Ponies At The Edge Of The World: On nature, belonging and finding home

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Catherine Munro’s wondrous book is in a particular genre I adore, when it is done well. And this is. The genre is factual, often about history, the natural world, the arts – but what is special is that the author, however well researched and informative they are, observe their own involvement and engagement with the subject being written about, I suddenly remembered the foals at the sale, the ones nobody had wanted, sold for less than the price of a takeaway coffee. What had become of them?” We are almost half way through the year and this has definitely been one of the stand out reads for me so far in 2022. ‘The Ponies at the Edge of the World’ is an ethnography on Shetland’s Shetland Ponies. The book explores themes of belonging, roots and community, tradition, our relationship to the land (and sea) as well as our relationship to animals and their relationship to us. Catherine included many interesting facts. I had no idea the King of Denmark pawned Orkney and Shetland to Scotland. I also learnt of the distaste for which many Shetlanders view symbols of Scottishness! My favourite chapter was on Foula, an island off Shetland with thirty residents. It combined all the best parts of the book - remote island communities, poetic scenery and beautiful animals. I thoroughly enjoyed my glimpse into this amazing world.

This is such a wonderful book and I will definitely be reading it again to see what I missed first time round.Catherine Munro and her husband move to Shetland for a year so that she can study the Shetland ponies for a thesis she is writing. This book beautifully interweaves the information she garners about the ponies and those who care for them with her experience of adapting to island life and her own personal journey toward a place of belonging. Against Munro’s journey to understand the ponies is set her own desire to have a family. When tragedy hits it is the natural world and the animals that inhabit it that provide the comfort and hope she needs to move forward.

This appears to me to be a particularly female approach (though there are of course also wonderful male writers who also engage in this way. Andrew Grieg and Robert MacFarlane spring immediately to mind. I so enjoyed this beautifully wise reflection on how the lives and existences of humans and animals are inextricably linked. Set on the wild, wind-blown hills of Shetland, this is a wonderful journey of exploration into the lives of Shetland ponies and the people that love them, care for them and breed them. It is such a celebration of man and nature existing together, her descriptions of the natural world so precise and vivid, it made me long to visit these remote and wild islands at the edge of the world. I had drifted, gotten lost, strayed from the paths and places I love . I felt Shetland calling me, and in this moment, I began my slow, imperfect journey towards finding home . When faced with personal loss, Catherine finds comfort and connection in the shared lives of the people, animals and wild landscapes of Shetland. The Ponies at the Edge of the World is a heartfelt love letter to the beauty and resilience of these magical ponies and their native land. This is a stunning book on community, hope and finding home. I spend some time each year on Shetland, particularly on Foula which features as a whole chapter of this book, and Out Skerries which is often accessed via Whalsay where most of the other chapters are based. I found the observations about Shetland as a whole and specific islands to be perceptive. Any reader of the book taking to the description of Foula is recommended to visit, it really is as unique as it comes across.

In 2015, Munro moved to Shetland to research a PhD about how we are shaped by our connections to animals and the landscape. The islanders’ lives have been intertwined for millennia with the smart, stoic ponies that thrive in this “land of extremes”, and over the course of a tough year, Munro learns plenty about how to live with nature and her neighbours. The book begins unconvincingly, but settles down into a thoughtful appeal for us to re-examine our ideas of community and our relationship with the wild. Catherine moves to Shetland as part of research for her Ph.D., studying the relationships between animals and humans. This is a beautiful account of her time among the islanders, both human and animal. The author, an anthropologist, transports you to Shetland with her descriptions of the landscape in beautiful language.