Shetland Ponies 77 



Shetland Ponies 



(Plate, facing p. i6r) 



Of all the pony breeds, the Shetland is the best known and 

 the most popular. To many, the New Forest pony or the Dart- 

 moor pony is a vague entity — a something they have heard of, 

 but everyone knows the quaint little Sheltie with his "old- 

 fashioned " ways, and everyone has a good word for him. 



The Shetland as we now know him has a long history, and 

 he is probably — I had almost said undoubtedly, and if I had 

 I should perhaps not have been very far wrong — the purest 

 bred of the equine race. There is no historical record of the 

 time when he was^ not to be found in the Shetland group, for 

 that he was a Norwegian importation, as was once thought, is 

 a theory which is no longer tenable. He was certainly known 

 in the islands in Celtic times, and practically as he was known 

 then so is he known now. No Arab or Thoroughbred^ has found 

 his way into the Shetland Islands to improve the native breed, 

 and the management of the Shetland pony of to-day is on 

 similar lines to those which have always prevailed. That is 

 the management in his native islands. 



Winter and summer the Sheltie " fends for himself", finding 

 his own food and his own shelter. It must be borne in mind, 

 too, that though, owing probably to the action of the Gulf 

 Stream, the Shetland Islands are, in spite of their more northern 

 situation, warmer in climate than the mainland of Scotland, the 

 winter months are dark and drear, and the herbage is scant and 

 at times practically non-existent. Then the hardy little Sheltie 

 finds his way down to the sea and exists on seaweed. Occasion- 

 ally, perhaps, when the ground is covered with snow and ice- 

 bound — a very rare occurrence — he will find his way down to his 

 owner's dwelling, and find his reward in a bundle of oat sheaf 

 or meadow hay. At the end of winter he looks a curious spec- 

 tacle in his shaggy, matted coat — more like the fleece of a sheep 

 than the coat of a horse — and he is as thin as the proverbial 

 lath. But genial spring weather soon puts him right, and though 

 his coat is a considerable time in slipping, some of it remaining 

 till after midsummer, he is soon in good case and sleek as a 

 mole. In the islands the mares as a rule only breed every other 

 year, this being due in great measure to the fact that the foals 

 are not weaned till they are a year old, a plan which cannot be 



* Professor Cossar Ewart has compared the skeleton of a Shetland pony with that of the 

 lamous Thoroughbred horse Persimmon and has found them to be in perfect proportion. 



