Newfoundland Pony

The Newfoundland Pony is a good illustration of how a breed actually forms. British colonists brought Exmoor, Dartmoor, New Forest, Highland and Connemara ponies to Newfoundland in the 1600s and 1700s. The animals were turned loose to roam, they interbred, and the North Atlantic sorted out which traits mattered.

Farmers and fishermen used them for everything: plowing, hauling nets, kelp and wood, and moving goods and people around the island.

Then in the 1970s and 1980s machines took the work and a ban on free roaming finished the job. Ponies were dispersed, ignored, and sent to slaughter. The breeding population today is somewhere around 200 to 250 animals, scattered widely.

In 1997 the province passed the Heritage Animals Act of Newfoundland and Labrador, which made it illegal to move a Newfoundland Pony off the island without an export permit. The point was to ensure the ones leaving went to breeders rather than to meat packers. The Act also named the Newfoundland Pony Society as the breed's registry.

If you are buying one off the island, that permit is part of the transaction.