On the basis of this and other archaeological finds, researchers concluded that the pony on Shetland was long domesticated. How it came to be on the islands is still a mystery. Everybody loves a good story, and some surmise that ponies arrived with the first settlers on the islands. Or it could be that shipwrecks stranded ponies from the Spanish Armada flagship, the Gran Grifton that foundered off the coast of Fair Isle. Perhaps crusaders returning from Jerusalem and Constantinople led Arabian stock back to the islands, or Viking marauders from Iceland left their signature in the white markings that characterize Shetland ponies.
Nobody knows for certain.
How such a diverse stock background could produce such a resilient, constant breed depends on the relative isolation of the islands. Romance aside, the ponies had to cope with an environment that howled hostility in every breeze. They had to live on bad grass, hard, wet ground, and in the continual path of the driving wind. The first stud book stated that Shetland ponies 'are foaled in the fields, live in the fields and die in the fields' and so they are still seen today on their native islands. The hills are stony and very uneven and often steep, so sure footedness and a flowing long-striding gait covering miles daily on the poor grazing has become an inbred trait.