Pit pony

There was a public outcry, led by politician and reformer Anthony Ashley Cooper, later Lord Shaftesbury",[4] who then introduced the Mines and Collieries Act 1842 to Parliament which barred women, girls and boys under 10 (later amended to 13) from working underground, leading to the widespread use of horses and ponies in mining in England, though child labour lingered on to varying extents until finally eliminated by a variety of factors including further laws, improved inspection regimes, and changing economics.

Due to pressure from the National Equine Defense League (formerly the Pit Ponies' Protection Society) founded in 1908 by animal and human rights advocate Francis Albert Cox (24 June 1862 – 25 May 1920)[8] – and the Scottish Society to Promote Kindness to Pit Ponies; in 1911, a royal commission report was published, detailing conditions, which resulted in protective legislation.

In 1904, the president of the Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Pit Ponies, Countess Maud Fitzwilliam, daughter of Lawrence Dundas, 1st Marquess of Zetland, awarded a young Elsecar Collieries mine worker, John William Bell of Wentworth, the Fitzwilliam Medal for Kindness for an act of bravery that saved the life of his equine workmate.

[9] Bell died on 27 March 1910, when he was hit by falling rock at the Oakenshaw mine while trying to aid another miner whose hand putter's tub had become loose.

But I think I convinced him that the time has now arrived when something should be done by the law of the land to improve the lot and working conditions of the patient, equine slaves who assist so materially in carrying on the great mining industry of this country.

[14] Larger horses, such as varieties of Cleveland Bay, could be used on higher underground roadways, but on many duties small ponies no more than 12 hands (48 inches, 122 cm) high were needed.

[citation needed] In shaft mines, ponies were normally stabled underground[16] and fed on a diet with a high proportion of chopped hay and maize, coming to the surface only during the colliery's annual holiday.

Pit ponies are commemorated by a 200 metres (660 ft) artwork, Sultan, created between 1996 and 1999 by Mike Petts, using 60,000 tons of coal shale waste, covered with living grass, in a country park on the site of the former Penallta Colliery, north of Caerphilly, Wales.