“Winter is the season of general mirth and festivity in Zetland, although the wish to visit each other is greatly interrupted by the difficulties which are attendant on travelling. As there are no regular roads, a journey over land is a serious undertaking, for the ground is wet and unequal and the ponies are low.”[39] One seems to see the cavalcade picking its way through the moss, riders holding up their feet to avoid the soft ground through which their mounts find a path, and ladies tremulous over the fate of the precious burdens of the pack-ponies. 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.