mitch mcfarlane photography: mare

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Thursday, 21 February 2013

The many jobs of the Fell pony

The Fell ponies have an interesting history, and have had many jobs through the years. They are native to the fells of North West England, and it's thought that the breed was established as far back as the Roman times, when they would have been caught and tamed from their natural habitat, and would have been used by the Romans for transportation of materials to build Hadrian's wall.

About Hadrians wall

Fell ponies on the fell

In the winter of 1492-93, 11 Kendal traders made a total of 14 journeys to Southampton with pack horses carrying loads of cloth - a journey of about 300 miles, which even on today's modern roads would be a tough journey !

Fell ponies were even used for transporting the deceased to graveyards (they are still used today, by undertakers who conduct traditional horse drawn funerals).

Over the years the Fell pony's more domestic duty would have been as a pack pony, transporting minerals from the mines and corn to the mills. They would also have been used on farms for general duties such as harvesting, haymaking and carrying a shepherd across steep terrain. They were also used to hunt wolves that might have been a threat to the sheep on the fells.

matching fell ponies

It is said that during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Cumbrian smugglers would have used Fell ponies for transporting their contraband from the coast.

The Post Office also used the Fell pony to deliver the mail to the most remote areas.
During the late 1800s, trotting races grew in popularity at social events such as shepherds meets and fairs. Many Fell ponies excelled at this sport, with some Fell ponies even attracting local fame.

Mum and baby

Hello...

ps - if you click on the photos you can see them larger (and better) :-)

Thursday, 10 January 2013

Happy new year

Happy new year to you all - I hope you had a good time over the holidays.

I really must get back to the blog now. I have lots to catch up on - I already have the Fell ponies and New Forest ponies to write about, and this year I would like to visit Shetland or the Highlands to photograph them, and I also want to go to Yorkshire to photograph the Dales ponies. Then that just leaves the Exmoor and Dartmoor ponies. I'm not sure whether to include the Irish Connemara ponies in this project as I'm not sure whether they are British ( as far as I know they only roam feral in Southern Ireland, although they would have once been all over Ireland, and Northern Ireland is British ! ) What do you think - please leave your thoughts in the comments as I would love to hear your opinions on this.

Just one last blog with photos on the Carneddau Welsh mountain ponies:

White Welsh pony mare

The wild Welsh mountain ponies might have an uncertain future, but the section A Welsh ponies, which are the closest to the wild mountain ponies, are very popular. There are also 3 other types of Welsh pony categories ranging in size from under 12hh to exceeding 13.2hh with no upper limit.

The Welsh Stud Book contains registration details of four "types" of Welsh Ponies and Cobs. These types include the Section A Welsh Mountain Pony, Section B Welsh Pony, Section C Welsh Pony (Cob type) and Section D Welsh Cob. Each Section, or type, has specific characteristics, but all retain the pony character, versatility and excellent temperament of the Welsh breeds.

Because these ponies were the hill farmers' main means of transport, herding sheep and wild ponies over rough and mountainous country, they had to be hardy, balanced and fast. This ensured that only the best were bred from. These qualities, combined with a natural jumping ability, and the temperament of their Welsh Mountain Pony forebears make the Welsh ponies and cobs really great riding ponies and all rounders.

You can read about the breed standard and characteristics on the Welsh pony and cob website

Welsh mountain section A and Welsh pony section B

Welsh pony cob section C and Welsh Cob section D

I think this Welsh mountain stallion is beautiful and even though he is wild and a bit unkempt he really shows where the different types of Welshies get their looks from.

Welsh mountain pony stallion

Some last photos from Carneddau - they seem to be very itchy ponies !!

You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours

Little foal in the middle wants a scratch too

Its my turn

The stallion has to scratch his own bum !

Just one last photo - what do you think of this ? It was an experiment, but I think I like it :-)

Welsh pony in pink

I'm really looking forward to writing the next blog - it will be about the beautiful Fells of Cumbria. I have some great photos of them, so please come back to read it.

Friday, 30 November 2012

Taming the wild ponies

“People assume they are too wild to tame,” said Mr Thomas, of Crymych, Pembrokeshire.

Read more: Wales Online http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/06/25/happy-horse-whisperer-who-tamed-wales-wildest-mountain-ponies-91466-28938196/#ixzz2DcPU11D1

Welsh mare and foal

Here is some more about one of Britain's wildest pony breeds (and one of the most endangered) living on the Carneddau Hills in Wales.

They are actually pretty wild, on alert all the time and are very suspisious of anything unusual happening around them.

While I was there I was quietly watching a group of ponies having a nap in the sun. They were all quite relaxed, but some were still on the lookout.

Welsh ponies dozing in the sun

Quite relaxed

All of a sudden, out of no where came a scary plastic bag flying about on the wind. The ponies were all instantly awake and running from the 'predator'.

Fleeing the plastic bag

They ran for a bit then stopped to see if they were being chased by the scary bag, and when they realised that the bag was just a bag, they soon settled down again and began to graze.

An article from Wales online written in June 2011 explains how the wildness of the ponies could be contributing to the decline of them, and why the farmers who owned the ponies decided to ask Barry Thomas a local horse whisperer to help - here is a small piece from the article:

" “People assume they are too wild to tame,” said Mr Thomas, of Crymych, Pembrokeshire.

“Therefore they are not marketable, they cannot be sold, they cannot fetch a price, so the farmers cannot afford to keep breeding them.

“There are only around 200 of the ponies left on the hills of Snowdonia, so anything that can be done to save them must be done.”

After an end-of-season sale last year in which 45 of the Carneddau ponies were sold for just £430, Mr Thomas was asked to see if he could do what nobody has ever done before: tame and train a Carneddau pony.

The Carneddau Pony Society hoped the training would help increase the animals’ market value, which in turn would give the Snowdonia farmers the incentive to breed them."

A similar thing had been done before by Monty Roberts, the American 'horse whisperer' when he had tamed and trained a wild Mustang. Barry Thomas is actually one of Monty's students and was glad to accept the challenge.

He captured 2 of the wild ponies and brought them back to his farm. He did succeed in taming and training them, and there was a programme filmed about it but unfortunately I can't find it to watch. Whether it has helped with the popularity of the Carneddau wild ponies, or whether people will want to own them is to be seen, but the Carneddau ponies more domesticated cousin - the Welsh section A pony, is very popular. In the next blog I will look at the breed characteristics and see why they are such great little ponies.

Read the whole article here

Beautiful chestnut mare

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Welsh ponies outsmart Henry VIII

Welsh mountain pony

This isn't the first time the Welsh mountain ponies have been threatened with extinction. The ponies were nearly made extinct 100's of years ago, around the beginning of the 16th century. Apparently King Henry 8th, who had a reputation for killing anyone and anything that got in his way, demanded that the ponies all be destroyed. His reasons for this were that they were too small - too small to carry a knight in full armour ! Luckily he didn't succeed, and some of the ponies survived.

The Romans recognised their strength and agility though, and used them for many jobs while they were in Britain, and even took some back to their homeland .

They were also used in the 19th century by the coal miners to pull carts down into the coal mines. That must have been a pretty miserable life for them. Some of them even lived in the mines, staying in stalls built down there and living on hay, never seeing the light of day.

All this has made them very tough and strong, and made them into the hardy little ponies that they are today. The welsh pony and cob society says "Bred in the mountains and wild regions of Wales for many generations, their acknowledged beauty does not mean they are merely a 'pretty toy' — centuries of 'survival of the fittest' has ensured the sound constitution, iron hard limbs and great intelligence"

society website

You can definitely see they are tough and hardy little ponies, but they are also very beautiful.

Some more photos here of the Welsh mountain ponies on Carneddau. It started rain while I was photographing them, but they were starting to get used to me and I didn't want to leave so I carried on taking photos. I didn't realise how wet my camera lens was getting, until I look at the photos later - you can see the photos getting more and more misty - but I actually think it gives quite a nice effect, kind of like a soft filter !

Yearling welsh pony

This one has dreadlocks as he's loosing his winter coat.

Yearling welsh pony

Beautiful welsh mare

Welsh mare and foal

Even though people have recognised the ponies usefulness and adaptability during the centuries, they are still facing an uncertain future. Some are being used for land conservation, but they are not very saleable, going for only a few pounds each at the sales. In the next blog I will write about how a Welsh horse whisperer was bought in to try and help improve this.

Remember many of these prints can be purchased on my website or my Etsy shop

my website

my etsy shop

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