Tour Scotland photograph of a miniature Shetland Pony, with owner, at the Agricultural Show in Kinross, Perthshire, Scotland. Shetland ponies originated in the Shetland Isles, located north east of mainland Scotland. Small horses have been kept on the Shetland Isles since the Bronze Age. People who lived on the islands probably later crossed the native stock with ponies imported by Norse settlers. Shetland ponies were first used for pulling carts, carrying peat, coal and other items, and plowing farm land. Then, as the Industrial Revolution increased the need for coal in the mid 19th century, thousands of Shetland ponies travelled to mainland Britain to be pit ponies, working underground hauling coal, often for their entire, often short, lives. Coal mines in the eastern United States also imported some of these animals. The last pony mine in the United States closed in 1971.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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