The Queen's favourite

Highland ponies

The Highland pony is an ancient breed, although there have at times been other breeds introduced into their breeding - including Arab, Clydesdale and Percheron to make them larger and stronger.  They have had many roles throughout history, including logging, carrying stags for the shooting parties and going to war.  

Yellow dun Highland pony

They have also been favoured by the Royal families down through the years: 

Queen Victoria talks about riding Highland ponies.  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" 

Queen Elizabeth II is patron of the Highland pony society and In 2007 she opened a full-time Highland pony stud at Balmoral.  One of her ponies won its class at the Royal Highland show in 2010.  She is also often seen riding Highland ponies around the estate.

 Mouse dun Highland pony

However even after all their popularity and hard work they are still on the watch list of British native pony breeds - they are listed as 'at risk'

List of breeds on the equine watch list

 Dark grey Highland pony

Hopefully their popularity may come back and people will realise how adaptable and fun to ride they are, even for adults, and they will be able to come off the rare breeds watch list.

White Highland pony

 Scottish Highland pony

*Please click on the photos to see them larger

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What is the difference between dun and buckskin ?

Back in April of this year, we went to stay for a long weekend up near Aviemore in the Highlands.  While we were there I wanted to see if I could find any Highland ponies living feral to photograph for my British native pony project.

We found some information from various people saying they had spotted ponies on the Loch Ericht Estate, near Dalwhinnie.  The ponies are wintered out on the estates vast land, but are quite often seen near Loch Pattack.  As with all of these large estates, people are welcome to walk, cycle and horse ride on their land because of the Scottish right to roam laws, which is great.

The land where the Highland ponies might be, and Loch Pattack are at least 7 miles from any public roads, so we decided to take our mountain bikes and ride up to the area along a track.  Even though it was the middle of April, it was freezing, and there was still snow on the higher ground - we were having extremely cold weather for that time of year !

We wrapped up with lots of layers and I put all my camera equipment in my rucksack and off we set.  It was a lovely ride, the scenery was beautiful and while we were cycling I was warm enough, but as soon as we stopped I started getting cold.  Unfortunately, I only managed to shoot for about an hour before I was frozen and I had to give up, but I got a few really nice photos.

The Highland ponies when we first spotted them

As you can see there were four of them, and some really pretty colours - a dark mouse dun, a yellow dun, a very dark dapple grey and a white one.

Two of them were very inquisitive and decided to come over and see what we were up to.

Dark dapple grey Highland pony

 

Look at the highlights on this one - women pay lots of money to have hair like that !

Yellow dun Highland pony

This brings me to a very interesting question - What is the difference between a dun and a buckskin ? (my Icelandic is called buckskin on her passport, but she looks the same as this Highland pony)  Highlands are never classed as buckskin, only dun - so are they the same thing?  Actually, no, even though they can often look very similar.  It's all down to genetics.

Both dun & buckskin can be a golden/yellow/creamy coloured body with a black mane, tail and legs.  The body colour can range from a light, creamy colour to a deep, rich yellow or gold.  But they are different because each of them come from a different dilution gene on a bay base.

Buckskin comes from a cream dilution gene on a bay horse.

Dun comes from a dun dilution gene on a bay horse.

Dun horses also always have at least one primitive characteristic – a dorsal stripe, striping on their shoulders, legs and/or forehead.

 

For a more detailed explanation, with pictures to help, see this article:

 

Dun or buckskin ? That is the question ! 

 

You can just see his dorsal stripe in this photo.

Yellow dun pony bum

Please click on any of the photos to see them larger.