“They are of a less size than the Orkney Horses, for some will be but 9, others 10 nives or hand-breadths high, and they will be thought big Horses there if 11, and although so small yet they are full of vigour and life, and some not so high as others often prove to be the strongest.... Summer or winter they never come into an house but run upon the mountains, in some places in flocks; and if any time in Winter the storm be so great that they are straitened for food they will come down from the Hills when the ebb is in the sea and eat the sea-ware ... which Winter storms and scarcity of fodder puts them out of ease and bringeth them so very low that they recover not their strength till St. John’s Mass-day, the 24th of June, when they are at their best. They will live to a considerable age, as twenty-six, twenty-eight or thirty years, and they will be good riding horses in twenty-four, especially they’le be the more vigorous and live the longer if they be four years old before they be put to work. Those of a black colour are judged to be the most durable and the pyeds often prove not so good; they have been more numerous than they now are.” Bengie, in his _Tour in Shetland_ (1870), after remarking on their sure-footedness and hardiness of constitutions, suggests that the sagacity, spirit and activity for which they are remarkable may be due to the freedom of the life they live on the hills. “They are sprightly and active as terriers, sure-footed as mules and patient as donkeys.” They stand, he adds, at the head of the horse tribe as the most intelligent and faithful of them all; and he compares the intelligence of the Sheltie with that of the Iceland pony much to the advantage of the former. “Shorter in the leg than any other kind,” says Mr. Robert Brydon, of Seaham Harbour, “they are at the same time wider in the body and shorter in the back, with larger bones, thighs and arms; and therefore are comparatively stronger and able to do with ease as much work as average ponies of other breeds a hand higher.” The Shetland Stud Book Society will register no pony whose height exceeds 10 hands 2 inches, and the average height may be taken as 10 hands: many do not exceed 9 hands, and a lady who wrote an account of a visit to Shetland in 1840 speaks of one reared by Mr. William Hay, of Hayfield, which was only 26 inches, or 6 hands 2 inches high! It is however, unusual to find a pony measuring less than 8 hands at the shoulder, and we may perhaps doubt whether the 26-inch specimen was full-grown.