Overall, the body is stocky and muscular, with a deep, narrow chest, short back, sloping croup and low-set tail.

Dartmoor ponies formed the initial shipment, imported by John Guy, the first proprietary governor of Newfoundland.

Lord Falkland imported additional animals soon after, and these were followed by a spate of pony shipments from England, Ireland and Scotland.

[1] In the past the Newfoundland pony was used for ploughing, assisting with gardens, hauling kelp from the beaches, gathering hay, and carrying wood, and they were also used for transportation.

The group was formed to gather the remaining free-roaming herds, register the horses and breed them in captivity, and was successful in locating around 300 animals.

This group sought to have the Newfoundland pony recognized under the Canadian Animal Pedigree Act, which may have given it additional protection and recognition.

Members of the society also fear that protection of the breed may be lessened under federal law when compared with current provincial regulations.

However, the provincial government will make the final decision on whether to move forward with the process for federal recognition.

[6] In a study of mitochondrial DNA published in 2012, the Newfoundland pony and Canadian horse were found to be the most genetically diverse of the Canadian breeds studied, which also included the Sable Island horse and the Lac La Croix pony.

When an estimation was made using microsatellite loci, the Newfoundland was found to have high autosomal diversity and a high number of haplotypes, some of which overlapped with the mountain and moorland pony breeds (historically documented as the ancestors of the Newfoundland), Nordic breeds and a feral population at Saint-Pierre et Miquelon.