History
The Eriskay Pony developed in the Hebrides, a group of western isles in Scotland. The origins of the breed are ancient, with roots in Celtic and Norse breeding. It is physically similar to drawings of ponies on ancient Pictish stones found in north and west Scotland. It is related to other northern breeds, including the Icelandic horse and the Faroe pony. The Eriskay takes its name from the island of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides. Originally, the breed had a fairly large population, and until the mid-19th century the Eriskay and similar ponies were found throughout the western islands of Scotland. They were used as crofters' ponies, as pack animals, for light draught and as mounts for children.
During the 19th century numbers were much reduced through increased crossbreeding. The crossbreeding was used to produce larger ponies for draught work, and Eriskays and other island ponies were crossed with horse breeds from mainland Europe, including Arabs and Clydesdales. Other horses, including the Norwegian Fjord, were crossed with island ponies, including the Eriskay, to produce the Highland pony. A few specimens of the Eriskay were preserved on the remotest islands of Scotland, mainly due to the difficulties of accessing the islands. This stock of ponies remained pure, but through the advent of mechanisation, declined in population to around 20 animals in the early 1970s. In 1941 the SS Politician foundered off the Eriskay coast, and the islanders, using the Eriskay ponies, carried away the cargo of 250,000 bottles of whisky.
Today the Eriskay is rare. Its population is considered to be at critical status by the UK-based Rare Breeds Survival Trust, meaning that there are 300 or fewer breeding females registered in the world today. In 2006, there were believed to have been around 300 mares and 4 purebred stallions, and by 2009 this number had risen to around 420 ponies worldwide. It is possible that the Eriskay is the last surviving Hebrides pony breed. There are two breed registries that represent the breed. The first (the Eriskay Pony (Purebred) Studbook Society or Comann Each nan Eilean, formed in 1971 has the goal of maintaining the purity of the Eriskay breed, and disallows all crossbreeding. The second (the Eriskay Pony Society, formed in 1986 aims to produce ponies with desirable traits, which the registry feels will help promote their survival – this registry has considered the possibility of cross-breeding. The Eriskay Pony Society achieved legal recognition as a breed society and passport issuing organisation for the UK in 1995; Comann Each nan Eilean did not receive legal recognition until 2002.
In addition to the domesticated ponies there is a small herd of Eriskay ponies living in a feral state on the Holy Isle. These ponies are descended from a group of five ponies brought to the Holy Isle to when it was owned by the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare in the 1970s to form a nature reserve. Today the island is owned by the Samye Buddhist Centre for World Peace and Health. They operate a policy of non-intervention, allowing the ponies to live without human interference.
Read more about this topic: Eriskay Pony
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out.”
—G.M. (George Macaulay)
“Considered in its entirety, psychoanalysis won’t do. It’s an end product, moreover, like a dinosaur or a zeppelin; no better theory can ever be erected on its ruins, which will remain for ever one of the saddest and strangest of all landmarks in the history of twentieth-century thought.”
—Peter B. Medawar (1915–1987)