I did not know, prior to reading the article “Shelties at home” by M. A. C. H. (Country Life, January 30, 1904), that Shetland ponies had been used to work the coal mines of England and Scotland around the turn of the century. Excerpts:
Country Life, April 30, 1904
And finally, an article entitled “Animal portraiture” by A. Horsley Hinton (Country Life, January 23, 1904) from which the below text and images were snipped:
YesBiscuit! 
The pit ponies were in use in the UK, though less each year, until 1999, when the last one retired. They are a feature at a mining museum. They were also used in the US in the Appalachians until 1974, in Australia and I think even in Europe. The term ‘pit pony’ is generic, they could be ponies, horses, mules and donkeys. There is a good summary on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_pony.
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