There’s something so appealing about the Highland Pony, with its flowing mane and tail, intelligent eyes, even temperament and beautiful range of colours and markings.
There’s a chance to see them en masse, around 100 of them, at the Balmoral estate this weekend as part of the centenary celebrations of the Highland Pony Society (HPS).
The privileged access is via Balmoral’s stud manager Sylvia Ormiston, who is also president of HPS.
She and her husband Dochy came to Balmoral 15 years ago to continue the Royal estate’s breeding stock, keeping the line true to type, and it’s all about ‘brain, bone and temperament’ for Sylvia.
“Solid feet, strong loins and back, and temperament above all else,” she says.
Her hard work has paid off with the late Queen’s Highland ponies winning many accolades at shows.
The pony is indigenous to Scotland, with obscure and complicated origins which pre-date the Ice Age.
It was crossed with Norfolk Roadsters and Arabians some four hundred years ago, helping it develop into an all-round working pony, on farms and forests, in the military, for deerstalking, driving and showing.
Highland Pony: The versatile breed
No wonder it’s known as the versatile breed.
Always below 14.2 hands, Highlands are strong, hardy and thrive on rough grazing.
They were key to the birth of pony-trekking, developed in Kingussie by the Ormiston family in 1952 using Highland ponies because of their calm temperament.
What’s not to love about this endearing, ancient equine?
Queen Victoria loved hers so much she banned anyone from riding her Highlands at Balmoral if she felt they weren’t decent enough riders.
This led to a massive row and virtual diplomatic incident in 1869 when three of the Queen’s guests were banned from riding her Highland ponies, despite their own opinion that they were more than adequate riders.
Victoria’s German secretary Hermann Sahl was furious and wrote an angry letter to the Queen, with pages full of invective about the insolence of her equerry Sir Henry Ponsonby in stopping him from riding her pony, Maud.
Royal ruckus over the Highland Pony
Sahl continued his bitter ding-dong feud for months before deciding to ‘bury the squabble’ according to Ponsonby in his memoir.
“The Queen, who undoubtedly was kept fully informed of all that had passed must have been very amused, but she had saved her dear hill ponies from any possible harm, and that, to her, was far more important than the wounded feelings of her guests.”
Today’s Highland pony dates back to the 1880s and is now a treasured rare breed, numbering some 5,500 in the world.
Breeding records have been maintained since 1896, and in 1923, the Highland Pony Society was founded with a mission to maintain the breed’s purity and promote its interests.
The first ever meeting took place on May 25, 1923 at the Caledonian Railway Hotel in Edinburgh, attended by some of the most influential landowners in Scotland, including the Duke of Atholl.
The society gets off the ground
The first president was JH Munro-McKenzie of Calgary, Mull, with founding members Donald McKelvie from Arran, John Moncrieff-Wright of Kinmonth and James Cairns of Perthshire.
Membership of the society has now grown to 1600, with around 300 foals registered each year, and demand outstripping supply.
The late Queen Elizabeth was the society’s patron, and donor of funds to help the society purchase a bespoke office and conference facility, opened by the Princess Royal in 2019.
The late Queen was often to be seen riding one of her Highlands on the estate.
The placid nature of the ponies meant the Queen would sport a headscarf instead of a helmet, avoiding messing up her coiffure.
Sylvia said that although things are looking up for the Highland Pony at the moment, the breed has had its ups and downs over the past 100 years.
“Once the tractor came in, their popularity waned as crofters and sporting estates went through a phase of preferring machines to bring culled deer down off the hill.
“But in the past 50 years, there’s been an explosion of horse ownership, a trend for showing ponies and a renaissance in the use of ponies in sporting estates, being considered more environmentally friendly.
“Pony-trekking also increased demand.”
For the centenary year, a new official book about the pony will be published in June, the first in 50 years, and stallion parades and displays will be held at shows around the country.
A week of celebratory events will take place at Strathallan Castle, and a group of Highland ponies and their riders will parade along Edinburgh’s Royal Mile in September as part of the Riding the Marches event.
Further reading:
Balmoral: The Queen’s summer home that holds years of royal memories
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