Today the Highland still is used for its' traditional job on the hill, plus all kinds of riding and driving. Highlands make an ideal all-round family pony, able to tackle most things but not specialist in any. Where they do excel is in their ability to carry the heaviest load or person over the roughest and steepest ground. They have an inbred sure-footedness on hill slopes, which can well exceed the nerve of their rider. And doing all this while living outside no matter what the weather.
Highlands generally dislike being stabled.
Many still work on the sporting estates, packing loads or dragging timber, and are probably the commonest pony used for trekking in Scotland today. There are an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 Highland ponies worldwide, mainly in Scotland, but numerous also in England, with a few elsewhere in the British Isles. Germany around 300, Australia 200, and smaller groups in Belgium, The Netherlands, Canada and elsewhere. A few have been imported into the USA, but so far not kept as a separate breed. A Highland stallion called Glenfiddich was imported to the King Ranch, Texas, in the 1950s to give a heavier back end to the quarter horses, but his records cannot now be traced, or any of his stock.