'1HE SHETLAND PONY 125 



Those animals which are fourteen hands and under 

 are usually classed as ponies; those above fourteen and 

 under fifteen hands, if pony built, are, in England, 

 called Galloways. However, this latter term is not com- 

 monly used in the States to designate a smallish horse. 

 The name pony, used generically to designate a small or 

 smallish horse, of pony build, is used so differently in 

 different countries, and even in different districts of the 

 same country, that it is often difficult- to classify them 

 with any degree of accuracy. 



THE SHETLAND PONY 



Until quite recently, the Shetland pony was the only 

 one bred in considerable numbers in the eastern states. 

 The Shetland is the smallest of the pony breeds and has 

 long attracted marked attention, because of his small- 

 ness and not infrequently because of his peculiar and 

 striking markings. Reared on the rugged Shetland 

 Islands, north of Scotland, where a large animal would 

 not serve the inhabitants so well as a small one, and in 

 a climate so bleak that larger horses, even if introduced, 

 would soon become dwarfed, they have not been crossed 

 with larger breeds, except with the Iceland pony, which 

 cross was not successful. These ponies are, in their 

 native home, subjected to great hardships. They are 

 usually allowed to roam in the open in the winter as well 

 as in the summer. As the demand for them increased 

 and the prices advanced, some pains have been taken to 

 provide more abundant food and, not infrequently, rude 

 shelter. However, the Shetland pony is so thickly 



