SHETLAND PONIES. 143 



which Shetland stallions have been crossed. Larger ponies 

 from Scotland, the Galloways, and the Exmour have also been 

 crossed on the little Shetland mares in order to give them more 

 size, but so long as pony raising on the Shetland Isle is con 

 ducted as it has been for the past years, when the dear little 

 creatures have been allowed to run at large on the hills and 

 live on the heather with what scant grass they could find, and 

 in the winter driven to the extremity of subsisting on sea- weed, 

 and sometimes driven by hunger to the necessity of eating dead 

 fish that have been washed up in the sea-weed, there is no 

 danger, I think, of their ever emerging into draft horses. 



The Shetland Pony, as with the Wild Horse of America, is 

 to-day sustained in his own country and on his own soil by the 

 " survival of the fittest." It is said by those who know that 

 " they are seldom fed a handful of grain or hay during the long, 

 cold winters." Neither are they provided with shelter either 

 natural or artificial, but are obliged to stand out of doors and 

 take the weather just as it comes, both summer and winter. 



Nature has not on these islands provided trees to give them 

 shade in summer or protection from the cold, sweeping winds 

 of winter. They often, it is said, get so weak and poor that 

 they are obliged to stand braced with their hind feet well apart 

 in order to keep on their feet at all ; and hence, in the opinion 

 of Mr. Elliott, many of them " become cow-hocked." 



Mr. Elliott, who has often visited the islands, and who is, 

 perhaps, one of our largest importers of Shetlands to this 

 country, says : " The mares seldom breed oftener than every 

 alternate year, but keep at it to a great age, even to thirty 

 years or more." If the foal were not allowed to suck its dam 

 the first winter it is doubtful if many of them would survive. 



In size, the pure Shetland Pony of to-day measures from 36 

 to 44 inches in height. When an imported pony measures 

 more than that his breeding may be considered somewhat doubt- 

 ful as to purity of blood, for, as has been 'said before, the quality 

 of blood has been somewhat tampered with by the introduction 

 of foreign blood carried to the islands. 



