Almost no other domestic animal is so easily cared for as the Shetland pony; and he appears to thrive and prosper in a bewildering variety of conditions. On the bare shores and hillsides of Shetland, where moss and seaweed must often supplement the scanty grass, he maintains as full a vigour, though perhaps not so comfortable an appearance, as he displays in the almost excessive luxury of some of the South-country studs.

It must not, therefore, be supposed that, in describing what appears to be the best system of management, we suggest that no less perfect system will satisfy the pony’s needs. But, on the other hand, the best results can only be obtained by giving the most suitable conditions of development; and the fact that these conditions are not necessary to the life, or even to the health, of the pony, is no good reason for neglecting to provide them if they are really most favourable to its excellence.

Ponies will thrive on a great variety of pastures, and only careful management is needed to make any land serve their purpose; but it is of the greatest importance that they should not be kept always on the same ground. The need for a rotation or alternation of stock on pastures is generally admitted; and it is specially recognised in the case of horses, which are well known to make grazings “horse sick” if they are kept too constantly on the same fields. Shetland pony breeders are perhaps apt to be less careful in this respect than other owners of horses; and it cannot be too much insisted on that ponies ought to be kept in combination with cattle, either grazing with them or, preferably, alternating with them in the fields.

The quality of grass required naturally varies with the condition of the stock and the stage of its development. For in-foal and milking mares it is desirable to have fairly good pasture, such as would be suitable for dairy cows, so that mare and foal may be kept in good condition without over-exertion. On the other hand, the chief requirement of young ponies is abundant space; and large fields are much better for them than smaller enclosures. They should, therefore, naturally be run out on much less luxuriant grazings than are desired for milking mares; they will thrive and develop well on such land as is suited for hill sheep; and, if this be not available, fields that have previously been closely grazed by other stock may be used to give them the space and freedom they require. In whatever way it may be obtained, this is one of the most important conditions of successful rearing; and breeders who have not land available to provide it would do well to board their young ponies out, in summer at all events, where they can find large stretches of clean grazing; for youngsters of a year old and upwards will maintain admirable condition in summer on poor land; and their activity and vitality are greatly increased by letting them find their living on pastures where the supplies of food are not too abundant, and where they are induced to travel constantly over fresh ground.

The foaling mares are the part of the herd to which most regular attention should be given. They must be kept in vigorous condition; and it must be remembered that they are under constant strain, giving large quantities of milk, and at the same time maintaining and developing the unborn foal. Horse owners are perhaps apt to forget that the mare is really a very large milk producer—certainly not less so than the average cow—and that provision should be made for this. It cannot be too clearly understood that this provision ought to be made in advance. Good pasture during the nursing season is, of course, desirable; but it is not sufficient, unless the mare is brought to the time of foaling in reasonably good condition. Foaling mares ought not, certainly, to be fat; but they ought to be in a robust and well-nourished state; and neglect of this must shorten their lives, both by general exhaustion and by accelerating, through loss of muscular tone, that “falling” of the womb which is the commonest cause of losses in foaling.

During the last few months, therefore, before the foaling season begins, the mares should be kept under observation, and supplied with hay if they seem to require it. Any which, from age or youth or other causes, are in specially poor condition, should be fed separately and receive perhaps some oats and bran.

So treated, the mares need usually give their owners no anxiety as foaling approaches. Care should, of course, be taken by selecting a proper date for mating, to have the foals born after the coldest weather of spring is likely to be over, and when some growth of grass may reasonably be expected. This time will vary for different climates. In Scotland, the first days of June are usually the best time for mating, most of the foals being thus born during May, and therefore fit to be weaned in autumn.

It is the all but universal practice—and certainly the best and safest—to leave the mare entirely to her own devices during foaling. She should be left out in the field unless most unusual severity of weather prevents it; and in almost every case she will foal successfully without assistance,—indeed, when assistance is required it is very often unavailing. Mare and foal should be watched to make sure that the latter is sucking and is being allowed to do so; and in the rare cases in which any difficulty arises, help must be given by catching the mare and holding the foal to her. The only other danger that besets the young foal arises from a stoppage of the lower bowel which sometimes occurs. This is shown by the foal’s frequent strainings, and can easily be removed by local action, when discovered; but neglect of it will result in the death of the foal in a very short time.

Most of the foals are likely to be born before the time for mating arrives; but, whether foaled or not, mares should all go together to the horse with which they are to run during summer. This is particularly necessary in the case of some horses, which, retaining the wild gregarious instinct, will not tolerate the addition of a new mare to the herd. If it be thought that the first ardours of the stallion are likely to disturb in-foal mares, or if he is suspected of any tendency, when excited, to attack foals (a possible though rare occurrence), he may be run for a few hours with fillies or barren mares, and the herd safely introduced when his excitement has subsided.

The Shetland pony herd is to be treated as a natural—practically a wild—herd of animals. The less the ponies are interfered with the better, so long as they have sufficient clean grazing and an ample water-supply. It is the experience of all breeders that the best results in the production of foals are obtained from running the horse constantly with the mares. The herd is kept together until a date early enough to avoid all risk of next year’s foals being born too late for autumn weaning.

While proper care and management of the stock are essential to the best results, yet these results ultimately depend on the skill and judgment with which the breeding animals are selected and mated.

It is not proposed to attempt here to give rules for the exercise of the breeder’s art. The principles of breeding are very much the same in every case. It is, above all, imperative—and especially in the selection of sires—to insist on soundness and vigour of constitution; and this becomes the more imperative the more we shelter the progeny of our stock from the rigour of natural selection, and from such severe tests of endurance as are imposed on race-horses. We have seen how closely inbred the leading families of Shetland ponies are; and, while it is wholly a mistake to suppose that this necessarily causes enfeeblement or unsoundness, yet it is an additional reason for exercising the greatest care in excluding these fatal taints.

In Shetland ponies also, as in other races of animals, the actual excellence of an individual is not a sufficient reason for expecting corresponding excellence in its progeny. Heredity is an element at least as important as good individual quality in the selection of sires and dams; and heredity itself—so complex are the elements that compose it—is a test of merit far less valuable and complete than the previous progeny of the animals to be bred from. Mating the best with the best, and breeding from long lines of fine pedigree, are both venerated rules; but the breeder who is fortunate enough to obtain animals already proved to be successful in their offspring has a surer ground than such rules give for expecting good results. It remains only that he should discover, by careful study and close consideration, with what type and heredity the animal he is about to breed from has been most usefully mated; and he may then hope to produce some proportion of stock approximating to the type he desires to embody. But he must, above all things, have a clear idea of what it is that he aims at creating or reproducing, not necessarily an idea to remain unaltered by experience and criticism, but yet a view and an aim independent of changes of fashion and of the varying fortunes of the showyard. Nothing but failure in breeding can result when a dominating purpose of this kind is absent.

The present-day breeder of Shetland ponies is neglecting to use the chief instrument ready to his hand if he fails to take great advantage of the admirable material created in and descended from the Londonderry Stud; and he ought specially to remember the value of the combination of Odin and Prince of Thule blood, which has already been referred to. But he ought not to make this his only source. The Islands still contain animals and strains well fitted to be a strength to the breed; and one of the most interesting parts of a breeder’s work consists in the careful and gradual introduction of these outside strains of blood.

The conclusion of the foaling period, and the completion of mating, open a peaceful and pleasant season in the pony-breeder’s year—a season during which troubles and mishaps are usually few; while the contented mares, the antics of the foals, and the young stock in their summer bloom, form a picture contrasting sharply with other scenes in the passing of the year. The breaking up of the herds in August, or thereby, and the weaning of the foals in later autumn, bring this period to a close.

Weaning is a process requiring some little care and attention. The foals should be taken from their mothers not before the end of their fourth month, and preferably at least a month later; but weaning ought not to be unduly postponed, since it is important that the foals should have recovered from it before the severity of winter is felt. October is late enough for this, and late enough also to release from her nursing duties a mare which is to produce another foal in the following spring.

The mares should be relieved, twice or oftener, of any severe pressure of milk after the foals are taken away, and be kept on poor grass for a day or two. The foals should be shut in until their first agitation is over, and be taught to feed from the trough. Any which may have been weaned earlier than is quite desirable are easily taught to drink separated cow’s milk with some sugar added—the best of all substitutes for mare’s milk. For the rest, there is no better food than bruised oats and bran, at first given as a mash and afterwards dry, with the addition of a small allowance of linseed meal, molassine meal, or molascuit. This feeding, with good hay and access to rough grazing, should be continued throughout winter. During this first winter liberal feeding is desirable; and adequate shelter should be given in the form of sheds or open loose-boxes, not to keep the foals warm, but merely to protect them from rough weather and to secure for them a dry lair in the long winter nights.

Older ponies need no such provision as this, though they are much the better of some such shelter as can be obtained from trees, dykes, good hedges, or steep banks. They should have ample grazing in fields left rough for the purpose, and should be supplied with hay when snow is on the ground, and at times when the winter grass proves insufficient for their needs. It ought to be kept in mind that stormy and wet weather are much more trying to them than hard frost or even snow, from both of which they seem to suffer little. Prolonged beating rain and damp ground to lie on tax their energies severely; and the wet and innutritious grass requires to be supplemented by dry food of some kind. In spring the rough pasture, which often seems to have been wasted in winter, repays its cost, for under its tufts fresh blades of grass spring early; and the ponies will be found eating old and new together, and showing the effect of the new growth in the slackening of their winter coats, which begin to fall off in large masses.

The period of weaning affords an opportunity of examining and treating the feet of mares and foals. The former usually require nothing but the shortening of the toes, and perhaps some paring of the hoof wall, with the removal of any inequalities of wear that present themselves. The foal’s feet, however, often require a good deal of attention, specially in order to deal with cavities which are apt to be formed between the sole and wall of the hoof. These cracks or cavities should be freely opened up with the drawing-knife, explored and cleaned to the bottom, sometimes to a depth of over half an inch, and carefully packed with tow and tar. A similar examination should be made of all young ponies’ feet twice a-year, and the teeth of aged ponies should also be carefully inspected.

An essential part of good herd management is the breaking of the ponies. No pony should remain unbroken; for, apart from every other reason, there is no means, other than breaking, for securing that combination of confidence and submission which every domestic animal should have. Every owner must have had experience of the inconvenience of having animals which cannot be handled without danger to themselves and their attendants, because they have never learned to yield to control, or to trust the ability and good intentions of man. With such animals ordinary management is difficult; and the treatment of illness, when it occurs, is hopelessly complicated.

But in addition to this sufficient practical reason, there is the further fact that without breaking there is no means of discovering whether an animal is or is not free from vice and ill-temper that make it undesirable as a sire or dam. It is unfortunately impossible to work all the Shetland ponies required to be bred from, although the ill effects of this are mitigated by the almost unvarying docility of the breed; but it is at all events desirable that the breeding stock should be tested for temper at some stage of their development.

Breaking is usually no difficult matter. A couple of lessons in leading, three in reins, and three in the shafts, with probably one severe conflict of wills in the whole process, will generally break a Shetland pony. A pony so broken is not of course a finished child’s mount. Its mouth and manners are still to make; and they ought not to be neglected, for both can be perfect; and the pony’s mouth particularly is naturally light and pleasant, although too often ruined by neglect and bad handling. All this should be carefully seen to when ponies are to be sent out to work; but for the purposes of herd management, the breaking just described is all that is needed.

Breaking is followed, in the case of show ponies, by preparation for show. The pony must learn to stand, walk, trot, and turn under such discipline as to present itself favourably to the judge. There is all the difference in the world between a pony showing his paces on a loose rein and going straight, true, and close, and one which must be held on a tight rein so that his head is turned round, his fore-feet almost forced to dish, and his hocks thrown out. The difference is sometimes one of temperament,—more often it is one of education. Training cannot turn a bad pony into a good one; but bad training may easily prevent the best of judges from seeing a good pony; and the fault is not with the judge but with the exhibitor.

The education of the show pony is a matter of time and patience—chiefly of endless patience. Some grooms have a genius for it, and those who have not must secure the result by greater labour; but in any case, careful practice and regular and sufficient exercise are the chief means by which the showyard results are obtained. As in every breed, preparation for show tends to be overdone. Over-fattening, as has already been said, is the most prevalent fault; but the employment of bearing-reins is sometimes carried far beyond the point required for that effective control which is the only justification for tackle; and a prudent judge will never part from his work till he has seen the ponies without their trappings, and made sure that his selected winners can hold up their heads without the aid of straps. A more difficult problem lies in the tendency to the use of heavy shoes—a practice imported from the hackney stables to induce high action of the most useless and unsightly kind. A time may come when weights of shoes will have to be limited by rule; but it is to be hoped, rather, that firm and wise judging may convince exhibitors that true, sure, and clean action does not consist in the pounding motions produced by heavy shoeing. Good conditioning, development of muscle by exercise, and careful education are the legitimate preparation for show: everything else is a more or less successful attempt to deceive.

The diseases of the Shetland pony are comparatively few; but one or two are apt to occur even in well-managed herds.

Whenever the infection of strangles is brought in, it goes through the herd, attacking all the young animals and some even of the old.[46] If it occurs in winter it may be necessary, in severe frost, to bring patients under cover to protect their wounds from frost-bite; otherwise it is best treated by keeping them out of doors; and so treated it is rarely a dangerous disease. Its symptoms are well known—the running at eyes and nose, the abscesses bursting as they mature, and perhaps forming and bursting a second time. Open air and liberal feeding are its sovereign remedies. In the case of foals a special difficulty arises from their inability to use the muscles of the swollen throat to suck, and this difficulty—dangerous if ignored—can best be met by milking the mare at frequent intervals and teaching the foal to drink from a pail, which it remains able to do.

Other troubles arise from worms—the common thread-worm and the deadly strongylus.[47] In all cases of the latter veterinary advice must be obtained. But the best protections against these and similar troubles arising through infection are, first, to keep ponies always on the cleanest ground that can be given them; and, second, to supply them constantly, in every field, with rock-salt to fortify their blood and stimulate their digestion.

With these precautions and with ordinary care Shetland ponies give little trouble or anxiety so far as their health is concerned. The aim of herd management ought to be to supply the most natural life possible, so as to reduce to a minimum the evils incidental to confinement within fences. This, with watchfulness and a due but not excessive liberality in feeding, will ensure health and long life to the ponies, and, to their owners, a reasonable profit and an unreasonable degree of pleasure.