Mine horses - the difficult years of ponies such as Shetland
The Shetland horse is a popular pony breed for modern children, with nine species distributed in the UNITED Kingdom, living in the Shetland and Orkney Islands of Shetland and Orkney for 2000 years, far from the northern coastline of Scotland. The British Industrial Revolution in the 19th century was characterized by coal burning, which led to the development of factory machinery and accelerated the transportation of cheap materials. Open pit mining in coal mines has existed in various ways for centuries but the mining of deep coal has only begun. It is common for men, women and children throughout the UK to work in poor underground conditions. Since the 1847 Constitution forbade daughters and children from working underground, thousands of Shedran horses entered the mines as a powerful complement to productivity. During his 20 years of life, he held fast to the underground mine, transporting coal trucks from the underground to the ground and next to the crane, and some ponies pulled the winch at the wellhead. In 1944 the last british mines, pit Ponies, were decommissioned at the Ellington Coal Mine in North North Northumberland.
Queensland's first coal mine was mined in 1843 by John Williams on the banks of the River in Redbank. Other early mines were in Moggill with Woodend Pocket. Coal mines use horses called mine horses as transport labor for mining equipment, transporting coal and personnel around coal mines. In 1913 there were 70,000 ponies working in the mines. These ponies work in shifts like people. The Rhonda Coal Mine near Ipswich was the last in the region to use ponies to transport coal. They work in shifts like men, and they are good horses, well behaved and are particularly well cared for. Nearby there are comfortable stables with yards where you can rest for a few days. Men love these ponies very much – they are colleagues. It is very important to maintain high quality stables with good working conditions. The high ceilings of the stables allow the ponies to lift their heads and relax their muscles. The stables are well drained with pipes and whitewashed for hygienic purposes. The road was kept in top condition and the roof was carefully brushed with protrusions to prevent ponies from getting hurt.
The Coal Mine Management Act of 1887 contained the first national legislation to protect horses working underground. There are few chapters mentioning horses, but inspectors are allowed to investigate the treatment of the horses and consider whether the roof of the transport road is high enough to prevent injuries to the horses' backs. Unfortunately , injured ponies are common , often having to be lowered because of broken legs and ponies ' feet stuck or damaged at the track point. The above legislation was not enough, and protest groups with Scottish society to promote goodness of the mine ponies exerted a great deal of pressure, leading to the Royal Commission Report in 1911. The 1911 Medal from the Scottish Society promoted kindness to ponies, and the report contributed to major protective legislation. The statutes of the colts stipulate the following mandatory rules; the conditions for daily records of stables must be maintained for every 15 horses requiring a competent groom.
Ponies must be at least 4 years old to start working underground, and many mistakenly believe that ponies in underground passages will eventually go blind, but in fact, the use of blind horses is explicitly prohibited by law. Unfortunately, some ponies do go blind, but that's due to old age, or before the introduction of effective leather headdresses with eyes, they injured their eyes at work. Later, in 1949 and 1956, further legislation stipulated working conditions and welfare rules for ponies. According to the law, ponies can only work a maximum of 48 hours per week, except in exceptional circumstances. This means that ponies employed for delivery or repair jobs typically work no more than three to four hours in shifts. Ponies are not allowed
More than two shifts in a 24-hour period, or more than three shifts in a 48-hour period. Shift times are limited to 7.5 hours. Each pony has its own driver and can work with the same pony throughout its working life. Every pony that leaves the stable must be recorded in the Mine and Quarry Act Record Book. Before the book was delivered to the surface, the chief groom had to sign it every day, and it was initialed by the deputy manager and manager of the coal mine. Although life in the coal mines has never been easy for both men and ponies, few working horses receive better care and respect than ponies. Miners also respect the foal's sixth sense of danger. Many miners were rescued from death or injury because their ponies suddenly stopped, refused to move on, and then suddenly the roof collapsed in front of them. The task to be completed determines the breed size of the pony used. Ponies of up to 1.7 meters or 16 hands were used close to the shafts, where many barrels had to be moved non-stop, and the roof of the transport passage was also higher. Ponies with a height of 1.4 meters or 13 hands were placed on the main transport passage with a higher roof. The pony is about 1.2 meters tall or 11 hands, and is mostly used near the coal body. Ponies are used to be castrated first, and mares are unusual underground. Shetland Shetland, Welsh ponies are common, as are the Delmar Dale horse, but different breeds of ponies vary widely throughout the mine. During the period of high production and pony shortage, high prices bought ponies were imported from the distant United States, Iceland, and Russia. The choice of each mine pony is carefully considered before being accepted to work in the mine. The ponies must be between the ages of 4 and 5 and certainly not more than 14 years old. It must have steady feet, strong bodies, and heavy limbs to cope with heavy and heavy work. He also had to keep his head down to cope with low roofs and steep roads. The temperament of the pony is very important, a good pony must be calm- and kind, and the more lively horse is dangerous to the rider, may cause harm to others, and may cause fatal accidents underground. Nervous, timid, or shy horses take too much time and expense to get in. After several weeks of training before the ponies start working underground. This time also gives the trainer time to observe the ponies and to remove the unsuitable horses before entering the ground. As soon as they got down the well, the ponies would pull out empty barrels, or bring in props or stuff like pits, and then bring back buckets filled with coal. Ponies are expensive, and in order to maintain the benefits of the pit station, they need to continue to work uninterrupted to stay strong and healthy. Their stable conditions are very important and do a lot of work to keep the ponies as comfortable as possible, which in turn extends their useful working life.
Grooms work to look after ponies, grooming, trimming, harnessing or limbing ponies for them, and making sure they have a bag of food in the middle of the shift, usually while helping them work, pulling buckets, etc. Before the mid-1930s, ponies dragged barrels of coal from the ground to the bottom of the mine, or onto a main road where barrels of coal were clipped to a moving steel cable, then dragged by engine to the bottom of the mine and up from the mine. Empty barrels or kegs will be transported back to the working surface and may contain, for example, timber pillars for roof supports. When the ponies return to the stables, they make sure they are well fed and drinking, and there is clean bedding in the stables after the shift. The horse is also checked for injuries and treats small cases with drugs, agents, liniments, etc. Therefore, they may also be refused to allow them to work the next day, or until they are deemed suitable. Management didn't like the decisions, but he would, like all other grooms, record them in the Pony Book so that they could be seen by the mine inspector in charge of the horses. If he assures that the horse or pony is not suitable for the job, no manager can overturn his decision. Nor is it possible for a horse to work more than 7 shifts in a row without rest. These rules did not exist in the 19th century, and these poor ponies worked until they gave up. After the enactment of the Coal Mines Act of 1911, the Pit Pony Charter was promulgated.
Pony Roland, known for his work, will also be responsible for the "Humane Killer", an unfortunate device used to destroy or kill ponies in the event of an accident or pain. Leather hood; there is a hole in the hood that, through a hand-held gun device, can fire explosives into it, freeing the ponies from their pain. Depending on the number of ponies he commands, he will have or may have several helpers. He would make sure the stables were cleaned and washed daily, usually white and reasonably adequate. He will also make sure that ventilation through the stables is sufficient with confused clothing, not too cold ponies can be very sweaty in the turn on the return. He would wipe them clean with a blanket. He would also check to make sure the foremen were not abusing the animals. Only a few are the consequences they suffer if they are found abusing ponies. The pony's normal feed is a mixture of beans, peas, hay, and other grains.
The average pony is taken out on vacation for a week, and when they are released they will rejoice and frolic some time before settling down, because they eat green grass and sometimes complain and wean back to chaop. It is often difficult to catch ponies when returned to the mine because they know their fate. When they are caught, they have a bag on their heads, because they are taken to a cage and tied with a rope to prevent them from jumping around.
In some mines rats or rats have been fed into the well with the incoming food, and they reproduce because the food is abundant. There is a cat in the stables, and the rat is usually caught by the cat.
Ponies have been able to raise their heads in the stables, and the roof height is 7 feet 5 feet in the use of the horse with that horse should be able to relax the muscles, as it has to work all day carrying its head low. Fire protection means that the less wood used in the stables, the better. Records in 1913 showed that 70,000 horses were working underground in Britain. This is the peak period for underground horse employment. Since then, as mechanical coal mining transportation systems have become more efficient, the use of mining ponies has decreased. Horse transport could not keep up with the growth in the production of new coal cutters, and they began to be replaced by locomotives and conveyor belts. By the end of the 1930s, the number of underground ponies had dropped to around 32,000. When the coal industry was nationalized in 1947, there were only 21,000 mining ponies, and the number continued to decline. Therefore, from 1952 to 1984, there were about 15,500 working ponies in the main coal mines in the United Kingdom, and by 1962 there were 6,400 horses. By 1973 there were 490 ponies, and by 1984 there were still 55 ponies still at work. The last horse was retired in 1999. But it is the endless humility that gives pit ponies the name of Pit Ponies.
Jiang Dong