Hibbert gives us an even more complete picture of the Shetland pony in use a hundred years ago:—
“A walk through the valley near Woodwick leads to a large open lawn at the end of the Loch of Cliff, which seemed very populous and well cultivated. I arrived there on the Sabbath morning; the natives of the Vale were all in motion in their way to the Kirk of Baliasta. The peasant had returned home from the bleak scathold, where he had ensnared the unshod pony that was destined to convey him to the parish kirk. No currycomb was applied to the animal’s mane, which, left to nature’s care, ‘ruffled at speed and danc’d in every wind.’ The nag was graced with a modern saddle and bridle, while on his neck was hung a hair-cord, several yards in length, well bundled up, from the extremity of which dangled a wooden short-pointed stake. The Shetlander then mounted his tiny courser, his suspended heels scarcely spurning the ground. But among the goodly company journeying to the kirk, females and boys graced the back of the shelty with much more effect than long-legged adults of the male sex, whose toes were often obliged to be suddenly raised for the purpose of escaping the contact of an accidental boulder that was strewed in the way. A bevy of fair ladies next made their appearance, seated in like manner on the dwarfish steeds of the country, who swept over the plain with admirable fleetness, and witch’d the world with noble horsemanship. The parishioners at length arrived near the kirk, when each rider in succession, whether of high or low degree, looked out for as green a site of ground as could be selected, and, after dismounting, carefully unravelled the tether which had been tied to the neck of the animal. The stake at the end of the cord was then fixed into the ground, and the steed appeared to be as satisfactorily provided for during the divine service as in any less aboriginal district of Britain, where it would be necessary to ride up to an inn, and to commit the care of the horse to some saucy lordling of the stables.”[40]
Peat-carrying appears to have been one of the main duties of the pony in the early part of last century.
“It appears that the use of the shelty, which is seldom more than from nine to eleven hands high, is principally confined to the carrying home of peat; yet, in the transportation of other kinds of light burdens, his back is still surmounted with a wooden saddle. When hay or any light bulky substance is to be carried, maiseys are used, which are made of ropes prepared from floss or rushes, these being reticulated in meshes of some inches in width. A net of this kind is passed round the horse, so as to secure the hay or other light substance that rests upon the boards of the klibbar. This ancient saddle is also found of use when the shelty is required by the female rider to bear her to the parish kirk; she then throws over his back a native coarse manufacture of the country, woven into the shape of a saddle-cloth, and when upon this covering the klibbar is fixed, its projecting pieces of wood which the female holds by, form it into a kind of sidesaddle.”[41]
Till recent times, long after the ridden shelties had given place to the road-using gig, ponies were almost universally employed as carriers of peat.
Cowie writes in 1874: “The peats are now dry, and are either built into a stack on the hill, thence to be gradually removed in cassies during the year, or are immediately conveyed home on the backs of ponies, or in carts. The apparatus by which the pony is now literally turned into a beast of burden consists of a pair of straw panniers or maysies attached to a wooden clibber.
“This process of transport is termed leading the peats. Long strings of ponies engaged in this way may be seen in the month of July, under the command of peat boys.”[42]