What is a Highland pony?
The native horse of the mountain areas of Scotland. (Scotland was once a separate kingdom to the north of England, but signed a treaty with England in 1707 to form the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’)
Although referred to as a ‘breed’, and since at least the 1880s bred through a stud book, Highland ponies were never created by controlled breeding in the way of other commercial breeds of livestock. They are descendants of the crofters’ ponies used in the Scottish Highlands. Additions of course, happened – eg horses brought by invading armies, some crossing with other breeds – which applies to all native horses/ponies in this country.
Unlike some other native breeds Highland ponies do not have to pass a subjective assessment of conformation or height before they are entered in the Stud Book – a pure Highland pony pedigree is all that’s needed. (One exception to this: white markings are not liked as possible evidence of crossbreeding in the past, and Highland stallions cannot be registered if more than a small white star present).
Thankfully, despite some misguided efforts towards that direction, there are no narrow ‘breeding schemes’ in operation – for example, the use of ‘approved’ or ’selected’ stallions – so Highlands retain a broad genetic mix within the population. The effect of this is that Highlands are quite variable in height, color, looks – the ponies we have today are an outcome of their whole genetic past, and not a breed created to some notional ‘type’.
How big are Highland ponies?
Nowadays the height range is about 13hh to 14.2hh. If you don’t use these archaic British measurements that’s 52 inches (1.12m) to 58 inches (1.47m) at the withers (highest point of the shoulder). But these days due to better feeding and care from birth, some ponies – usually geldings – can occasionally grow taller than this. This is a predictable effect of today’s higher nutrition, and is similar to the increase in size of many modern human populations for the same reason. They are heavily built – 450/550 kg for an adult – and although called ‘ponies’ are more like horses with short legs. They are the largest of Britain’s nine native pony breeds.
What were they used for in the past?
The Highland pony or garron – a Gaelic word – was a crofter’s (small farmer’s) horse which could do all the work on the crofts in the highlands of Scotland. Before the coming of made roads 200 years ago, their use was as pack animals for transport and on the land. Latterly they have also been used in carts and other wheeled vehicles. For the last 170 years Highland ponies have been the main means of transporting deer and other game off the hill, using special pack saddles like this on a mouse dun pony, as well as many other jobs on the Scottish sporting estates. Pony trekking was begun in Scotland in 1955 using Highland ponies because of their quiet nature and ability to carry weight.
What are they used for today?
Their traditional job on the hill, plus all kinds of riding and driving. Highlands make an ideal all-round family pony, able to tackle most things but not specialist in any. For example, they can be keen jumpers up to say four foot high, and will tackle long-distance riding or cross-country courses of medium height and difficulty.
Where they do excel is in their ability to carry the heaviest load or person over the roughest and steepest ground. They have an inbuilt sure-footedness on hill slopes which can well exceed the nerve of their rider. And doing all this while living outside no matter what the weather. Highlands generally dislike being stabled. Many still work on the sporting estates, packing loads or dragging timber, and are probably the commonest pony used for trekking in Scotland today.
How old is the breed?
Too old to know how old it is! It’s not certain if wild horses spread into Scotland after the retreat of the last glaciers around 10 000 years ago, or if the first ones were brought with prehistoric settlers. Whatever, horses were present here by at least the 8th century BC. Today, nearly all Highlands grow up with primitive marks – ‘eel’ stripe along the back, shoulder stripes, ‘zebra’ stripes on the legs, with dark mane/tail/legs, etc. These fade with time if the coat is grey. The same pattern of markings as found on wild (Przevalsky) horses and on some other native breeds around the North Sea area, like Fjord ponies or Koniks from Poland. They are the only British native ponies in which all these markings occur so frequently, as a matter of course, without any conscious selection. This could suggest an ancient origin, as Highlands have had no selective breeding for color and limited ‘improvement’ in conformation through crossbreeding, apart from selection for greater size in the past.
The horses/ponies used in Pictish times (about 550-800 AD) in East and Northern Scotland, and shown on their carved stones, presumably passed on genetic input to today’s Highland pony. Few relevant early records exist for the Highlands of Scotland, but we find Highland ponies described in the first travel accounts and agricultural surveys in the 18th century. The ponies then were smaller, but a very hard life on the hills in any case would have stunted growth.
The wild horses mentioned near Loch Ness in 1527 may or may not have been truly wild, but it’s stated that they could only be caught by having tame horses released among them. (It’s worth noting that there were wolves still running wild in Scotland at that time and for another 200 years thereafter.)Most present-day Highland pony bloodlines are traceable back to the 1830s. DNA tests group Highland ponies with British heavy horses and Fell ponies, but in a more primitive position. In general, the data we have so far, points to an ancient origin.
How many are there?
There are an estimated 5 000 to 6 000 Highland ponies worldwide, mainly in Scotland, but numerous also in England, with a few elsewhere in the British Isles. France has a population of perhaps 500, Germany around 300, Australia 200, and smaller groups in Belgium, The Netherlands, Canada and elsewhere. A few have been imported into the USA, but so far not kept as a separate breed. A Highland stallion called Glenfiddich was imported to the King Ranch, Texas, in the 1950s to give a heavier back end to the quarter horses, but his records cannot now be traced, or any of his stock.
Where can I find out more?
There is no really comprehensive modern book on Highland ponies (although the writer is working on one, intended to appear towards end 1997). Still the best book on Highlands was written by John M MacDonald in 1937 and is now long out of print: Highland ponies and some reminiscences of Highlandmen. MacDonald based many of his facts on the article by Thomas Dykes in the Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland for 1905 titled “The Highland Pony”.
Both sources must be read with an eye to the circumstances and times in which they were written. Dykes was an enthusiast for the Clydesdale horse and took his pony material from the letters he received from lairds (owners) of estates all over Scotland who owned or used ponies on their hills. In the immediate post-Boer War era there was a minor hysteria in Britain about producing remounts for the Army. Some of the lairds, encouraged by a similar Government scheme, were busy ‘improving’ their Highlands with breeds they had come to know in military service. It appears that Dykes did not investigate the majority of Highland ponies in use ‘on the ground’ – ie among crofters and cottagers. MacDonald by contrast was a large sheep farmer in the island of Skye, for some time working land formerly tenanted by dispossessed crofters. He saw a need for a more agricultural, stronger pony, and he was on the side of using limited Clydesdale blood to increase the size of the Highland. But he grew up with Highlands and the book, written when retired in Surrey, England, recounts personal knowledge with charm.
Likewise, be aware of the author’s allegiance which permeates the most recent book on Scotland’s Native Horse, its history, breeding and survival: Robert Beck (1992, CG Book Publishers, Wigtown). A capable survey of the historical sources hardly redeems conclusions that are baldly and simply shifted into line with Beck’s great enthusiasm, the ‘Eriskay pony’, which he is anxious to establish as some undiscovered and untouched survival of Scotland’s early pony. While applauding the preservation of ponies anywhere, even their most ardent supporters must admit that the ‘Eriskay pony’ has no documented history at all. Misguidedly, in the view of many, the Department of Agriculture (post-Boer War, see above) used Arab and Welsh sires for a time on ponies on the west coast of Scotland. The ‘Eriskay’s’ look-alike size and color to Welsh B or C ponies suggests that in its isolation the island of Eriskay could have preserved first generation samples of these Welsh crosses, unlike the larger gene pool of Highland ponies on the mainland, which absorbed and finally submerged this ill-advised crossbreeding scheme.
Two other recent books give a pleasant if general introduction to Highland ponies, both by Andrew F Fraser:The Days of the Garron (1980, Macdonald Publishers, Edinburgh; entirely about Highlands) and The Native Horses of Scotland (1987, John Donald, Edinburgh) which adds more folklorist sections on Shetland ponies and Clydesdale horses.
The pictures and information contained on this page are provided courtesy of the Highland Pony Gazette.
