Finding the Fell ponies

2 beautiful Fell ponies

Shawn and I decided at short notice to have a week in the lovely lake district in Cumbria, as it's only 2 hours drive from where we now live, and we hadn't been there before.  This is the area that the beautiful Fell ponies originate from.  I couldn't visit that area and not try to find some feral ponies to photograph, so I did a quick bit of research to see where I might be able to find some.

I emailed the owners of Lunesdale Fell pony stud - they are Fell pony breeders that have grazing rights on Roundthwaite common, and asked if there were any Fells out on the common that I could photograph.  They said there was, and I was welcome to go to the common and look for the ponies, but they also mentioned that they may be hard to find.  What I hadn't realised was the common is really large - over 6 miles long and quite wide, including many hills and valleys.  They normally go out on a quad bike to find them and even then it can take hours !

The huge area where the Fells roam

Well, I really wanted to see them so Shawn and I (it was me really) decided to go for a drive around the area and see if we could find a way up to the common and decide if it was worth looking for them.  We drove to the area through some country lanes and into a little village.
I looked up onto the hills ahead, and guess what - I spotted some tiny black dots on the horizon.  Shawn thought they might be cows, but I was convinced they were ponies.

We stopped and asked a farmer if we could get up to where they were, and he said the best way was to go back down the road, and then up through some fields onto the ridge, and then to walk along the ridge.  So we parked the van, near the place he had pointed out and got ready to walk up.  Just then a cross looking man came out of his house and asked what we were doing, he then said the way we wanted to go up would involve walking through his field, and he told us he would not allow us to go through his land !  We were a bit disappointed, and headed back towards the first farmer.  He very kindly took us to one of his fields further along and showed us another way up to the ridge.  The field was really, really steep, and I was a bit worried as he said there was a bull in the field somewhere !

After about 1/2 hour climbing up the hill we got to the stone wall around the common and climbed over.  The ponies were right there :-)  I felt so lucky that I had found them.

I very quietly took a few photos from a distance, as I didn't know how tame they were.  They tolerated me but as soon as I tried going closer they ran away.  So I took a few more photos from a distance, then this time got closer and closer very slowly.  They let me get quite close, and I just watched them and took photos for ages.  After a while they realised I was no threat, and got quite inquisitive - quite a few of them, including some foals, came right up to me and sniffed and nuzzled me.  It was such a lovely feeling that they felt that safe with me.

 Fell pony saying hello

 Inquisitive Fell pony foal

I had a lovely time being with these beautiful native ponies, and it is great to see them in their natural setting, looking healthy and as nature intended.

Please look back for the next blog as I have lots more lovely photos, and I will be writing about Fell ponies, and their origins, characters etc

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.

 

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

“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.

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

“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

“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

 “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

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

cheeky foal

There were about 4 or 5 foals in the herd I was watching, all only a few days old.   One of them had spotted me watching him and got a bit shy.  He went and hid behind a gorse bush, so I couldn't see him.  It didn't take long for him to got curious though and he peeped his head out from behind the bush.

welsh pony foal

He kept getting shy and hiding back behind the bush, and then peeping out again, each time a little bit further.  He was being very cheeky and was definitely playing with me !  In the end he realised I was no threat and wanted to show off.  He ran out from behind the bush and started running around, keeping making glances my way - I couldn't help laughing at him - he was so cute.

practising his trot

speeding up

He ran around for a few minutes - trotting, cantering, galloping and bucking - he was having great fun, but then he suddenly got embarrassed, and ran back and hid behind his mum.

welsh mare and foal

He was still watching me and knew I was watching him.  After a while he ran off again, up and down the hill, round and round, until he got tired and ran back to his mum for a rest.

welsh mare and foal

I had the best time watching him, and he made my day.  Its amazing how he was only a few days old but was able to do all the paces and even buck already !  He was a real show off as well, maybe he will grow up to be the stallion of his own herd one day.

  

This is a lovely shot of his mum.

 wild welsh pony

Lets hope that the Carneddau ponies future is safe, and that they continue to grow in numbers, and remain on the hills.  Luckily we are now starting to realise that the wild and feral native ponies of Britain are very important and need protecting.  They are very important to our heritage, but also are very useful in land conservation.  This is a quote from a very interesting BBC news article from 2008:

“Theses mountain ponies are very special to us in Snowdonia. Not only do they contribute to our cultural heritage, the Welsh mountain ponies and their genetics has an important role to play in sustaining the diversity of plants and insects on the mountain slopes. Their grazing patterns mean that they keep vegetation low on the mountain in winter and provide a good source of food to the chough during the winter. This in turn allows the fragile habitats of the highland to be revitalized when the sheep aren’t there.”

You can read the whole article here

Article on the welsh carneddau ponies

Finding the Welsh ponies

As part of my plan to travel the length and breadth of Britain to photograph all the British native ponies in their native environments, I next visited Wales.

After quite a long drive of about 6 hours, and after driving through some places with funny names ( one place was called Pant, which we thought was really funny due to being very immature ) we arrived at the South of the Snowdonia National park.

I hadn't had time to do much research on where to find the feral Welsh ponies, but I knew they were somewhere in the park. It wasn't until the next day when I started driving through the park that I realised it is massive !

snowdonia national park website

How on earth was I going to find the ponies ?  I asked around at some tourist information places and finally a woman found out they were near a place called Aber common and pointed to an area on the map near the top of the park.

We drove to the area but couldn't find a road that seemed to go where we wanted to go.  We eventually took chance and headed up a very steep, tiny single track road.  We got to the top and there was a car park and some paths up onto the hill, so we decided to take a look.  A man walking his dog just got back to the car park and I asked him if he had seen any ponies.  He said no he hadn't seen any ponies today, but he was a local and said they were around somewhere up on the hill or in the valley.  He said there are 3 small herds in different areas, and some had just had foals.  Sometimes he would see them other times he didn't.  I was so excited we had found the right area, and that they had foals, but I was a bit worried we wouldn't find them.

As we walked up through the gate I saw a National trust sign that said 'Carneddau' and remembered that during my research I had read about the feral Carneddau ponies, so we were definitely in the right area for seeing some proper feral ponies. 

The Carneddau ponies are in the group of Welsh ponies called Welsh section A mountain ponies, and the ones on Carneddau common are truly feral and have been here for 100's if not 1000's of years.  Welsh mountain section a ponies are on the endangered breeds list as vulnerable, although the wild ones are extremely rare.

British equine endangered breeds 

We walked up the hill to the left rather than into the valley, and carried on a little.  After about only 1/2 mile or so we spotted the ponies in the distance - I couldn't believe how lucky we were.

We crept up slowly and quietly as they are not handled or used to humans being too close.

Feral Welsh Carneddau mountain ponies

I sat and watched them for a while, but kept my distance as they knew I was there.  I slowly crept a little closer.  One of the ponies gave me a shifty look and moved the others away a bit.  He was beautiful and strong, and had the most amazing long mane.  I knew by the way he was behaving that he was the stallion.

Carneddau pony stallion

I hung around with them for a few hours and they gradually got used to me, allowing me to get fairly close, but never too close.  I managed to get some lovely photos of them, so please read the next blog to see more photos and find out more about these lovely little rare and endangered ponies.

I want one

I was very taken with the Eriskay ponies on the Island.  I thought they would be very timid and wary of humans, so at first I stayed quite a distance away from them and kept very quiet.  I had my long lens on my camera in order to get close enough shots. 

But within a few minutes I was surrounded by inquisitive and nosey ponies !  They all wanted to know what was going on, and came over to have a look.  Even the little foals and yearlings were coming right up to me and nudging me.  It actually became quite hard to take photos of them as they kept shoving their noses into the camera lens.

  Nosey Eriskay pony

After I had said hello to them all and they knew I was a friend they gradually wandered off to graze, and occasionally popped over to say hello.

 My new friend - I want to take him home !

The Eriskay pony society breed standard says of their temperament:

"Eriskay Ponies should be placid and amenable with no signs of viciousness or aggression".

Breed standard 

This is certainly how this little herd were.  And it's why they made excellent all round, useful ponies back in the old days, when they did a bit of everything, and had to be relied on to be safe and sound for the children to ride.

Quote from the Eriskay pony society: 

"Today, Eriskay Ponies can be seen competing in all spheres of equestrianism. Members of the Eriskay Pony Society regularly take part in activities such as hunting, dressage, show jumping, show hunter, cross country, pony club eventing, team games, western riding and driving. Although they stand between 12.0 and 13.2hh they are strong for their size, have terrific stamina and can carry a light adult with ease. They also make excellent driving ponies, Lesley Cox from Cheshire has had tremendous success with her tandem driving ponies, competing at FEI level and winning regularly.

Other Eriskays make excellent family ponies, with their human friendly characteristics coming to the fore playing football in the garden with the kids, or working with special needs children as RDA ponies."

Eriskay pony society 

From what I saw of these lovely ponies, I would definitely recommend them as a child's or family pony ( or even a small adult like me ) :-)  

 Eriskay pony in the reeds

 Eriskay ponies in the reeds