with the Scandinavian pony.
Force is lent to this explanation by the fact that the pony depicted
on the pre-Scandinavian Bressay Stone is wholly different in type and
character from those represented in Scandinavian rock-drawings, and
much more resembles the Oriental horse, with a high carriage and fine
type of head, and a short back.
Whatever its earlier history may be, the Shetland pony begins to emerge
in definite records during the sixteenth century. Ubaldini wrote in
1568—“Their horses are very small and tiny in stature, not bigger than
asses, nevertheless they are very strong in endurance.”[14] In the same
year Jo. Ben. (John the Benedictine?) speaks of “alia Insula inculta
nomine Auskerrie [presumably either the Orkney Island of Auskerrie or
the Shetland Island Osse Skerry] ubi equi ferocissimi sunt.”[15] These
“very wild” horses of the Auskerrie are without doubt progenitors of
the Shetland pony of to-day.
[Illustration: THE HORSE ON THE BRESSAY STONE.]
In 1576 we find the use of horses by the laird matter of dispute
in Shetland. “The Parochinaris of Wais ... deponis that quhen the
Laird come throw their parochin, giff the worst boy that was in his
companie got not ane horse to ride upon, the Laird wold gar thame that
refusit pay 40 babeis thairfair of Zetland payment.”[16] In 1614 it is
recorded by Mackaile that “the horses are little in Orkney”;[17] while
at the same period we have an Act to restrain the grazing of “wyld
horsis”;[18] and shortly afterwards, in 1628, an Act “anent ryding and
cutting of other men’s horsis taillis.”[19]
Within a few years after this the Shetland pony is clearly identified;
for Captain John Smith says in 1633: “Their Horses, which they called
Shelties, some of which I have seen, are little bigger than Asses, but
very durable.”[20]
From this date onwards we have a continuous record of the pony, growing
in definiteness as time goes on. “The horses,” says the Rev. Hugh Leigh
in 1650, “are of a little size and excellent mettell: for one of them
will easily carry a man or woman 20 miles a day; and they will live
till they be 20 or 30 years of age though they be never stabled summer
or winter.”[21] Travellers comment on its small size, its strength,
and its excellence. Thomas Kirke, in his diary, reports a visit to
“Burra’s” house (Stewart of Burray in Orkney). “We dined before we
went away, having been very well treated, and at our departure he
bestowed a little Shetland horse upon us, so low that I could easily
stand on the ground with the horse under me.”[22] The Orkney horses
in 1693 are, according to Wallace, “little yet strong and well mettald,
most of which they get from Zetland, and are called Shelties.”[23]
In 1701 we have a full and clear description by Brand which places
beyond doubt the fact that the pony whose history we have traced from
the vague suggestions of earlier times is the Shetland pony as we have
it now.
“I think the kine and sheep are of a greater size than they are
in Orkney, though their horses be of a less; they have a sort of
little horses called shelties, than which no other are to be had if
not brought hither from other places; they are of a less size than
the Orkney horses, for some will be but nine, others ten nives or
handbreadths high, and they will be thought big horses there if eleven;
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, yea there are
some whom an able man can lift in his arms, yet will they carry him
and a woman behind him eight miles forward and as many back; summer or
winter they never come into a house, but run upon the mountains in some
places in flocks, and if at 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 (as likewise do the
sheep), which winter storm and scarcity of fodder puts them out of
case, and bringeth them so low, that they recover not their strength
till about 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 in twenty-four,
especially they will 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
pied often prove not so good; they have been more numerous than they
are now; the best of them are to be had in Souston and Eston, also they
are good in Waes and Yell, these of the least size are in the Northern
isles of Yell and Unst.
“The coldness of the air, the barrenness of the mountains on which
they feed, and their hard usage may occasion them to keep so little,
for if bigger horses be brought into the country, their kind within a
little time will degenerate; and, indeed, in the present case we may
see the wisdom of Providence, for their way being deep and mossy in
many places, these lighter horses come through, when the greater and
heavier would sink down; and they leap over ditches very nimbly, yea up
and down rugged mosses, braes or hillocs with heavy riders upon them,
which I could not look upon them, but with admiration, yea I have seen
them climb up braes upon their knees, when otherwise they could not get
the height overcome, so that our horses would be but little if at all
serviceable there.”[24]
This statement is repeated by Martin in its essential features a few
years later. “This Country produces little Horses, commonly call’d
Shelties, and they are very sprightly, tho’ the least of their kind to
be seen any where; they are lower in stature than those of _Orkney_,
and it is common for a Man of ordinary Strength to lift a _Sheltie_
from the ground: yet this little creature is able to carry double. The
black are esteemed to be the most hardy, but the pyed ones seldom prove
so good: they live many times till Thirty Years of Age and are fit for
service all the while. These Horses are never brought into a House, but
exposed to the Rigour of the Season all the year round; and when they
have no grass, feed upon sea-ware which is only to be had at the Tide
of Ebb.”[25]
Brand’s account, confirmed by Martin, completes the series of
statements by which we are compelled to recognise that the Shetland
pony of to-day is the lineal descendant, with or without some degree of
cross-breeding, of a pony which has lived in Shetland from very early
times.
The characteristic which most definitely asserts itself throughout
all the descriptions, and which is displayed by the Sumburgh bones,
is small size; and the significance of this characteristic is greatly
increased by the fact that it remains unaffected by great changes in
the conditions under which the pony is reared.
The common and obvious suggestion is that the ponies of Shetland
were individually made small by the severity of the conditions under
which they lived—that they were and are dwarfs stunted by starvation.
But this suggestion is inconsistent with the undeniable result of
experience, that the Shetland pony remains small, and indeed shows no
tendency whatever to increase in size, when it is reared in Southern
climates and generously nourished.
Twenty years ago even so experienced a breeder as Mr Robert Brydon
wrote of the South-country studs: “I cannot help pointing out the
difficulty their owners will have to contend with in keeping the size
within Stud-book requirements.”[26] Experience, however, has shown this
to be a wholly groundless fear. The apparent tendency of the breed in
England and Scotland is not to increase but rather to diminish in size:
the mainland—bred ponies are not larger but smaller than those on the
Islands; and perhaps the present danger is that they may become too
small for use and perfect symmetry.
The fact is that there have always been small horses in Britain—at all
events in Northern Britain. The remains recently found in the Roman
camp at Newstead include horse bones which indicate that the native
horses there were from 11 to 13 hands in height. In Shetland there have
probably never been large horses.
The size of other horses, originally larger, has been gradually
increased, partly by crossing and partly by a deliberate artificial
selection, until a sustained effort, forming part of a general
agricultural development, has eventually produced the Clydesdale and
the Shire horse of to-day. Increase of size has always, of course, been
subject to the limits imposed by the available food-supply, so that
while the Clydesdale has been of comparatively old standing in the
Lowlands, a much smaller horse held the field until quite recently
in the Highlands and in Orkney; while, within the Highland area
itself, the so-called “garron,” of Perthshire and the richer parts of
Inverness-shire, has for its Island counterpart the smaller, harder,
and more active Hebridean pony. But it is impossible to explain these
variations of size and type as the direct product of liberal or scanty
feeding, although it is no less impossible to disregard the limiting
influence of local conditions which prescribe to each district at each
period of its development the size and type of horse which can be
maintained in vigour within it. Similarly the Shetland pony is not a
horse reduced in size by the scarcity of herbage in Shetland. It is the
horse whose type and qualities procured its survival in those Shetland
conditions which prohibited any considerable increase in its size.
These same conditions fixed other characteristics as well. They
prescribed and produced a degree of vigour and robustness fitted for
the maintenance of life in adversity, and for the performance of feats
of labour and endurance apparently impossible for so small a physical
frame: the “mettall past belief” is the mark of a survivor in hard
circumstances. They gave a great advantage to individuals sheltered
by abundant mane and tail, and, above all, by that waterproof double
coat of thick fur and long hair which alone can maintain warmth in wind
and rain and mist. They favoured that docility and sweetness of temper
which make the Shetland pony more truly domestic than any other horse,
because they made it essential that the pony should live in intimate
dependence on its owner; and these qualities of disposition find their
expression in the small ear and the large soft full eye which are so
characteristic of the breed.
The Shetland pony as every one knows it—small, robust, gay, shaggy,
alert, strong of bone, short-eared, large-eyed—is the product of
natural conditions and human needs in Shetland; and it is a definite
race, established by long selection, having characteristics indelibly
fixed. It has already been said that within this unity of race there
remains real and very considerable variety of type—a variety hardly
less great than that which we find between larger breeds of horses;
and the fact that the various types do not breed true, but are
interchangeable, points to a far-back mixture of races. Yet, in its
widely varying developments, the pony remains a fixed breed; and so
long as its racial purity is retained its virtues are ineradicable.