The Early History of the Shetland Pony
A breed of small horses appears to have been the first Scottish domestic animal to attract that attention which British livestock now commands so generally.
Location: Shetland
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
“The Early History“ from The Shetland Pony by Charles and Anne Douglas, 1913.
A breed of small horses appears to have been the first Scottish domestic animal to attract that attention which British livestock now commands so generally. Dion Cassius; as translated by Holinshed, says of the "Calidons," in the second century of our era, that '' they fight in wagons, and have little light and swift horses, which are also very swiftie, and stand at their feet with like stedfastness;” and "St Austin" is said by Hamilton Smith to describe how " Mannii or poneys brought from Britain were chiefly in use among strolling performers, to exhibit in feats of their craft." This race of small horses survives in the Shetland pony.
It has long been regarded as practically certain that the Shetland Islands possessed a native pony before the Scandinavian invasion and settlement of the ninth and subsequent centuries. Hitherto this view has been supported only by the fact that the Bressay Stone—an accredited relic of the period of Celtic Christianity in Shetland—displays a representation of a pony or small horse. Now, however, we are able to rely on a much more definite and conclusive piece of evidence, bones having been found, in the summer of 1911, buried in the kitchen midden of the Pictish broch or village at Sumburgh, which are identified (by Professor Cossar Ewart) as part of the skeleton of a pony not more than twelve hands high, and as being of ancient date. This fresh evidence places beyond dispute the fact that the pony was a native of Shetland in very early times.
We also know from rock-drawings, which are so ancient that their origin is lost in antiquity, that horses or ponies were found in Norway at a time lying beyond the beginning of history; and coming nearer to our time, we have clear and definite records showing that in the sixteenth century breeds of small ponies were regarded as belonging characteristically to Norway and Sweden, Olaus Magnus records that:
"There are many Hoards of small Horses but they are very strong; for by their strength and agility they exceed many greater bodied Horses; and Forraign and Domestic Chapmen buy them for their pleasure, and transport them into remote lands, to be sold as Wonders of Nature. For they are most ingenious, that they can be taught by them to dance and jump at the sound of the Drum or Trumpet; and it is their Exercise by such shews to get gain.”
“Moreover, they are taught to leap through hoops of Iron or Lead, not very large, as Dogs do, and they will turn themselves about with wonderful swiftness.”
''Also being called by their proper names, they do it, more or less, as they are commanded.”
''These horses feed, when there is necessity, with nothing but broiled Fish and Fir-tree wood; and they will drink ale and Wine till they be drunk."
And again:
"The Norway horses are small of stature but wonderful strong and swift to pass over mountains and stony ways; but those of Sweden and Gothland will travel incessantly, and very swiftly with more meat, over Lakes and high Hills and deep Thickets. But those of Oeland, because they are small, are more for sight than service, though amongst them there are found of a different kind that are notable for labour.”
"Also the Finland horses are of good qualities."
The Scandinavian horses were not all alike in merit, for Gervase Markham says:
"Next, then, I place the Sweathland horse who is a horse of little stature, lesser good shape, but least vertue; they are for the most part pied, with white legges and wall eyes; they want strength for the warres, and courage for journeying; so that I conclude they are better to look upon than imploy."
These records, combined with the strong family resemblance between Norwegian ponies and certain types of Shetland pony, lead us to conjecture that there is either some extent of common ancestry in those two breeds or some cross, near or remote, of one with the other. It is probable that the Scandinavian invaders, whose literature and mythology as well as their place-names display a deep interest in horses, may have brought horses with them to Orkney and Shetland. With this common element, however, we also find a real difference.
While some Shetland ponies of the present day closely resemble the Norwegian, there are others which belong to a wholly different type—ponies whose characteristics can only be described by the general term of "Oriental” long- shouldered, fine-boned, small in head, and with an unmistakable Arab outlook. Such a type as this does not occur in the Scandinavian breeds; and its existence proves clearly the presence in the Shetland pony of some ancestral element not found in the Scandinavian horse. 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 interbred as to produce a race breeding true to this type. The attempt has never been made; since the general tendency of recent breeders has been rather to neglect and eliminate this kind of pony.
The existence of this strain in the Shetland pony is undeniable, however we may account for it; but, in attempting to explain it, we are almost entirely in the realm of conjecture. Two possible sources of an actual Oriental cross offer themselves for consideration.
In the year 1150 Jarl Rognvald of Orkney and Shetland, while visiting Norway, became imbued with the idea of leading a Crusade to the Holy Land; and two years later he set out from Orkney for Jerusalem, arrived there after many adventures, returned by way of Constantinople to Apulia, and travelled thence on horseback to Denmark.
The Orkneyinga Saga records the journey: "From there they sailed west to Pull (Apulia). Earl Rognvald, Erling, Bishop William, and most others of their noblest men left their ships there, procured horses and rode to Romaborg (Rome), and then from Rom until they came to Denmark. From there they went to Norway where the people were glad to see them. This journey became very famous, and all those who had made it were considered greater men than before."
It remains a matter of wholly uninformed conjecture whether these war-worn travellers were so bound in affection and admiration to the equine companions of their journeys and adventures that, instead of leaving them in Denmark, they brought them home to Orkney and Shetland, just as in our day British soldiers brought back to our shores the Basuto ponies that had won their hearts on the African veldt. It is a question to which there is no answer.
We come scarcely nearer to anything that can be accounted as proof when we bring the Shetland pony within the orbit of the vivid and entrancing drama of the Spanish Armada.
Legend has always borne that the Armada, steering its stricken course round the North of Scotland and through the Irish Sea, left horses scattered along the coasts in Shetland, Lewis, Mull, Galloway, and on the Irish shores. The records taken at close quarters come tantalisingly near to evidence; but they never quite reach that level, so far as Shetland is concerned.
It is beyond doubt that a Spanish ship, the Gran Grifon, Capitana (flagship), was wrecked on the Fair Isle, and that this was the flagship of the Armada de Ureas, commanded by Gomez de Medina. But "John de la Conido of Lekit in Biskey marriner," under examination, "saith after the English Fleet parted from them, the Spanish Fleet cast out all the horses and mules into the sea to save their water, which were carried in certain hulks provided for the purpose." These hulks (ureas), therefore, contained the horses of the Armada; and the fact that their flagship was wrecked on the Fair Isle seems to bring the Spanish horses to the very coast of Shetland.
Whether they landed on that coast or not we may guess almost as we please. But if they did attain it, what kind of horses were they? The Spanish war-horse of that time, as we find it in the pictures of Velasquez, is much more Belgian than Arab, and by no means a likely source of Oriental type or of any good pony strain. On the other hand, there is considerable weight of legendary evidence in support of the view that horses carried by the Armada made an improvement in British breeds. "The fame of Newmarket," says Sheardown, “begins soon after the destruction of the Spanish Armada. Some horses which had escaped from the wrecked vessels are said to have been exhibited at that place and to have astonished those who beheld their extraordinary swiftness."
This record suggests that Spanish horses were the source of a distinct improvement in the races with which they were crossed, and especially in the matter of speed; and it is hardly possible to think that this should have been the case unless they were themselves of Eastern breeding.
Apart from these possible sources of an actual Oriental cross in the Shetland pony, there remains the possibility that the original pony of Celtic Shetland was itself similar in type and origin to the Oriental horse, and was, in fact, derived from the same stock which, in other conditions, has given rise to the Arab and the thoroughbred. The investigations of Professor Cossar Ewart and Mr Kidgeway point to the strong probability of a triple origin of the horse as it is known to history; and the fact that the Shetland pony, as we have it to-day, is sometimes of a purely Scandinavian type, sometimes of an Oriental type, may perhaps be explained by regarding it as a composite of two distinct races, one having a common origin with the Oriental horse, and the other being identical with the Scandinavian pony. Force is lent to this explanation by the fact that the pony depicted on the pre-Scandinavian Bressay Stone is wholly different in type and character from those represented in Scandinavian rock-drawings, and much more resembles the Oriental horse, with a high carriage and fine type of head, and a short back.
Whatever its earlier history may be, the Shetland pony begins to emerge in definite records during the sixteenth century. Ubaldini wrote in 1568—“Their horses are very small and tiny in stature, not bigger than asses, nevertheless they are very strong in endurance." In the same year Jo. Ben. (John the Benedictine?) speaks of "alia Insula inculta nomine Auskerrie [presumably either the Orkney Island of Auskerrie or the Shetland Island Osse Skerry] ubi equi ferocissimi sunt." These “very wild" horses of the Auskerrie are without doubt progenitors of the Shetland pony of to-day.
In 1576 we find the use of horses by the laird matter of dispute in Shetland.
“The Parochinaris of Wais . . . deponis that quhen the Laird come throw their parochin, giff the worst boy that was in his companie got not ane horse to ride upon, the Laird wold gar thame that refusit pay 40 babeis thairfair of Zetland payment."
In 1614: it is recorded by Mackaile that ''the horses are little in Orkney" ; “while at the same period we have an Act to restrain the grazing of “wyld liorsis"; and shortly afterwards, in 1628, an Act "anent ryding and cutting of other men's horsis taillis."
Within a few years after this the Shetland pony is clearly identified; for Captain John Smith says in 1633: “Their Horses, which they called Shelties, some of which I have seen, are little bigger than Asses, but very durable."
From this date onwards we have a continuous record of the pony, growing in definiteness as time goes on. "The horses” says the Rev. Hugh Leigh in 1650, "are of a little size and excellent mettell: for one of them will easily carry a man or woman 20 miles a day : and they will live till they be 20 or 30 years of age though they be never stabled summer or winter."
Travellers comment on its small size, its strength, and its excellence. Thomas Kirke, in his diary, reports a visit to "Burra's" house (Stewart of Burray in Orkney). "We dined before we went away, having been very well treated, and at our departure he bestowed a little Shetland horse upon us, so low that I could easily stand on the ground with the horse under me." The Orkney horses in 1693 are, according to Wallace, "little yet strong and well mettald, most of which they get from Zetland, and are called Shelties."
In 1701 we have a full and clear descrip-ion by Brand which places beyond doubt the fact that the pony whose history we have traced from the vague suggestions of earlier times is the Shetland pony as we have it now.
"I think the kine and sheep are of a greater size than they are in Orkney, though their horses be of a less; they have a sort of little horses called shelties, than which no other are to be had if not brought hither from other places; they are of a less size than the Orkney horses, for some will be but nine, others ten nives or handbreadths high, and they will be thought big horses there if eleven; and although so small yet they are full of vigour and life, and some not so high as others often prove to be the strongest, yea there are some whom an able man can lift in his arms, yet will they carry him and a woman behind him eight miles forward and as many back; summer or winter they never come into a house, but run upon the mountains in some places in flocks, and if at any time in winter the storm be so great that they are straightened for food, they will come down from the hills, when the ebb is in the sea, and eat the sea-ware (as likewise do the sheep), which winter storm and scarcity of fodder puts them out of case, and bringeth them so low, that they recover not their strength till about St John's mass-day, the 24th of June, when they are at their best; they will live to a considerable age, as twenty-six, twenty-eight or thirty years, and they will be good riding in twenty-four, especially they will be the more vigorous and live the longer, if they be four years old before they be put to work.”
"Those of a black colour are judged to be the most durable, and the pied often prove not so good; they have been more numerous than they are now; the best of them are to be had in Souston and Eston, also they are good in Waes and Yell, these of the least size are in the Northern isles of Tell and Unst.”
“The coldness of the air, the barrenness of the mountains on which they feed, and their hard usage may occasion them to keep so little, for if bigger horses be brought into the country, their kind within a little time will degenerate; and, indeed, in the present case we may see the wisdom of Providence, lor their way being deep and mossy in many places, these lighter horses come through, when the greater and heavier would sink down; and they leap over ditches very nimbly, yea up and down rugged mosses, braes or hillocs with heavy riders upon them, which I could not look upon them, but with admiration, yea I have seen them climb up braes upon their knees, when otherwise they could not get the height overcome, so that our horses would be but little if at all serviceable there."
This statement is repeated by Martin in its essential features a few years later. ''This Country produces little Horses, commonly call'd Shelties, and they are very sprightly, tho' the least of their kind to be seen any where; they are lower in stature than those of Orkney, and it is common for a Man of ordinary Strength to lift a Sheltie from the ground: yet this little creature is able to cany double. The black are esteemed to be the most hardy, but the pyed ones seldom prove so good: they live many times till Thirty Years of Age and are fit for service all the while. These Horses are never brought into a House, but exposed to the Rigour of the Season all the year round; and when they have no grass, feed upon seaware which is only to be had at the Tide of Ebb."
Brand's account, confirmed by Martin, completes the series of statements by which we are compelled to recognise that the Shetland pony of to-day is the lineal descendant, with or without some degree of cross-breeding, of a pony which has lived in Shetland from very early times.
The characteristic which most definitely asserts itself throughout all the descriptions, and which is displayed by the Sumburgh bones, is small size; and the significance of this characteristic is greatly increased by the fact that it remains unaffected by great changes in the conditions under which the pony is reared.
The common and obvious suggestion is that the ponies of Shetland were individually made small by the severity of the conditions under which they lived—that they were and are dwarfs stunted by starvation. But this suggestion is inconsistent with the undeniable result of experience, that the Shetland pony remains small, and indeed shows no tendency whatever to increase in size, when it is reared in Southern climates and generously nourished.
Twenty years ago even so experienced a breeder as Mr Robert Brydon wrote of the South-country studs: "I cannot help pointing out the difficulty their owners will have to contend with in keeping the size within Stud-book requirements." Experience, however, has shown this to be a wholly groundless fear. 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 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. In Shetland there have probably never been large horses.
The size of other horses, originally larger, has been gradually increased, partly by crossing and partly by a deliberate artificial selection, until a sustained effort, forming part of a general agricultural development, has eventually produced the Clydesdale and the Shire horse of to-day. Increase of size has always, of course, been subject to the limits imposed by the available food-supply, so that while the Clydesdale has been of comparatively old standing in the Lowlands, a much smaller horse held the field until quite recently in the Highlands and in Orkney; while, within the Highland area itself, the so-called “garron," of Perthshire and the richer parts of Inverness-shire, has for its Island counterpart the smaller, harder, and more active Hebridean pony. But it is impossible to explain these variations of size and type as the direct product of liberal or scanty feeding, although it is no less impossible to disregard the limiting influence of local conditions which prescribe to each district at each period of its development the size and type of horse which can be maintained in vigour within it. Similarly the Shetland pony is not a horse reduced in size by the scarcity of herbage in Shetland. It is the horse whose type and qualities procured its survival in those Shetland conditions which prohibited any considerable increase in its size.
These same conditions fixed other characteristics as well. They prescribed and produced a degree of vigour and robustness fitted for the maintenance of life in adversity, and for the performance of feats of labour and endurance apparently impossible for so small a physical frame: the "mettall past belief" is the mark of a survivor in hard circumstances. 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.
The Shetland pony as every one knows it—small, robust, gay, shaggy, alert, strong of bone, short-eared, large-eyed—is the product 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. Yet, in its widely varying developments, the pony remains a fixed breed; and so long as its racial purity is retained its virtues are ineradicable.
Douglas, Charles, and Douglas, Anne. The Shetland Pony, William Blackwood and Sons, 1913
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