The first known recorded use of ponies underground in Great Britain was in the
Durham coalfield in 1750. Following the drowning deaths of 26 children when the
Huskar Colliery in
Silkstone flooded on 4 July 1838, "A report was published in
The Times, and the wider British public learned for the first time that women and children worked in the mines. There was a public outcry, led by politician and reformer
Anthony Ashley Cooper, later Lord Shaftesbury", 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. In the
United States,
mules outnumbered ponies in mines. The use of ponies was never common in the US, though ponies were used in Appalachian coal fields in the mid-20th century. The British
Coal Mines Regulation Act 1887 (
50 & 51 Vict. c. 58) presented the first national legislation to protect horses working underground. 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) – 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. Bell's story of staying behind while his human workmates were able to escape through a small opening, to ensure that the pony would have a chance of rescue, became a successful tool for the Countess in promoting pit pony rights. 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. In 1911,
Sir Harry Lauder became an outspoken advocate, "pleading the cause of the poor pit ponies" to
Sir Winston Churchill, when introduced to him at the
House of Commons, reporting to the
Tamworth Herald that he "could talk for hours about my wee four-footed friends of the mine. 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." , August 1946. The last working pit pony was brought out of the Drummond Coal Company colliery at
Westville in 1978. At the peak of this practice in 1913, there were 70,000 ponies underground in Britain. In later years, mechanical haulage was introduced on the main underground roads replacing pony hauls, and ponies tended to be confined to the shorter runs from coal face to main road (known in
North East England as "putting") which were more difficult to mechanise. In 1984 there were still 55 ponies in use with the
National Coal Board in Britain, chiefly at the modern pit in
Ellington, Northumberland. When Ellington closed for the first time in 1994, four pit ponies were brought out (no ponies were used there during the
RJB Mining era). Of the four, two went to the
National Coal Mining Museum for England at Caphouse and two went to Newcastle Cat and Dog Shelter. Probably the last colliery horse to work underground in a British
coal mine, "Robbie", was retired from Pant y Gasseg, near
Pontypool, in May 1999. The last pony mine in the US, located near
Centerville, Iowa, closed in 1971. ==Breed and conformation==