In 1576 we find the use of horses by the laird matter of dispute in Shetland. “The Parochinaris of Wais ... deponis that quhen the Laird come throw their parochin, giff the worst boy that was in his companie got not ane horse to ride upon, the Laird wold gar thame that refusit pay 40 babeis thairfair of Zetland payment.”[16] In 1614 it is recorded by Mackaile that “the horses are little in Orkney”;[17] while at the same period we have an Act to restrain the grazing of “wyld horsis”;[18] and shortly afterwards, in 1628, an Act “anent ryding and cutting of other men’s horsis taillis.”[19] Within a few years after this the Shetland pony is clearly identified; for Captain John Smith says in 1633: “Their Horses, which they called Shelties, some of which I have seen, are little bigger than Asses, but very durable.”[20] From this date onwards we have a continuous record of the pony, growing in definiteness as time goes on. “The horses,” says the Rev. Hugh Leigh in 1650, “are of a little size and excellent mettell: for one of them will easily carry a man or woman 20 miles a day; and they will live till they be 20 or 30 years of age though they be never stabled summer or winter.”[21] Travellers comment on its small size, its strength, and its excellence. Thomas Kirke, in his diary, reports a visit to “Burra’s” house (Stewart of Burray in Orkney). “We dined before we went away, having been very well treated, and at our departure he bestowed a little Shetland horse upon us, so low that I could easily stand on the ground with the horse under me.”[22] The Orkney horses in 1693 are, according to Wallace, “little yet strong and well mettald, most of which they get from Zetland, and are called Shelties.”[23] In 1701 we have a full and clear description by Brand which places beyond doubt the fact that the pony whose history we have traced from the vague suggestions of earlier times is the Shetland pony as we have it now.