A proud South African heritage...

Credits/Reference
The Nooitgedacht Pony - D.M. Joubert and W.M. Bosman Suid Afrikaanse Tydskrif vir Wetenskap

In order to arrive at the origin of the Nooitgedacht Pony it is essential to trace, firstly, the history of what was known in earlier times as the Cape Horse. Secondly, in view of their close relationship the development and subsequent decline of the extant Basuto Pony require brief attention.

Though the horse is not native to Southern Africa, a number of equine species abounded at the time of the first permanent settlement by the Dutch East India Company at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. These included the true quagga – since extinct – (Equus (Quagga) quagga Gmelin. The Cape mountain zebra (Equus (hippotigris) zebra Linnaeus) and Burchell’s zebra (Equus (Quagga) Burchellli Gray), along with several subspecies of the genus in question (Roberts, 1951).

Horses, imported from Java, in fact first arrived at the Cape in 1653. These animals were of Persian and Arab strain as were most others to reach the settlement during the next hundred years. According to early chronicles (Schreuder, 1915) they were small but hardy, and of excellent constitution and temperament.

Several horses of Andalusian origin, thus including the Barb strain, reached the Cape in 1778 from South America. Next in 1782, eight so-called English Blood stallions were imported along with five Barb-Type horses bred in Boston, United States of America. Subsequent importations were mostly of Oriental (i.e. “hot blooded”) and Spanish blood until the tenure as Governor at the Cape of Lord Charles Somerset. An enthusiastic breeder of horses, Somerset was responsible for the introduction of numerous Thoroughbreds between 1811 and 1820, a practice continued by the colonists themselves for another 10 years as a sequel to the excellence of earlier results (Schreuder, 1915).