News: ‘Scotland welcomes tourists with ponies in cardigans’

Photos of Shetland ponies in sweaters have gone viral on the Internet this week. Today the ABC News Blog revealed the story behind the cuteness.

According to the story, the two ponies–Fivla and Vitamin–were outfitted in cardigans by the Scotland’s tourism board:

“The dressing of the ponies marked the launch of the ‘Year of Natural Scotland’ campaign undertaken by Scotland’s National Tourism Organization to encourage people to ‘Come and celebrate Scotland’s outstanding natural beauty throughout 2013,'” the story reads. “Fivla and Vitamin have been dubbed ‘pony ambassadors’ to help promote the campaign, which features a year’s worth of activities and insider tips on exploring Scotland’s natural beauty.”

The ponies’ sweaters are knitted from Shetland wool and custom made for them by local knitter Doreen Brown.

You can view the full series of photos of the pair online here.

And yes, oh yes, there is a video (thanks to Bernadette Kilcer for the tip!):

[VisitScotland]

I don’t know about you, but this tourism campaign totally makes me want to visit Scotland.

We can only hope that the Scottish tourism board will capitalize and expand on the wild success of “ponies in sweaters.” They ought to build a theme park full of ponies in sweaters. If such a thing existed, I swear I would buy a ticket right now. You know that you would, too.

Read the full ABC story here.

Go Scotland…

…and Go Ponies In Sweaters.