Shetland pony

“ The Shetland pony is shy of a strange owner, and at first requires to be jealously watched in a new home, as being apt to bolt on the first opportunity. Unfailing tradition steps in here and gravely informs us that a straying pony, however far removed from the land of its birth, will invariably shape its course for the north—in the direction, that is, of its native home. Needless to say that, by preference, it does nothing of the kind. As far as our experience enables us to judge, a straying pony, wherever it may be, traverses the line of least resistance. ”

“ 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 ”

“ A Shetland pony is almost a child’s first desire, unless, perhaps, it may be to own a monkey. To have a pony to ride, or to drive, and especially a real Shetland, long-haired, short-legged pony is a dream of perfect happiness, indeed. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ THE SHETLAND PONY.—The smallest variety of Horses in the British Islands is the Shetland Pony, which averages seven or eight hands in height, but yet is wonderfully strong, and capable of enduring an immense amount of fatigue. Its wild, shaggy mane gives it somewhat the appearance, as has been remarked, of a Skye Terrier. It is mischievous and skittish, and generally harder to ride than a full-sized Horse. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Their fears are imaginary, [107] for they can produce no justifying instance; and anything less wide than the Shetland pony—in actual cross-measurement—would, owing to narrowness of chest, be an unsafe and stumbling mount: so long as men ride, the Shetland pony will be the most valued and most valuable possession of the child happy enough to own it. ”

“ The general symmetry of all good horses is very much the same; and the Shetland pony is no exception. But, in particular, he should be deep through the heart, short and strong in back, well ribbed up, and well sprung in barrel. The shoulders should be long and well sloped, showing sharp and distinct withers. The quarters should be broad and long, and well filled up, with the tail set high and carried gaily. The neck should be long, well arched, and powerful, fine at the gullet, and carrying the head high and well forward. ”

“ The Shetland pony, grand little chap as he may be, is a degenerate cart-horse, nothing more; he can trot, walk, and carry a burly gamekeeper up a steep hillside, but he has no pace. The Timor ponies, on the contrary, with light-weights, could make very fair racing time, were high-couraged and untiring, in or out of condition, bequeathing to their offspring the fire and speed of the Eastern horse, with a quality of legs and feet difficult to find nowadays. ”

“ Her digestion, he had to confess, was that of a Shetland pony, and he had been forced to fall back upon an unconvincing prophecy of a toothless and dyspeptic old age. He pictured her at this moment propped up in the middle of the great mahogany four-poster, all lace and ruffles and ribbons, her wayward hair in adorable confusion about her face, as she pawed over the sweets and breathed ecstatic blessings upon his name. ”

“ It cannot be too strongly emphasised that no risk should be run of sacrificing the results already attained—the power substance and well-formed joints and limbs, in which the “Londonderry” ponies excel. On the other hand, there is room, in very important respects, for progress and improvement in order to bring the Shetland pony to perfection.
[79]
CHAPTER IV. The Management of Shetland Pony Herds. Almost no other domestic animal is so easily cared for as the Shetland pony; and he appears to thrive and prosper in a bewildering variety of conditions. ”

“ It is hence not surprising that many are led to inquire to which particular branch of the equine family tree the Shetland pony belongs.
Not many years ago it was said the horse tribe was at the start represented by a primitive race about the size of a fox but with as many hoofs as a tapir—four in front and three [150] behind,—that in course of time a new race arose (with three hoofs in front as well as behind) which eventually gave rise to the one-toed ancestor of all the living Equidæ. ”

“ Speaking generally, they have become a breeding stock, kept for sale rather than for work. Somewhat larger ponies—from 11 to 121⁄2 hands—are in very common use in carts; and these are probably cross-bred ponies partly of Shetland ancestry. But the introduction of wheeled vehicles in the latter part of last century almost made an end, in practice, of the pony as a means of transport in its own home.
COMING FROM MARKET.
The fact—apt to be forgotten in controversies about Shetland pony type—is that the pony never until quite recently was a draught animal. ”

“ The safest and most reliable pony, from my experience, for a child to begin on is an old polo pony which has been ridden for some time by a woman and has not had the excitement of the polo field for many a year. If one wants, however, a smaller pony than this for a child, the best type to my mind is the Welsh pony. They are far more gentle and better for children’s use than the Shetland pony, and are much more reliable. I consider the kind of Shetland pony that one finds in this country a treacherous and stubborn little beast. ”

“ From his build he is generally short-winded and thoroughly impracticable in his paces. A South Mainland specimen, on the other hand, long and rakish in build—hard-grown, as the saying is—and clean-limbed, will far surpass his companion in staying power. One of this hardy breed—in our opinion the ideal Shetland pony—has been known to travel from Sumburgh to Lerwick and back the same day, with a tolerably heavy riding weight, say fifty-six miles altogether of extremely hilly road. ”

“ Some of them are driven by their riders down steep passes where one misstep would send both rider and pony down to the depths below. Ponies of Shetland, too, are not always very well behaved. Near our cottage was an old lady’s garden, filled with cabbages. One day her pony walked into it, and enjoyed himself feasting on forbidden fruit. We never asked him, but should imagine the beating he received when discovered would help him to digest his stolen dinner. Then a Shetland pony on his native heath is extremely wilful. If they dislike a rider they will spare no pains to unseat him. ”

“ Here between three and four hundred ponies have their grazing-ground and stalls, and from here they are shipped, when sold, to the various cities, East and West. They are bought almost exclusively for children in the larger cities, and the average price paid for a pony is about $200, somewhat more than an ordinary horse brings. The average height of a Shetland pony is forty inches. Some of them when born are very tiny, and one little Shetland baby, the smallest ever known, weighed but sixteen pounds, when a day old. ”

“ The craze for undersized ponies, in our opinion, has had its day. Except as curiosities, or for the purposes of the ménage, these pygmy animals are practically useless. The conventional Shetland pony—the animal represented in picture-books—namely, about forty to forty-four inches high, very tight-jointed, and with an impossible growth of hair all over him, is just about as bad a type of this famous race as can well be imagined. ”

“ There is another Shetland pony in one of the neighbouring paddocks, but she is dark brown in colour, and, with her long-flowing mane and tail, looks like a miniature carthorse. Like most of Her Majesty’s animals, she is fond of society, and objects to be separated from a large handsome grey donkey which was bought on one of the Continental journeys, and now occupies the same paddock as the Shetland. In order to take the pony’s portrait comfortably, it was found necessary to invite the donkey to be present as a spectator. ”

“ Every one who really associates with them knows how disastrously short a time dogs and horses live: on no reasonable calculation can they grow old with their owners. Even the Shetland pony fails of this, but he makes the bravest of attempts. [110] There are many accredited instances of ponies living to thirty-five years and upwards; while, among Stud-book ponies, the famous Jack died at the age of thirty, and his son Odin at twenty-four, while his grandson Thor still lives in health and vigour at the age of twenty-seven: with a little luck father and son may learn to ride on the same Sheltie. ”

“ 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 must be observed that a scarcity of really good stallions, probably arising from the same causes as formerly, is still the chief impediment to the improvement of the Shetland pony in his native home. But this cause no longer operates to reduce size, as fashion has created a demand for excessively small ponies, which tempts the poorer owners rather to sell than to keep them. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They should be abundant, the hair strong in texture, and straight, falling flat, and, like the foot hair, free from any tendency to curl. It is an interesting characteristic of the Shetland pony that many animals shed in autumn the upper lock of the tail in such a way as to look as though the hair had been scrubbed off, although on actual examination it will be found that the hair is cast from the root and grows in again. ”

“ Under these circumstances the animals, if exposed, would certainly succumb, and they are far too valuable to their owners for this to be permitted. But they certainly do rough it out of doors in very inclement weather, seeking the doubtful shelter of dikes and out-houses; while in hard seasons the stud of the breeder is carefully housed in sheds made for the purpose. Unquestionably these ponies can stand a great amount of exposure, being fitted for this by a double or treble thickness of coat. But it is very much to be questioned—the popular belief to the A Shetland Pony. ”