There is possibly no Mountain and Moorland breed that has enjoyed more of an upsurge of popularity over the last few years than the Highland. Originally bred on the Western Isles and parts of the Scottish mainland, there are now studs not only in Scotland but in many parts of England, Wales, Continental Europe, USA and Australia. More and more people are appreciating the wonderful temperament and the versatility of this, the largest and strongest of the native breeds.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the ponies' appearance is their wide range of colours, some of which are unusual and particularly attractive. In addition to the familiar greys, browns and blacks, there are a few bays and liver chestnuts, made especially eye-catching by silver manes and tails. The original colour is believed to be yellow dun, but there is now a great variation of other shades, including mouse, golden, grey, cream and fox. Most ponies of all colours carry a distinctive dorsal eel stripe, and many have zebra markings (stripes) on the inside of the forelegs. Apart from a small star, white markings are disliked and actively discouraged by the breed society.

The flowing manes and tails are another characteristic of the breed, as is the silky, not over-heavy feathering, ending in a prominent tuft at the fetlock.Highland ponies vary in height from 13 hands to 14.2 hands and, although some of the smaller animals naturally tend to be lighter in type, they all should have substance, show eight to nine inches of good bone and be capable of carrying more weight than most ponies of similar size. In general appearance they are compact, with good fronts, shoulders and withers, strong legs and well-developed quarters. They must be of true pony type and not little horses.

Highland ponies have always been regarded as utility animals. For generations they served as pack and pannier carriers and were also ideally suited to all kinds of farm work, from ploughing the fields and carrying the crofters to market, to bringing home the peat across treacherous and boggy ground. Although mechanization has largely ousted the ponies from these traditional tasks, some are still used for light carting, row-crop work, and by cattlemen and shepherds on the hills. They are also used quite widely for forestry, dragging thinnings out of steep or soft ground, and for carrying bundles of young trees for planting to sites where motor vehicles cannot go.

The history of the Scottish Highlands was never peaceful, and it is likely that the ponies were used by the warring clans, so it seems appropriate that numbers of them served in the Army, even as recently as the Second World War, when they were with the Lovat Scouts. At one time troops mounted on Highland ponies formed part of the Scottish Horse raised by the Dukes of Atholl and were present in Edinburgh on the occasion of the King's visit in 1903. For many years Highland ponies have been associated with the sports of stalking and shooting. The ponies' great strength and their natural sure-footedness assures their continued demand for carrying sportsmen up the Scottish hills and carrying stags weighing up to sixteen stones (with a special saddle, itself a considerable weight) down those same rough, precipitous hills.

The value of these ponies as a means of seeing the beautiful Scottish mountains has been appreciated at least since the days of Queen Victoria. In "Life in the Highlands" the Queen describes a September day in 1842 when she and Prince Albert were the guests of the Duke of Atholl at Blair Castle: "We set off on ponies to go up one of the hills, Albert riding the dun pony and I the grey, attended only by Sandy McAra in the Highland dress. We went out the back way across the ford, Sandy leading my pony and Albert following closely, the water reaching above Sandy's knees". This charming picture suggests that the Queen enjoyed what has now become one of the most popular forms of sporting holidays - pony trekking - and it is surely no coincidence that the first trekking centre was founded in Scotland, using Highland ponies. This was at Newtonmore in Inverness-shire, where the late Mr Ewen Ormiston started a trekking centre in 1952.

The fact that Highlands perform well in comparatively slow work such as trekking, forestry and deer-carrying suggests, quite rightly, that they have a calm, steady temperament. This makes them outstandingly suitable for the nervous or elderly, and they have also been used successfully as mounts for disabled riders - all of whom appreciate their confidence-giving attributes. However, it must not be thought that, because they are kind and reliable, they are also dull. For many a Highland has shown itself to be a keen, active ride in the hunting field and, correctly schooled, to be able to compete with great success in Pony Club and Riding Club activities - making up by sure-footedness and handiness what it may lack in outright speed. With the present revival in harness work both for showing and for pleasure, the ponies are once more proving their worth in this field also. Safe, reliable, friendly, a good, comfortable ride, constitutionally strong and hardy, attractive to look at, and with considerably more versatility than is generally appreciated, the Highland pony has so much to offer.

The fortunate owners of these delightful animals have, as a rule, only one thing to worry about - their ponies' ability to grow fat on 'nothing but fresh air'. This is something which applies to most Mountain and Moorland breeds because the natural foodstuffs of their habitats are generally of poor quality and sparse in quantity. But the Highlands probably react more quickly than most to lusher pastures and easily become over-weight. This unfortunately makes far too many of them appear heavy and ungainly - a travesty of the true Highland. Careful feeding and exercise will, however, restore the pony to a more healthy, well-proportioned condition.

Tracing the history of the Highland pony presents even more difficulties than the other native breeds. Although they are assumed to have common ancestors, the fact that they were liberally distributed over many of the Western Isles, as well as the Scottish mainland, ensured that they developed along several different lines. Until quite recently, the breed was divided into Western Isles ponies, standing between 13 and 14 hands, and the larger, heavier Highland pony, often erroneously called garrons - a word derived from the Gaelic for 'gelding' - bred on the mainland and standing from 14 to 14.2 hands. Nowadays no official distinction is made, although breeders still tend to talk about the two different types when discussing their ponies.

The old Celtic-type pony from which all native ponies are believed to descend has, in the case of the Highland, been subject to many other influences - Arab, percheron, Clydesdale, Norwegian, roadster, even (in one instance) American trotting horse. Environment and selective breeding also played their customary roles. Similarities between present-day Highlands and the Norwegian Fjord pony - the dun colour, the dorsal eel stripe and the zebra stripes on the legs - suggest an early Scandinavian influence. At one time or another Highland ponies lived on at least eleven of the Western Isles - Islay, Jura, Lewis, Harris, Barra, Rum, Skye, Eriskay, Mull, the Uists and Arran. Those on Eriskay and Barra were of a lighter build and smaller size (12.2 to 31.2 hands) than the other island and mainland animals, and in 1959 Kirsty Mackenzie described them as being 'like little thoroughbreds, with clean legs, good bone, hard blue feet, small, fine legs and a very sprightly appearance'. Some infusion of Arab blood was assumed, and it is known that Macneil of Barra used Arab stallions on native breeds (probably in the sixteenth century) to produce 'milk-white steeds with flowing mane and tail, surpassing in fleetness the stags of the forest'.

Gradually, however, the demand for larger ponies resulted in the use of bigger stallions from the mainland, and the smaller Barra and Eriskay ponies disappeared as a separate type. In the early eighteenth century the Chief of Clanranald is said to have introduced to South Uist some Spanish horses, which improved the native stock, and in 1872 a Clydesdale stallion known as 'Bain's horse' arrived and made a reputation as a sire.

The future of the breed is now in the hands of the Highland Pony Society, formed in 1923, which does much to encourage the breeding and use of good-quality ponies. It also produces the stud book.