BY AUDREY PAVIA
When Mel Gibson galloped across the silver screen as Sir William Wallace in the Academy Award-winning film Braveheart, his beautiful bay mount was big and majestic. But in truth, the real William Wallace, a Medieval knight who defeated the English army in the First War of Scottish Independence, was carried to his victories by a rugged pony borne of the rocky Scottish Highlands.
Now known as the Highland Pony, this small horse has called Scotland its home since at least the 8th century B.C. No one knows for sure how these horses found their way to the northern isle of Great Britain, but some experts surmise they came with prehistoric settles, or found their way there after the retreat of the last European glaciers some 10,000 years ago.
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January 2019
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