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

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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. Her research into the ponies, into their heritage and lineage, into the ways they are known, respected and loved by the Shetlanders that breed and care for them, illuminates the sheer strength of character and personality of both the humans and animals that inhabit the rugged landscape. I loved her descriptions of Shetland scenery and culture - I have never been to Shetland, so I can say how accurate they are, but they left me with a strong sense of the place. I also appreciated the way in which she was willing to learn from local people, her concern to adapt to the culture and her awareness of her own ignorance - it made a refreshing change from the know-it-all attitude of some memoirs written by those who move to more remote locations! 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.

The author, an anthropologist, transports you to Shetland with her descriptions of the landscape in beautiful language. Catherine Munro transforms her life when she moves to Shetland to study the hardy ponies who call this archipelago home. Over the course of her first year, she is welcomed into the rhythms and routines that characterise life at the edge of the world.

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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.

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.Munro is an anthropologist by training. She has an affinity and connection with the Shetland Isles, and a fascination with its native animals, particularly Shetland ponies. Her PhD was specifically about the relationship between the islanders who breed and maintain the integrity of the ponies, and the animals they are fostering. For her research, she spent more than a year living on one of the islands, and visiting others to spend time with the pony communities – both the people and the equines. This is an account of all that, and of intense changes, both of loss, and of personal growth, which she found. A meditation on connection between humans and animals, and the homes we make in wild places. I was completely immersed in this remote landscape' Katherine May, bestselling author of WINTERING

A meditative, exultant sojourn that illuminates the importance of working with nature, and of its importance in all we do and experience, and of living in the moment.' Polly Pullar, author of A DROP IN THE OCEAN

Books by Catherine

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. The author is not vegan and the book ties our past to our present more than our future --so the ethical questions fall short for our modern ruination. The passage about Yoda, the lamb's future, strikes this vegan reader as violent, harsh, and sad --although the author's decision between her available choices for him makes sense. And, at least, he will be allowed some years alive. 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?” 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.

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. Catherine Munro is living in Aberdeen, lurching from temporary job to temporary job, the stress of not knowing if she can pay the bills gradually eroding her spirit and soul. Eventually, her application to study for a doctorate is successful and she travels to the Shetland Island to study the eponymous ponies of the archipelago.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. 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, Catherine moves to Shetland as part of her research for her PhD, studying the relationships between animals and humans. This is a beautiful account of her time among the islanders, both human and animal.