Shetland Horse

Origin: Northern Scotland — Shetland and Orkney Islands.

Height: Average 9.3hh, should not exceed 10.2. Smallest recordedspecimen 6.2hh (26in).

Color: Any, including piebald, skewbald and dun. Black and dark brownare the most common.

Character: Very gentle disposition, with great courage and character

Easy to train, sure-footed and adaptable, it makes an ideal first pony for achild and is also excellent for driving and light carting.

Physique: For its size considered the strongest of all breeds, capable ofpulling twice its own weight (twice the power of most heavy horses). Headsmall and sometimes with a concave face. Eyes large and kindly, ears small,muzzle small with open nostrils. Abundant mane, with thick tail often longenough to sweep the ground. Very heavy winter coat, summer coat fine andsleek. Back short, strong, and deep through the girth. Legs very hard, withshort cannon bones and small feet, and straight, light action.
The Shetland is an ancient breed. The earliest remains found in the ShetlandIslands are dated about 500 BC, when the pony was apparently domesti-cated. The breed has remained unchanged apart from some cross-breedingwith the now-extinct, small, black Lofoten pony of Norway, which wasbrought to the Shetlands by Norse settlers about 1,000 years ago and wasalso adapted to island life. It is extremely hardy, having bred for millenia in acold, exposed land with no trees and very little shelter. It is used by theShetland islanders for all working purposes, and in the mid-19th centurywas much in demand as a pit pony to work in the coalmines of northernEngland.

The Shetland's strength is legendary. A nine-hand Shetland is recorded(1820) as having carried a 170-lb man 40 miles in one day. The ReverendJohn Brand, writing in 1701, was also impressed with the Shetland'sstrength:

Some not so high as others prove to be the strongest, yea there are some,whom an able man can lift up in his arms, yet will they carry him and awoman behind him eight miles forward and as many back.

Theories about the origins of the Shetland conflict, one authority claimingthat it came down from the Tundra during the Ice Age, crossing the frozenNorwegian Sea before the retreat of the ice fields from the British Isles;that the island isolation and inbreeding of the following millenia causedthe pony's size to be reduced from an original height of around 13.2hh.Another theory is based on recognizable "Shetlands" which appear in OldStone Age paintings in the caves of the Dordogne and Altamira. It proposesthat Shetlands may have been the first equines brought to Britain by humanagency, since one of the earliest waves of human immigrants came toBritain from the Biscay area, and suggests that Shetlands were probably adwarf variety, split off from the main body of ponies of Exmoor type. Thissecond theory seems the more acceptable, since ponies would have had ahard time of it on the Tundra during the Ice Age and it seems more probablethat a northward rather than a southward move into the tough conditionsof the Shetland Islands would have stunted the ponies' size.