To be able to recognise individual native breeds you need to know their geography and history since these have determined the breed characteristics. which should not become diluted in the interest of fashion.

THE ERISKAY PONY
Originally they were used to work on the crofts in the Hebrides. They carried the hay on sleds, the peat and seaweed in creels and the children on their backs to school. They were mainly worked by the women and lived around the croft house, where they sheltered from the wind and rain.
The severity of the weather has given them their broad deep head, their low set tail with its fan of snow hairs and their deer like coat. The rocky coastline and dense reed beds have determined the structure of their limbs, enabling them to lift their feet clear of any obstacles.

Most pure Eriskay ponies are grey, born black or brown and during their lifetime fading to white, they are approximately twelve hands (with the softer Mainland living they can reach thirteen two).
Their nature is gentle and friendly with a tendency to become attached to one person much like an Arab. They are very trusting, quick to learn and the easiest ponies to train providing you do not confuse or frighten them. But like all natives they are slow to mature and you will be repaid with a long and useful life from them if they are not started before they are four or five.

THE SHETLAND PONY

These are the smallest of the native breeds. They too worked on the crofts. Their prodigious strength for their size enabled them to do the work of larger ponies who would have found the climate too inhospitable.
Like other natives their heads are broad and deep with neat ears and a straight jaw line. They have thick winter coats with longer guard hairs to fend off the cold winds and snow. They were extensively bred in the nineteenth century for work in the coal mines, principally those in Durham owned by Lord Lonsdale who selected ponies with a top line that was level, and broad foreheads to push open the ‘swing doors’ in the galleries.
Our ponies vary in size from thirty to thirty-six inches. Palomino is a recessive colour so it is quite hard to breed. If you just use palominos you tend to lose the gold and end up with cream or occasionally cremelo, if you use a palomino crossed with a chestnut carrying a palomino gene you may end up with chestnut but you get the best golden palomino. A cremelo, a pony almost white with blue eyes, can only be the result of crossing two palominos, cremelos always throw palomino offspring.
The Shetland is an agile pony with plenty of energy who should never be allowed to become overweight. They are totally unfazed by large horses – or big people, they are reliable, gregarious and not easily frightened.