NATIVE BREEDS Please read - Thankyou! :)

[Linn]

Hello!
I’m sure we all agree there is little more pleasing to theeye than a fit, healthy horse working in harmony with his handler.
As part of my degree I’mconduction an investigation into “horsepowerin the highlands and islands.” Basically I’m interested in the culturesurrounding working horses, both in the yesteryears and in today’s societies.
From Shetland’s to Clydesdales, these animals have helpedshape our heritage, for many a rural family they were central to their livelihoodand were often the overlooked backbone of rural life, as such I’m trying tocompile some first-hand anecdotal stories and/or photographs of these crittersto include in my report.
Would anyone who has any stories about the working horses,childhood memories or experiences in handling these beasties be willing toshare them?
Or perhaps you own a traditional Scottish breed or have owned one – how do these breeds compare with other breeds you’ve handled?
Remember riding a naughty Shetland pony in your youth? (I knowI do!)
Or (fingers crossed) does anyone work horses on their landor small holding?
I’m especially interested in in the ailments of theseworking horses and the traditional treatments – the high level of care anddevotion shown to these hoses by crofters and small time farmers is astounding,if anyone has any old remedies they would like to share I’m all ears!
Any other tales or experiences would be greatly appreciated too!
Thanks for reading this very long post! I look forward toyour stories!
(Anything you’d bewilling to share would be of great help to me – before I include anything you’vesaid in my report I will pm you to ask your permission and I can keep people anonymousif you’d like. This report is fully academic and shan’t be released into thepublic domain.)

 

[TrasaM]

Don't know if this is the type of thing you want but I'll start the ball rolling anyhow.

My dad was born in 1915. Aged 22 he moved from his little island on the west of Ireland to work in Liverpool. Times were very hard in 1936 and work was uncertain even in a busy place like Liverpool. One day his boss approached min and said "Michael , you're irish so you'd know about horses wouldn't you so can you take charge of the cart today? To which my father replied that he knew nothing about horses and liked them even less. This caused some amusement 'an Irishman who knew nothing about horses' . In any case be agreed to work the horse on condition that he was given the quietest horse they had. He even had to ask what he had to say to it to get it to move and stop. He was given a Clydesdale and in dad's own words "they got on just grand" this was on Liverpool docks 1936.

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

In our area, ponies are still used in some of the estates as stalking ponies, carrying the shot deer down from the mountains. mainly Highland ponies altho at Balmoral they also have a couple of Haflingers who derive from a pair the Queen was given as a gift.

You might want to get in touch with Sillywrea Farm, Northumberland, at least until recently they were about the only farm left in the UK doing absolutely everything with their heavy horses - there's a book called THe Last Horsemen about the farm and the horses.

Also British Horse Loggers (there is a website) as a lot of them are using horses for conservation areas of woodland etc or ones inaccessible to machinery. Some use continental heavies but others use Suffolk punches, clydies etc.

The ailments is an interesting one, altho there were many trad remedies the reality was that in towns and cities the working life of the working horse was pretty short, most were shot before they were ten or so, as the demands of the work were so high and the surfaces eg cobbles so damaging.

 

[p87]

I bought my son a shetland, have only had her for a couple of months though so not much to report yet! She is funny though, safe as houses with my three year old (even lets him use the space between her front and back legs as football goals lol and don't worry, it's a soft toddler ball he has, he isn't whacking her with footballs!!) but out in the field she makes sure the others know that just because she is small doesn't mean she is a doormat!

She is three years old, and I'm currently breaking her to drive a cart, the idea being that she can help me poo pick the field (it's HUGE and a loooooong way from the muck heap!) and help me carry hay to the field in winter.

Maybe in a few months I'll have some stories, but she is still sussing out her new home now and being groomed to within an inch of her life by my son

 

[JFTDWS]

I have highlands, but I don't do traditional stuff with them.

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

We breed shetlands - proper up to height ridden ponies but none of them would be seen dead near the coal mines lol! They are far too pretty for that!

 

[Linn]

Thanks for replying TrasaM thanks for getting the ball rolling, there is something special about Clydesdales for sure!

Thanks for the heads up about the
Sillywrea Farm - I will definitely try and get in touch and buy a copy of the book I wonder if I could wrangle a trip to balmoral too?! on the basis of ailments I'm defiantly going to compare the lives of the city horses with the likes of Rolkur - how attitudes to sort of harsh treatment has (thankfully) changed! But I can find out little to do with home remedies which I'm really quite disappointed about

The logging is really something for me to investigate further too, apparently in Italy heavy horses are being used on vineyards too.

p87 It sounds like you and your son are going to have a grand time with your shetland! What a good idea to train a wee pony to help you carry hay - I might have to copy that idea with my own horses - it would save a lot of hassle in winter Your son could train her to be like 'Luna the Lion' (everyone should YouTube Luna, se preformed at HOYS this year, so cute.)

JFTD what do you do with your Highland? From the reading I've done they seem like truly versatile darlings, hopefully that will secure the breed future.

It's so heartwarming to hear about Shetlands being treated properly - I've been told so many stories about the poor yearling colts who end up sold off for pennies because no wants them breaks your heart when you realise they did so much work in the mines, those wee ponies dragged about the coal which powered our industry and economy!

In my report I want to question why we all remember the stories of "war-horses" but the likes of the Clydesdales TrasaM's dad worked with, who were equally as important to the Scottish and British people are forgotten by most people who didn't have first hand experiences with them? Any thoughts?

I'm giving myself a couple more weeks to speak to people, then I'm going to get stuck in writing my first draft... That's the plan Anyway!
Thankyou so much for sharing, I find everyone's thoughts in these horses so interesting, the more I hear the prouder I get of our native breeds!
Thanks again!

 

[JFTDWS]

What I want to know is why everyone raves about the importance of horses and nobody cares about the sheep. It was the basis of the economy for centuries and influenced major domestic and international events.

I digress.

My highlands do a bit of everything. They're riding horses. The older one does some jumping, dressage, TREC, has played horseball, I'm starting to train him to tolerate a horse bow for horseback archery... You name it, we've either tried it, or are planning on it.

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Linn I have the Sillywrea book and also a (I think out of print) book specifically on the native breeds of Scotland and the work they did. Including some that are now extinct like the Galloway pony. I'd be happy to send them to you as a contribution to your project. If you pM me where to send ill get them in the post. Either send them back afterwards or keep them if they are used and appreciated )

 

[Linn]

Linn I have the Sillywrea book and also a (I think out of print) book specifically on the native breeds of Scotland and the work they did. Including some that are now extinct like the Galloway pony. I'd be happy to send them to you as a contribution to your project. If you pM me where to send ill get them in the post. Either send them back afterwards or keep them if they are used and appreciated )

Thank you, that's really kind of you! I ordered myself a copy of the Sillywrea book yesterday - I can't wait for it to arrive, it looks really interesting! I'll p'm you my address, I haven't managed to find out much at all about Galloway ponies so the other book would be a massive help! x

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

Hi have packaged up the book, I think it will be useful for you, am off down to post it now )

 

[Dry Rot]

I have highlands, but I don't do traditional stuff with them.

...I thought you rode them? Is that not traditional, then??

I breed Highlands and am quite interested how their temperaments vary.

There is no doubt in my mind that the main use for natives was as pack ponies and Highlands were surely used for transporting materials across country before there were roads suitable for wheeled transport. How many ponies were needed to carry each ton of produce?

The particular type of pony needed for this type of work would be tough, economical, load bearing, easily handled and trained, long lived, hardy, etc. You don't need a pack pony to go fast, just go along steadily and get the load safely to where you want to take it. These pony tracks still exist in the Highlands. Same thing for deer ponies. The very last thing you want is an excitable pony for carrying deer. Also, you don't want to have to lift the load onto a tall pony if a small one can do the same job.

On the other hand, there are natives, off the same breeds, that ARE suitable for riding. So obviously a need for two types. And, of course, there is a demand for safe plodders and always will be. But some have a bit more fire in the belly!

It is often stated that the Highland pony was the work horse of the small Scottish farmer or crofter. I'll accept that but it would have been oxen that were used for the heavy work such as ploughing. They'd use the pony to take goods to town or visit the neighbours. Clydesdales were used by the bigger wealthier farmers in the eastand they need more dainty management.

I admit the above is mostly speculation but I believe the archaeologists have dug up numerous pony remains in Perth. Apparently, they were all about 12HH. A bit small for riding but perhaps big enough for a pack pony, especially about town.

There used to be a crofter near the Allargue Inn in Aberdeenshire who used a Highland pony and two wheeled cart to haul turnips out to his sheep. Apart from deer ponies, that's the last one I can think of in serious work, i.e. a viable alternative to the little grey fergie.

Many estates, of course, still use deer ponies. On one estate, I was shown a set of harness that was too big for a Highland and too small for Clydesdale. I was told it would have been for a Highland x Clydesdale pulling a sledge which would have been used to carry several deer -- more economical than using a single pony to carry one deer. A sledge will slide on heather quite nicely and even better in snow.

An Aberdeenshire hill farmer gave me a pair of shafts that had been up on the rafters of his barn for over 100 years. (I now have them in the rafters of my barn!). When I asked him what sort of horse they would have been used for, he said "a long legged shult". They have their own language (Doric) in that part of the country and I can only speculate what sort of horse he meant.