A. I. Douglas

“ The pony must learn to stand, walk, trot, and turn under such discipline as to present itself favourably to the judge. There is all the difference in the world between a pony showing his paces on a loose rein and going straight, true, and close, and one which must be held on a tight rein so that his head is turned round, his fore-feet almost forced to dish, and his hocks thrown out. ”

“ But, to be the perfect child’s hack or hunter, the Shetland pony must be bred as a riding-pony: it must have riding action—not the round and hammering gait of the once fashionable hackney, but the darting, gliding shoulder action that covers the ground quickly and smoothly. That alone is the safe and comfortable action of a saddle-horse large or small. Further, the pony must be bred with a short back and high withers to carry a saddle. ”

“ The most salient and essential feature of the Shetland pony, next to its size, is its general air of hardihood and vitality. Stamina and robustness—capacity to endure both work and hardship—are among its most essential merits; and they should appear in its demeanour, displayed in spirit, boldness, and a high though docile and generous temper. Ponies which show feebleness of appearance or constitution should be rigidly excluded from the stud and the show-ring, and soundness should be made essential. ”

“ It remains only that he should discover, by careful study and close consideration, with what type and heredity the animal he is about to breed from has been most usefully mated; and he may then hope to produce some proportion of stock approximating to the type he desires to embody. But he must, above all things, have a clear idea of what it is that he aims at creating or reproducing, not necessarily an idea to remain unaltered by experience and criticism, but yet a view and an aim independent of changes of fashion and of the varying fortunes of the showyard. ”

“ The Shetland pony as every one knows it—small, robust, gay, shaggy, alert, strong of bone, short-eared, large-eyed—is the product [23] 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. ”

“ In Shetland ponies also, as in other races of animals, the actual excellence of an individual is not a sufficient reason for expecting corresponding excellence in its progeny. Heredity is an element at least as important as good individual quality in the selection of sires and dams; and heredity itself—so complex are the elements that compose it—is a test of merit far less valuable and complete than the previous progeny of [88] the animals to be bred from. Mating the best with the best, and breeding from long lines of fine pedigree, are both venerated rules ”

“ The conclusion of the foaling period, and the completion of mating, open a peaceful and pleasant season in the pony-breeder’s year—a season during which troubles and mishaps are usually few; while the contented mares, the antics of the foals, and the young stock in their summer bloom, form a picture contrasting sharply with other scenes in the [90] passing of the year. The breaking up of the herds in August, or thereby, and the weaning of the foals in later autumn, bring this period to a close.
Weaning is a process requiring some little care and attention. ”

“ This beautiful black mare, 36 inches high, is no doubt somewhat deficient in bone. But she stands almost [59] by herself among Shetland ponies as an example, approaching closely to perfection, of what a riding-pony ought to be, with a small and exquisitely shaped head carried high on a clean-cut and well-arched neck, shoulders that would not disgrace a good thoroughbred, fine withers and short strong back, and the safe and easy action that properly belongs to an animal of her type. ”

“ It must also be remembered that the cannon-bone cannot be shortened beyond a certain point, and that any exaggerated shortness of the fore-leg is therefore only to be obtained by a disproportionate reduction of length of arm, fatal to symmetry and productive of cripples. Anything which tends to make the pony merely an oddity and a toy, and to take it out of the category of useful or usable horses, is fatal to the prospects of the breed and should be resisted by breeders and judges. ”

“ Scottish red deer are decidedly smaller now than they were in Roman times; but this is not so much due to inbreeding as to the range of most of the herds being restricted, and to the best stags being cut off before they have a chance of improving the herd. The Scottish deer in New Zealand, though all descended from a few imported individuals, instead of dwindling in size, are larger and carry finer heads than their home-bred relatives,—the wider range and better conditions have more than compensated for the inevitable in-and-in breeding. ”

“ A pony that falls is of course an impossible mount for a child; but one that stumbles is scarcely better, since it constantly suggests the possibility of falling before experience and practice have neutralised fear. The breadth and strength and balance of a good Shetland pony make it the surest-footed of all riding animals. Theorists, without a fact to shelter themselves with, have alleged a danger to the health of children from sitting astride the big barrel of the pony, but the answer to them is quite simple. ”

“ Still, the hard-working Shetlander is little more than nominal lord of his pony: poverty is his lot from the cradle to the grave, and, as the phrase goes, he is ‘still in tow.’ In his dire need the merchants become his mortgagees, just as the curers are to the herring-fishers: they advance money on the security of his foals, and he doesn’t get the best of it with ‘halvers’ mares.” [36]
The chief defects of the Island ponies are to be found in the movement and conformation of the hocks—“cow hocks” being common, and also a tendency to excessive bending of the joints. ”

“ It is unfortunately impossible to work all the Shetland ponies required to be bred from, although the ill effects of this are mitigated by the almost unvarying docility of the breed; but it is at all events desirable that the breeding stock should be tested for temper at some stage of their development.
Breaking is usually no difficult matter. A couple of lessons in leading, three in reins, and three in the shafts, with probably one severe conflict of wills in the whole pro [95] cess, will generally break a Shetland pony. A pony so broken is not of course a finished child’s mount. ”

“ Nothing in the proportions of a pony more affects his appearance than the size, form, and carriage of his head. Undoubtedly many of the most massive and powerful of present-day Shetland ponies are disfigured by heads which are not merely out of proportion to their size, [72] but which are also carried much too low. ”

“ To inbreed them there is only one plan. Select your very best stallion and put him to a certain number of mares, and then put all the good fillies when three years old to their father; also, select your very best mare and put her to another stallion, and go on breeding from her to the same stallion until you have a colt, then put that colt to his mother, and use the produce to breed from with the produce obtained by putting the fillies above mentioned to their father.” A better plan for fixing the size could hardly be imagined. ”

“ 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 [7] interbred as to produce a race breeding true to this type. ”

“ The pony is the most easily kept of all animals. For two or three pounds a-year he can be maintained; for a little more he can be kept in hard-working condition—a useful member of a small establishment, and no unprofitable part of the equine staff of a farm, going over much more ground, with light loads, and a boy to drive him, than a cart-horse that will cost nearly ten times as much to keep. ”

“ 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 [20] 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. ”

“ Lord of the Isles is chiefly interesting as the first instance of the introduction into the blood of the Londonderry sires of the cross of Prince of Thule, which has already been referred to. His dam Handy was a daughter of Prince of Thule; and it may perhaps have been from this source that his reduced size came, for Prince of Thule was himself only 36 inches high. It is significant, too, that Multum in Parvo, a brown horse 37 inches high, sired by Lord of the Isles out of his own dam Dandy, is described by those who knew [58] Prince of Thule well as being exceedingly like him. ”

“ If it be true that the modern pony is substantially the “Londonderry” pony, it is hardly less true that the “Londonderry” pony is the pony that is bred from the horse Jack (16) , foaled in 1871, which came into Lord Londonderry’s possession as a colt, and was the sire or grandsire of almost all the stallions used in the stud, as well as of a third of all the mares that are recorded as belonging to it. ”

“ One seems to see the cavalcade picking its way through the moss, riders holding up their feet to avoid the soft ground through which their mounts find a path, and ladies tremulous over the fate of the precious burdens of the pack-ponies. ”

“ It is doubtless true that in-and-in breeding sooner or later diminishes the vigour, size, and fertility, and, in addition, restricts variation. But under natural conditions, if the range is sufficiently extensive, occasional reversion to vigorous ancestors will prevent [145] dwarfing provided there is rigid elimination of the unfit.
If Shetland ponies are the pigmy descendants of one or more ancient races at least as tall as Exmoor and Welsh ponies, one would expect them to increase in size when bred and reared under favourable conditions. ”

“ Odin was a horse of immense power and robustness, and great masculinity of appearance. His bone and weight were his most salient characteristics; but he was a vigorous and active mover, with strong hock action, though not perfectly straight in his going. He was disfigured by a head heavy even out of proportion to his general bulk and weight. He was probably the most successful sire among Jack’s sons, his male descendants being conspicuously better than the females.
Laird of Noss, also a son of Jack, was a black pony, 38 inches high, with some white marks on his near side. ”

“ The Shetland pony—and particularly the pony of the “Londonderry” type—is admirably adapted for pit work. In structure he is exactly what is required, massive, muscular, and heavy, and yet able to walk comfortably in a passage not four feet high. His wise and placid disposition is no less a recommendation in an animal which is to work in cramped situations and in surroundings that might overstrain more excitable nerves than his. The Shetland pony learns easily to accept and adapt himself to new conditions; he travels with composure by sea or land ”

“ Speaking generally, about 38 inches is the height which will be found, while retaining the individual character of the breed, to lend itself best to symmetry and activity. There are, no doubt, excellent ponies both larger and smaller; but a study of the recorded measurements of the best animals will uphold the view that this is the height at which, speaking generally, the pony can be produced at its best. ”

“ In Canada, at the moment, he is in great demand: there he is the school pony; for in the new wheat lands farms are far from the schools, and a pony is the child’s conveyance. For this purpose a mount is needed which is easily kept, docile, and hardy, and which can be hitched to a fence during school hours without being critical of the state of the thermometer. The Shetland pony supplies the demand, as if he had been created for that purpose; and Canadian buyers come to Britain year by year to take ponies in increasing numbers. ”

“ It should not be forgotten by breeders or judges that a pony whose shoulders, hips, and stifles are not prominent in his appearance, is either defective in structure or very improperly overfed.
It may well be the case that a rather too exclusive use of the excellent “Londonderry” strain of ponies requires now to be corrected by a careful introduction of new blood, and that it is desirable to make use for that purpose of active, large-framed, vigorous mares of other Island strains. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Moreover, all animals during their development repeat, more or less, their ancestral history, climb their own ancestral tree, hence if there is arrested development we should find evidence of reversion to more or less ancient types. Is there any evidence that in mind or body the Shetland is an instance of arrested development, or that he owes his diminutive size to reversion towards remote small ancestors? ”

“ In the language of the day, one can only [148] say that the limbs have forgotten how to grow beyond a certain size, and add that this loss of “memory” may be the result of breeding from the smallest individuals regardless of their consanguinity. In 1892 Mr Christopher Wilson, in a letter to Mr Meiklejohn, then in charge of the Bressay Stud, said: [149] “With regard to the Shetland ponies, your great object is to keep them small.... There is no class of animal to which inbreeding can be better applied, as all you will lose by inbreeding is size, which is what you want.... ”

“ But the lot of the Island pony is still a hard one in the long winters, when the scanty livelihood which he can gather on the mosses, by the dyke-sides, and on the sea-shore is but poorly supplemented by the occasional sheaf of oats which is all that his owner can usually allow him. ”

“ It is conceivable that some of the unimproved ponies now living in Shetland, and also some of the improved ponies bred and reared far from their ancestral island home, are as well proportioned as members of the Exmoor or Welsh breeds. One must, however, be prepared to find that not a few of the inbred pedigree ponies have undergone unequal dwarfing, one part of the limbs, as in the dachshund, having undergone more reduction than the adjacent parts. ”

“ In one other respect modern show standards and conditions threaten rather to impair than to improve the breed. The appearance of the pony in the Islands almost invariably suggests a strong and vigorous frame: in the showyard there are few ponies whose appearance suggests any frame at all. ”

“ But action should also be vigorous, light, and springy, not showing the roundness that often disfigures hackney gait, but with fore-legs well thrown forward from the shoulder both in walking and trotting, while knees, pasterns, and hocks are freely and powerfully flexed. It must be admitted that in many Shetland ponies activity has been unduly sacrificed to abnormal shortness of limb. ”

“ In colour the pony is much more variegated in the Islands than on the British mainland, where black and brown increasingly predominate. In some parts of Shetland—notably in the western district of Sandness—piebalds and skewbalds are more common than self-coloured ponies; while chestnuts, yellow duns, and mouse-duns (sometimes curiously called “greys”) are exceedingly frequent. ”

“ The Shetland pony herd is to be treated as a natural—practically a wild—herd of animals. The less the ponies are interfered with the better, so long as they have sufficient clean grazing and an ample water-supply. It is the experience of all breeders that the best results in the production of foals are obtained from running the horse constantly with the mares. The herd is kept together until a date early enough to avoid all risk of next year’s foals being born too late for autumn weaning. ”