Observations about Twinning in Fell Ponies

Thanks to social media, the Fell Pony community in 2022 celebrated the birth and healthy rearing of a set of pony twins in England. Their breeder shared updates and photos so that we could follow their progress. The breeder said repeatedly that it was all about having an amazing mare able to carry them to term, birth them, and then nurse them. The breeder too deserves credit for supporting the mare with her double work load.

I have had the good luck to see a set of healthy Fell Pony twins. There’s nothing quite like it. On the other hand, I have also watched the heartbreak of a breeder who had a set of twins, one of which was much weaker than the other. The breeder tried desperately to save the weak one, but sadly it eventually passed. Fortunately for the mare, she still had a foal to mother. There have also probably been innumerable twins that were never viable and were aborted and we never knew about. So when a set of twins like this year’s is viable and makes it to weaning, they inspire us. Some this year have said that breeding for twins seems like a good idea. I would like to share some additional observations about twinning in Fell Ponies, based on personal observation.

One observation is that equines in general are really not well suited to raising two foals. That’s evident when so many are weak or unviable. One could argue that when a mare is successful, then there is great hope. That might be with that particular mare and her genetic and physiologic make up and perhaps even only when mated to that particular sire. A daughter, though, will only have some of her mother’s genes and physiology so there’s no guarantee that she will be as successful. That’s where it’s important to understand the range of possible outcomes of breeding for twins.

The healthy set of twins we saw in 2022 is one example of a possible outcome. So is the outcome of one healthy and one non-viable foal. As mentioned, at least in that case the mare has one foal to nurture. When both foals are lost, that is very tough on a mare, but there’s an even worse case scenario. The mare of the healthy twins that I met also had a daughter. That daughter had a healthy single foal for her first mothering experience. The second time though was twinning gone awry. If you are squeamish, you may wish to skip the rest of this paragraph. The mare foaled a healthy foal that stood and nursed and moved about. Except that the foal had two hooves on one of its front legs. And there was a bag of bones that was also birthed out. Apparently the two sets of genetic material were not properly divided. The foal had to be put down, and it was hard on the mare to not have a foal to rear after all the effort of gestation and delivery and knowing that it had nursed. The mare did have another healthy foal from her next pregnancy, but then she foaled another deformed foal the next time. Again the foal was put down and the mare had no youngster to reward her hard work. The mare was retired from breeding. So despite her mother having successfully raised twins, the daughter apparently had the twinning gene but could not be successful raising twins.

Breeding is a complicated craft. We care for animals, we study pedigrees, we try to match stallion and mare, we wait for nearly a year, and we hope for a foal we can enjoy. Twins can bring double the joy, but there is also the chance of tremendous heartbreak. So when twinning is present in a pony’s pedigree somewhere, we have difficult decisions to make on our own behalf but also for the mare and the foal. Each of us must make our own decisions, using all the information at our disposal and considering all the possible outcomes. And we can celebrate as a community when healthy twins are born.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2022

There is an article on research about twins in Fell Ponies in my book Fell Ponies: Observations on the Breed, the Breed Standard, and Breeding, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

Choosing a Stallion for a Mare

It’s getting to be that time of year when people are pondering breeding their mares. I was asked how I choose a stallion for my mares. It’s a decent question since I have three foals due, by three different stallions!

From my perspective, there are three fundamental questions to consider when choosing to breed a mare:

1. Do you need to breed? This is the title of a chapter in my first Fell Pony Observations book, and while it may seem annoying, it is based in the fact that there are many, many unwanted equines. I have even seen unwanted Fell Ponies, and it’s not something I want to see again. So if we’re wanting to bring another Fell Pony into the world, we’d best have a pretty good reason to do it. Click here if you’d like to read the chapter from my book. Spoiler alert: breeding a mare isn’t a way to make a profit…! If you decide to breed to produce something to sell, be prepared to keep the foal for as long as four years, which is the longest I’ve had to keep one before it sold, thanks to the Great Recession. So, ask yourself honestly: do I really need to find a stallion for my mare after all?

2. What are you breeding for? The Conservation Breeding Handbook states: “A basic and guiding philosophy is the single most critical component of any breeding program. A breeder’s first task is the development of a specific purpose in breeding animals. This may seem obvious, but it is very often overlooked, with the result that breeding is done with little progress toward any goal.” (1) Putting another rare breed foal on the ground isn’t a good enough reason (see #1 above). Rare breeds, including the Fell, don’t need randomly bred animals that may cause people to choose what they know instead of something unusual like a Fell. You will want to choose a stallion that will produce with your mare a foal that is consistent with your breeding philosophy. If you are interested in reading the chapter ‘Breeding with Intent’ from my first Observations book, click here.

3. Where does your mare need improvement? There is no such thing as a perfect pony, so it’s important to choose a stallion that will improve on her. In Sue Millard’s very important book Hoofprints in Eden, she quotes Ivan Alexander of the Lune Valley Fell Ponies as saying, “It’s more of a ‘trying to knit ‘em together,’ than ‘picking two good ‘uns.’ You’ve to try and find summat that’ll suit what you‘ve got. Mind, having said that, you want summat that you like, cause if you don’t like it to start with you’ll never like it, will you?” (2) There is an entire chapter on creating the next generation of Fell Ponies in Hoofprints, collecting the wisdom of the long-time breeders Sue interviewed for the book, so I highly recommend reading it. Click here for reviews and more information.

It's one thing to ask these questions, and another to answer them, so here’s my current answers. 1) I have chosen to continue to breed Fell Ponies despite the unwanted-equine problem because I have a clear view of what is special about the breed and of how to produce ponies that will be good partners for their humans so are unlikely to become unwanted. If I don’t feel I can produce ponies like that, I don’t breed. 2) My breeding philosophy is to produce ponies that have important breed characteristics that I feel are in danger, specifically proper movement (very different than action) and a ‘package’ suited to the breed’s historic versatility: ride/drive/draft/pack. 3) I am my mares’ own worst critic. None of them so far fit the picture in my mind’s eye of an ideal Fell Pony. If you don’t know where your mare’s faults are, find them, because there is no such thing as a perfect pony. I used three stallions last year to see how they could improve the three mares.

I chose to use three stallions for three reasons: First, I’ve used all three of these stallions before, so I have seen what they throw, and I know there’s always more to learn. Second, all three mares have been bred before, so I have seen what they throw, and again I know there’s always more to learn. Finally, each pair had unique circumstances. In one case, I felt an outside stallion was a better fit for my mare than the stallion that I have. In another case, I very much liked what my stallion and the mare produced, and I’m looking forward to another just like it. And in the last case, I bred a very good mare to the father of a filly I own to learn more about the filly.

I was asked whether I prefer stallions that have a history of working. While I have used that criteria in the past, there’s so much more to what a stallion brings to breeding. I was reminded of the late Walter Lloyd’s advice. Walter was the long-time breeder of the Hades Hill ponies and someone who put Fell Ponies to work in numerous ways. Walter’s son Tom is now stewarding the Hades Hill herd and shared Walter’s selection criteria for either gender in a Fell Pony Podcast: 1) will it survive on the fell? 2) will it breed (recognizing that not all ponies will), and 3) can you work with the temperament? (3) Notice that only one of these has to do with working, and it isn’t even about working in the strictest sense of the word. It also occurs to me that a temperament that one person can work with isn’t necessarily one that another person would choose. So again, we as mare owners must answer the three questions above and develop our own unique selection criteria.

Several of the breeders interviewed in Hoofprints said something similar to this advice from Barry Mallinson of the Hardendale Fell Ponies: “People want to look at what to improve. I look at the actual quality of the ponies. You’re just trying to breed better each time as you go along. And it can go wrong. It can throw back to its grandparents and you’re nearly back to step one again.” (4) Breeding is obviously not for the faint of heart!

1. Sponenberg, D. Phillip and Carolyn J. Christman. A Conservation Breeding Handbook. Pittsboro, North Carolina: The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, 1995, p. 11.

2. Millard, Sue. Hoofprints in Eden, Hayloft Publishing, Kirkby-Stephen, Cumbria, England, 2003, p. 97.

3. Lloyd, Tom. “Episode 10: Ruth Chamberlain,” Fell Pony Podcast at https://fellpony.co.uk/podcast/2022/1/10/episode-10-ruth-chamberlain

4. Millard, p. 97.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2022

An Admirable Herd Dynamic?

The first two ponies come into view

My mare herd extensively grazes on a sizeable pasture on a north-facing side-hill. Despite their free-ranging life, they reliably come into the barn in the morning where I meet them for morning chores. So one morning when they didn’t arrive when I had been at the barn for a half hour, I began to wonder what was keeping them away. Yes, green grass is starting to emerge, and the weather wasn’t snowy as it had been for a few days. Nonetheless, they usually are at least visible from the barn, watching me prepare for their arrival, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Still only two ponies in view, but what a sight!

In the eighteen months that we have been here, I have learned where there are places on the hill that the ponies are not visible from the barn. So after the girls didn’t come in, I drove the farm lane to look at the nooks and crannies of the hill that I could see from there. Still no sign of them, so then I walked to one of the herd’s favorite hiding places. When I didn’t find them there, either, I texted my neighbor Bruce to ask if he had seen the ponies during his chores that morning. He had seen them early at the other end of the pasture from where I was, so he came and got me in a vehicle that could handle some mud and we checked a few more hiding places. When we still didn’t find them, we were very puzzled. Then I looked up. Finally, high on the hill against the cloudy sky, I saw the outline of a pony. At least now I knew where I might find the herd.

Another pony comes into view, with Parker Peak, the highest point in our county, behind her.

Bruce dropped me at the barn and I started walking south and up. A hundred feet or more of elevation gain later, I came upon two ponies. I was still missing four, so I kept climbing, and then I made a discovery. There was a grassy shelf that created yet another place on the hill where the ponies aren’t visible from the lower reaches. I found three more ponies there, but I was still missing a pony. Then the puzzle of the missing ponies began to make more sense. The final pony was on the wrong side of the fence, and the herd had apparently stayed close to her rather than come into the barn. I like that! Especially since that mare is about to foal. Of course I don’t know for sure, but if indeed the herd did choose to stay with her, I find that an admirable herd dynamic, and I can easily forgive them for worrying me by their absenteeism.

The stray pony finally on the right side of the fence, seeming to ponder her completed predicament

I got the stray pony onto the proper side of the fence, then haltered the lead mare and started toward the barn. She and I had completely descended the hill before the rest of the herd could be heard making their way down the steep slope and heading to the barn ahead of us.

The view from the barn: beyond the middle bump is where I found the ponies.

When I arrived at the barn, the stray mare greeted me. I could imagine her thanking me for righting the previous odd circumstances. Bruce told me that he had seen the same mare on the wrong side of a fence a few days before, but before he could let me know, she had found her way back to where she was supposed to be with the rest of the herd. It is likely the same would have happened this time if I hadn’t intervened. Just the same, I’m glad for the many discoveries I made while searching for the herd. Elk tracks made it clear that fence repair up on the hill is an addition to my to-do list for the summer.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2021

You can find more stories like this one in my book What an Honor, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

When Traits Seem to Skip Generations

My late husband always said that he’d never forget the look on my face as we watched one of our early Fell Pony foals being born.  The foal had a huge white star, the biggest I’d ever seen on any equine, let alone on a jet black Fell Pony.  I suspect I was holding my breath.  I eventually let out a big sigh.  “He’s a purebred,” I said.  “I wonder where that came from.”  From that day on, the further I got into Fell Pony breeding, the more I heard, and even said myself, “Traits can skip generations.”

I’m grateful to Sue Millard, who wears many hats in our international Fell Pony community, for making the connection between epigenetics and the oft-uttered phrase “traits can skip generations.”  Epigenetics is the study of genes that express themselves differently than through heredity.  Dr. Carey Satterfield says, “I would define epigenetics as alterations in the pattern of gene expression, such as ‘off/on’ or ‘a little/a lot,’ that are based on changes in the structural configuration of the DNA rather than its sequence.  These changes can be permanent and have been shown to be heritable, but not always.” (1)  Satterfield says that every day there are new findings, so the definition will continue to evolve.

What causes alterations in gene expression?  There’s more unknown than known, but the environment in which a fetus develops in-utero and neonatally is known to influence gene expression.  Click here to read about how room in the womb influences size at and after birth, for instance.  Some epigenetic modifications occur only on genes passed by the father and some passed only by the mother.  Some affect only the current generation and some can be passed to the next generation.

Some traits that are thought to be influenced by epigenetics include coat color patterns and markings, cannon bone circumference, and glucose metabolism.  How mares are fed before and during gestation has received some study.  Ardennes foals whose mothers were fed concentrates in addition to forage were eight times as likely to develop the joint condition osteochondritis versus those whose dams were fed a forage-only diet.  Saddlebreds fed forage-only diets had foals with thinner cannon bones, less efficient glucose metabolism and delayed testicular development compared to foals from mares who’d received concentrates in addition to forage. (2)  There is concern that mares who are overweight when bred could produce foals more likely to have the easy-keeper’s disease equine metabolic syndrome.  Another area of concern and potential research is whether human handling of foals neonatally could cause epigenetic changes in the foal. (3)

Many Fell Pony breeders have experienced similar surprise to mine when they have a foal born with white markings to two solid-colored parents.  I often think of the late Tom Capstick’s comment (paraphrased here) that the best way to breed white markings is to breed non-marked parents together.  A review of Fell Pony foal markings from 1993 to 2018 indicates that, of the foals born to solid-colored parents, an average of 25% have white markings.  Overall, we have an average of 33% of each foal crop with some sort of white markings. (4)  Mr. Capstick’s comment, then, isn’t far off with one in four foals carrying markings despite solid-colored parents! 

1. Oke, Stacey, DVM.  “Understanding Epigenetics and Early Equine Fetal Development,” thehorse.com article #120762, 1/1/2012.

2. Chavatte-Palmer, Pascale, et al.  “Developmental programming in equine species:  relevance for the horse industry,” Animal Frontiers, July 2017, Vol. 7, No. 3.

3. Satterfield, M. Carey, et al.  “Review of Fetal Programming:  Implications to Horse Health,” AAEP Proceedings, Vol. 56, 2010, p. 207.

4. Color/markings reports from the author’s Fell Pony Pedigree Information Service software for 17 years between 1993 and 2018.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

More articles like this one can be found in my book Fell Ponies: Observations on the Breed, the Breed Standard, and Breeding, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

Sire Qualities

Kinniside Asi and his ladies-in-waiting

I was asked what I like about my Fell Pony stallion.  The question was posed as if a single answer was expected, with a list of possible choices.  I had to stop and think about it.  I had never considered the choice of a stallion to be a single factor decision.

Now that I live on a cattle ranch, I’m learning about the stewardship of another species.  My friendship with Bruce and Linda, who own the ranch, began with conversations about the art of breeding.  Right now, it is bull-buying season, and Bruce gave me a catalog for an upcoming bull sale to study.  He gave me a few pointers to get me started, and I soon became fascinated by how many factors beyond conformation can be used in a purchase and breeding decision.  For instance, there are measures of scrotal circumference, calving ease, and weight gain.  There is data about birth weight, weaning weight, and yearling weight.  This is my first exposure to high-volume breeding, and it certainly makes sense that there would be lots of data collected, analyzed and regurgitated. Yet it isn’t uncommon for buyers who have studied all the data to show up on the day and see something in the flesh that wasn’t in the numbers that ends up changing their purchase decision.

That trove of data is such a contrast to the information I have when I want to choose a Fell Pony stallion and what is required to collect it.  Our breeding population is so small by contrast, and the number of breeders is also small and dispersed.  Yet the one thing I quickly learned while watching an auction of bulls is that buyers rarely are purchasing based on a single factor.  So I’m not alone!

In case you’re curious, here’s how I answered the question about what I like about my stallion.  “I suspect you won’t be satisfied if I said it was the whole package, so I'll say that I met all his grandparents which indicated a consistency of type behind him. I was pleased with his offspring last year.  I love his type, bone, substance, and movement. He's interested in learning and great at giving hugs when I need them. So there's a few of the things I like about him!”

When I asked a bull buyer what they saw in their purchase that led them to bid as they had, I got a similarly broad answer with a similar lead-off about ‘the whole package.’    Despite all that data, breeding is still an art.  Informed by science perhaps, but still an art!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

More stories like this one can be found in my book What an Honor, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

Breeds Have Unique Brain Traits

Research from Harvard University has shed some fascinating light on the impact we humans have in animal breeding.  Specifically, we have influenced the organization of the brains of dogs by the selection we do to create and maintain breeds.  Dr. Erin Hecht, an assistant professor of neuroscience in the department of Human Evolutionary Biology, found that “the breed differences weren’t randomly distributed, but were, in fact, focused in certain parts of the brain.” (1)   Companion-animal type breeds had different brain organizations than did herding breeds, for instance.  As one example of the way brains in breeds are organized, skill in scent hunting (think Bassett Hounds) is not “about having a brain that can detect if the scent is there. It’s about having the neural machinery to decide what to do with that information,” Hecht says.  In addition, “brain regions involved in movement and navigation were bigger in dogs bred for coursing, such as Greyhounds, than in dogs bred for companionship, such as the Maltese.” (2)

What might this research suggest about Fell Ponies?  Many Fell Ponies are hefted, having a knowledge of and relationship with a piece of ground on which they are expected to live and thrive.  Is it possible that hefted Fell Ponies have a particular brain organization that Fell Ponies living somewhere besides the fells might not have?  The researchers found that the brain organization changes occurred relatively recently in dog evolution, suggesting it didn’t take many generations for selection to have impact.  Is it possible that if fell-bred ponies continue to become rarer within the breed, we could lose relatively quickly the ability of Fell Ponies to be hefted to the fells?

In the Harvard research, working breeds had different brain organization than companion-type breeds.  Over its history, our breed has been bred to be multi-talented, to be used not only as a mount but also driven, packed, and in harness for work.  Today, the work that our ponies do, however, has changed.  What might we lose in our ponies’ brains as we select for this new type of work?  What might we gain?

Our breed standard calls for broad foreheads which are often thought to allow our ponies to have great intelligence.  That intelligence is needed for them to survive on the fells but also makes them adept at any job we put them to, hence the Fell Pony Society’s motto, “You can’t put a Fell to the wrong job.”  Researcher Hecht diplomatically points out that “This research suggests there’s not one type of canine intelligence… There are multiple types.”  No doubt the same will be found to be true in equines if and when our breeds are studied similarly. 

I had a visitor who runs an equine-assisted therapy program.  They said they prefer to use the more primitive types of equines because of their brains.  More commonly bred equines don’t interact with the clients in the same way.  In their case, they use Haflingers.  When I told a fellow Fell Pony enthusiast about this research, their reaction was that it was telling us what we already know: the brains of our ponies are different!  The therapy program person has certainly found that to be the case.

In the Fell Pony breed, as in the dog breeds in the study, we humans who are selecting breeding stock are influencing how our ponies’ brains are organized.  Even if the work they do is changing and the place they are being raised is changing, our ponies will likely remain intelligent.  How might that intelligence manifest, though?  And will it mean our breed is changed?  Breeders making selection decisions have these questions to keep in mind.

1. Radsken, Jill.  “Hunters, herders, companions: Breeding dogs has reordered their brains,” The Harvard Gazette, 9/3/19, at https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/09/harvard-researcher-finds-canine-brains-vary-based-on-breed/

2. “A dog’s breed is a window onto its brain,” Neuroscience, nature.com, 9/2/19.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

More about the Fell Pony breed, breed standard, and breeding can be found in my book Fell Pony Observations, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

What Color is THAT?

This is the foal that got the whole conversation going!

Another breeder suggested that I was wrong about the color of one of my foals (see picture).  And then a potential buyer of the foal suggested the foal was grey.  I know from color genetics that the foal isn’t grey.  Responding to the breeder, though, required me to respond differently.  I had to say that based on my decade’s experience with this line and my nearly two decades experience with breeding Fell Ponies, that the foal is indeed black.

This foal out of the same mare seemed to have the mealy effect of her mother, making her brown, but she ended up black.

I understand why the breeder questioned my judgment.  When my first foal out of this line was born, I thought she was brown.  In this breed, the brown color is characterized by the mealy effect on a dark background (see mare in first and second pictures), and I thought that was what I was seeing in the foal (see second picture).  But as the foal aged, the lighter areas that I thought were mealy darkened.  In the end, I had to ask a breeder who had experience with brown ponies what color my foal was, and she said it was definitely black.  And she was right.  That foal has matured into a beautiful black Fell Pony.

The foal who began these conversations now is out of a non-black mare.  To most people’s eyes, she is bay, though in the Fell Pony she could be called brown with black points because she has the mealy effect on a dark background with black mane, tail, and lower legs.  When this mare is bred to a black stallion, then, every foal has the chance to be black, brown, or bay.  So far she has only had one non-black foal, and fortunately for me, that foal’s color was obvious from birth (see picture)!

This foal’s color was obvious, thank goodness: mealy effect on bay.

Being a breeder of Fell Ponies can be confusing when colors other than black are bred.  The confusion comes in part from the fact that there are at least two colors of black Fell Ponies:  jet black and summer or fading black.  Because my first two Fells were jet black and only produced jet black foals, I knew that black color well, but when a summer black joined my herd, I was in for an education.  It was her first foal for me fifteen years ago that informed my opinion of the foal before me now.

This foal was out of two black parents, so he is black but looks similar to the first foal above.

In that case, both parents were black, so I knew the foal was black, because that’s how color genetics work.  Nonetheless, he was very light in color, as the picture here shows.  Back then I wasn’t surprised when he matured into a black pony, as the picture at 9 months old shows.  Today, though, I might not be so certain, except experience is a great teacher!

This is the same foal as just above but at nine months, clearly black.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

More stories about the joys of owning and breeding Fell Ponies can be found in my book Fell Ponies: Observations on the Breed, the Breed Standard, and Breeding, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

What's In A Fell Pony Name?

It took me six days to land on a name for this handsome boy!

It took me several days to figure out what to call my third foal of the year.  My first two foals were named fairly quickly, within in a day or so of their birth.  The third one, though, took me longer than usual.  In part it was because he was born just two days after the previous one, and I had my hands full taking care of all the new life.  And then there was the fact that the third foal chose not to nurse for nine hours after birth, so for those first critical hours my thoughts were centered more on keeping him alive than what to call him.

When I name my foals, I try to choose a name that is reasonably consistent with Fell Pony naming practices.  Because I regularly peruse the stud books of the Fell Pony Society, I have become aware of what those naming practices are by watching how other breeders, especially long time ones, name their ponies.

Fell Pony names typically have two parts:  the prefix and the name.  In most cases, prefixes are related to the breeder’s location in some way.  My prefix, for instance, is Willowtrail.  Willow trees/shrubs/bushes (and their close relatives such as cottonwoods) grow along water in this part of the world.  Water is an incredibly vital resource here, so I am always watching where it flows.  Often willows are clues to where there is water, even if you can't see the water on the surface. So willows mark the trail of water, hence Willowtrail!

Somewhere I once read that pony names need to be limited to three words following the prefix.  I can’t find that rule in any regulation now, but generally speaking, names are simple.  Often they are names that people also might have:  Tom, Alice, etc.  Or they are about landscape features:  Heather, Mountain, etc.  I ran across a series of foal names from one breeder that were Caraway, Cardamom, and Chervil, which I found delightful since I also love to cook!  Sometimes themes are combined, such as Heather Belle or Mountain Lad.  Or names are somehow descriptive of a pony’s character, whether actual or fictional, such as Ranger or Warrior or Jester.  Or names are repeated from ponies-past in the pedigree:  Prince II or Model IV, for instance.  Some breeders choose to name all their foals in a given year with a common first letter:  Lily, Liz, and Lancelot for instance.  And some breeders choose names that don’t follow any of these conventions!

I consider naming my foals an important part of my responsibility as a breeder.  Because I use their names every time I see them, the foals learn to recognize their names.  Therefore I try to choose names that subsequent owners will want to use so the ponies aren’t confused by name changes.  To try to give the names lasting power in the human realm, then, I try to choose names that have meaning for that particular pony.  As a result, there’s a story behind every name, a story which I enjoy sharing with new owners to introduce them to the wonderful world of Fell Ponies!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

More stories about Fell Pony culture can be found in my book Fell Ponies: Observations on the Breed, the Breed Standard, and Breeding, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

A Conversation Between A Mare and A Stallion

Because I breed almost exclusively by live cover, I do a lot of teasing, watching for how the mare and stallion communicate with each other.  Is the mare interested in the stallion’s flirtations?  Does the stallion sense the mare will be receptive to his advances?  Or is the opposite the case?  I realize that I’ve considered teasing to have two possible messages – interest and no interest - but a mare recently showed me there could be a third.

As I watched this mare over the course of several weeks of teasing, she showed me the two messages I was expecting.   At first she was uninterested in the stallion.  If I were to put words to her communication, they would be, “Don’t even dare coming any closer to me, or I’ll turn and kick your brains out!”  Then she came into heat, and if I were to put words to her behavior, they would be, “Come here pretty boy and let’s see what we can do together.”  The third message came after her heat cycle had ended.  I realized when she expressed disinterest in the stallion, it had a different character.  If I had to put words to her message, they would be, “Thank you for our interactions.  I’m no longer interested, but I appreciate your cooperation.”  The mare’s disinterest was less intense, and she tolerated the stallion’s company seemingly because she appreciates being in foal. 

Not all mares enjoy a stallion’s company after they’re bred.  I suspect that’s why I’ve never previously realized my inaccurately narrow view of the conversations between mares and stallions during teasing.  Now though, I realize that one other mare had a similar threesome of teasing communications.  She too enjoyed a stallion’s company while she was in foal.

I was speaking to an acquaintance the other night and expressing my envy at his multiple generations of animal husbandry experience.  Because I’ve been doing this for just twenty years, his 60 plus seems eons longer.  I was surprised by his response.  He said even though he has more years of experience than I do, nothing’s really ever the same, and he’s always learning how to steward his animals better.  Good to know!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

More thoughts about breeding Fell Ponies can be found in my book Fell Ponies: Observations on the Breed, the Breed Standard, and Breeding, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

Breeding for the Best

It’s foaling season, so I have pony breeding on my brain anyway.  Then two conversations within the space of a week with long-time Cumbrian Fell Pony breeders touched on the same topic from different perspectives.  I always try to pay attention to those types of coincidences.

The topic was about how to breed for the best Fell Pony possible.  And in both cases the breeders presented evidence against a strategy that otherwise seems quite logical:  if you have a really good pony, and you breed it to a really good pony, then surely you’ll end up with a really good foal.  Yet both these breeders with a lifetime of experience said otherwise.  While it might make sense in theory, they said, it rarely proves out in practice.

From experience, they said that often the best won’t reproduce themselves.  It may be because they are already so good that anything they produce will be a come-down.  Or it may be that there are faults hidden behind them that manifest in the next generation.  Or it may be because they are sterile and just won’t reproduce at all. 

And also from experience, they said that matching a mare to a stallion is about a lot more than matching a good animal to a good animal.  It needs to be more about matching strengths in one to areas needing improvement in the other.  It needs to be about recognizing that the perfect pony, one without need of improvement, has yet to be born.

I have heard these ideas before, but I never really believed them.  Breeding the best to the best just seems so logical.  This time hearing them, though, I am in a different place.  I am watching the topic play out before my eyes in my own herd.  I have one mare line that I’ve always considered to be ‘the best.’  But it is proving tricky to breed the next generation.  And at the same time, I have a mare line that isn’t quite as spectacular to look at when only the matriarch is considered, but when she’s surrounded by her offspring, it’s hard to argue that there could be much better to look at.  These experiences and these conversations are making me look at my herd with new eyes.  That’s a good thing!

In both my conversations with these veteran breeders, we agreed that breeding is more art than science, more craft than logic.  It is that creative part that keeps breeding interesting and what adds richness to conversations with other breeders.  I’m so thankful to have the opportunity to talk to them.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

More thoughts about breeding can be found in my book Fell Ponies: Observations on the Breed, the Breed Standard, and Breeding, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

The Fell Pony is Fortunate

One of the first foals I saw a picture of this spring was conceived by artificial insemination (AI).  An article from The Livestock Conservancy about assistive reproductive technologies including AI said that since 2008, rare equine breeds have seen a 50% decline in registrations of new animals. (1)  The Fell Pony is fortunate compared to its rare brethren.  We’ve only gone below 50% once during those years, and in 2018 were at 68.3% of 2008 levels.  After year over year declines since 2008, we’ve been gaining since 2016.

As registrations of rare equine breeds drop, there’s a fear of losing blood lines, hence the article about assistive reproductive technologies to assist in preserving lines that might otherwise be lost.  I learned about some of them at Colorado State University several years ago when we took a seminar about them, but there have been many advances since then.  The technologies discussed in the article include:

• Fresh semen collection for use in artificial insemination.  This is allowed in the Fell Pony breed.

• Semen collection for freezing, which can also occur in the event of injury or death of a stallion by harvesting the testes and extracting the sperm.  Frozen semen is allowed to be used in the Fell Pony breed.

• Embryo flushing when a mare can conceive but not carry to term.  The embryo is transferred to a recipient mare for gestation.  This has been done in the Fell Pony but the resulting foal was not eligible for registration.

• Oocyte harvesting when a mare cannot conceive or has died recently.  The embryo is fertilized in a lab using a technique called intracytoplasmic sperm injection and then transferred to a recipient mare.  Foals produced using this method are not eligible for registration in the Fell Pony breed.

• Cloning.  This has successfully been done in equines but is not allowed in Fell Ponies.

The Livestock Conservancy article went on to discuss the role of tissue banks in breed conservation.  Some Fell Pony semen is being stored in a tissue bank.  Optimally, says the Conservancy, the stored tissues will be representative of all blood lines and with representation of more mares than stallions.  We have a ways to go in our breed toward that goal.

Of course if the Fell Pony is above 50% in registrations then other breeds are sadly much worse off.  We are fortunate to have AI available for use, with many stallions in North America permitted for AI by the Fell Pony Society.  I’ve used AI to progress my own breeding program and was happy with the results.  Hopefully our breed’s situation will continue to improve so that more aggressive assistive reproductive technologies won’t be needed.

1)      Couch, Charlene, PhD and Katrin Hinrichs, DVM PhD. “Applying Assisted Reproductive Technologies for Conservation of Valuable Equine Genetics,” The Livestock Conservancy News, Autumn 2018, p. 3.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

More articles like this one about stewarding the Fell Pony can be found in my book Fell Ponies: Observations on the Breed, the Breed Standard, and Breeding, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

Shelley Goes Visiting

What a blessing it is to be having a real winter!  Normal amounts of snow that will hopefully keep the fire danger down this summer and will provide plenty of irrigation water for hay crops.  And what interesting timing.  With my husband gone, I’m now solely responsible for snowplowing and filling stock tanks and moving hay bales and all the other chores of the farm in winter (and I’m grateful for all the help I’ve been offered, too).  It didn’t take me long, though, to know that there aren’t enough hours in the day.

It’s normal when practicing progressive breeding to have ebbs and flows in the size of a breeding herd.  As one works to produce better ponies with each generation, it’s common to retain daughters.  Then a need for a second stallion emerges, and the population grows.  Then when those daughters begin to produce offspring, it becomes time to select which females to retain and which to rehome to keep the herd size realistic.  

I knew I was reaching the point where I was going to have to make some difficult decisions this year.  With my husband’s passing, though, I began to see opportunities to reduce my pony population that I might not have seen otherwise.  For instance, I had kept my Fell Pony mare Restar Mountain Shelley III open (unbred). While I wasn’t interested in selling her, an idea occurred to me. My friend Tina has a two year old Fell that she hopes to eventually use for riding and driving. I thought Tina might find it appealing to have a full grown mare to ride until the filly is ready to go to work.

While the idea made sense logically, I wasn’t fully prepared for how much I would miss Shelley.  Fortunately, letting her go temporarily is already producing gifts.  Tina asked for some video of me working with her, so she would better know what Shelley responds to.  My heart was warmed when Tina observed how much Shelley enjoys being with me.  The feeling is definitely mutual!  Then I got the pictures here of Shelley encountering new beings in her life with quiet acceptance and curiosity.  That’s my girl!

Having Shelley go visiting has definitely freed up some time each day.  Her departure is the first of several.  My goal is to get from five paddocks of ponies down to two while I adjust to life without my husband.  It won’t surprise me at all if I’m back up to five paddocks again a few years out!

There is still a void here that Shelley used to occupy.  It is hard to see her stall empty, her tracks still in the snow, her voice not greeting me at feeding time.  But I take great solace from knowing Shelley will be coming back to me before long, and in the meantime Tina will have lots of stories to tell me about my girl.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

Pondering Prepotency

When I produced my first filly in my breeding program, I decided to keep her to use as a broodmare.  I assumed, therefore, that the breeding life of a stallion in my herd would be a single generation.  When the first crop of his daughters were old enough to breed, I’d move that stallion on and bring in another that was unrelated to the daughters of the first.  Managing one stallion is hard enough, and two is a definite workload.  In addition that strategy is what I’d watched a number of breeders in Cumbria do, so it seemed like a reasonable strategy.  A problem with this strategy has arisen, though. 

I was talking to a gentleman who trains his sled dogs here in the winter.  When we talk, we inevitably get onto the subject of breeding.  In this case, he pointed to one of the dogs in his team, an intact male, and he said, “That dog is the sire of all my best racers.”  He then pointed to another dog and said, “That dog is the mother of most of my best dogs.  I spayed her so I’d quit breeding.”  John says he wants to retire, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

John then went on to say, “That male dog is prepotent.  You know Secretariat wasn’t.  He couldn’t breed anything as good as he was.”  John went on to tell me another horse-related story and then it was time for him to attend to his dogs.  What he said, though, crystallized a thought in my mind.

Prepotency is the ability of one parent to impress its hereditary characteristics on its progeny. One of the best known examples in the horse world of prepotency is Justin Morgan, the sole founding sire of the Morgan horse breed.  His ability to repeatedly and reliably stamp his offspring with his own desirable characteristics is the reason given for the breed’s existence.

In the Fell Pony, we don’t have a dominant ancestor stallion like Justin Morgan, but I do occasionally see stallions that leave their mark.  One that comes to mind has a number of daughters that I greatly admire.  Another seems to be leaving consistently good offspring of both genders.  In the case of the first stallion, I’ve wondered if the reason so many of his daughters are good is that good mares were put to him, or said another way, the breeder who controlled his breeding calendar had a very good eye for what the stallion would cross well with.

In the case of the second stallion, he’s linebred, and I’ve wondered if that is the reason that his offspring are so consistently good.  Both of these stallions might be considered prepotent, having the ability to impress their favorable characteristics on their offspring.  When I’ve heard stallion prepotency discussed, I’ve never heard if line-breeding or careful mare selection were in play, but from what I'm seeing, they certainly could play a role.

Each day when I enter my mare paddock, I encountered three daughters by my senior stallion, and I love the type of all of them.  And when I enter the paddock where my senior stallion lives, I love his type, his personality, his movement, his easy-keeping qualities.  Under my original breeding program strategy, because I have three daughters, this stallion should now be considered obsolete.  But the problem is I can’t part with him; I like him too much.

After talking to John about prepotency and especially when he mentioned that a great stallion like Secretariat couldn’t throw anything as good as he was, I reached a tipping point.  My stallion is throwing stock as good as he is.  As I’ve pondered this, I’ve realized he is both line-bred, and the mares he breeds are carefully selected.  He is therefore like both those other Fell Pony stallions whose stock I admire.  In addition, another breeder whom I admire has bought my stallion’s close relation for breeding, another affirmation of the line.

I have no idea how long the breeding life of a stallion is in my climate.  I know more than one stallion that has produced stock past the age of twenty, so in theory I have several more years left.  So I’ve decided to find another mare to put my senior stallion to.  Sometimes the best laid plans have to be modified!  I’ll be keeping two stallions after all!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2018

Mares and Temperament

It has been my experience in breeding Fell Ponies for the last fifteen years that stallions have a significant influence on the temperament of their foals.  And since traits can skip generations, I’ve also seen an influence in the second generation.  Having noticed this pattern regarding temperament, I have made breeding decisions towards or away from certain stallions.  After a conversation with another breeder on the topic, though, I saw a pattern in some of my foals that pointed to the mare side of the breeding equation instead when it came to temperament.

Here are highlights from this article that appeared in the October 2017 issue of Fell Pony News from Willowtrail Farm:

• It was after a third foal was born that exhibited disinterested behavior at a young age that I spoke to the breeder on the topic of mares and temperament.
• This breeder was seeing a pattern of temperament inheritance on the dam side, and sometimes the particular behaviors were even seen in the grandchildren. 
• Suddenly a lightbulb went off in my brain, and I saw a pattern in my disinterested foals.

To request the complete article on Mares and Temperament, click here.

The book Fell Ponies:  Observations on the Breed, the Breed Standard, and Breeding contains many stories like this one.  It is available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

Mind Grandma!

This story originally appeared in the June 2017 issue of Fell Pony News from Willowtrail Farm.

Highlights:

• When choosing a breeding stallion, it pays to look at not only the stallion, but also the stallion's dam.
• It turns out that Grandma has a significant influence on the quality of the stallion's offspring.
• Three photo pairs in the essay, one of which is shown here, illustrate the influence.

To request the complete article, click here.

Articles like this one make up the book Fell Ponies:  Observations on the Breed, the Breed Standard, and Breeding, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

Slow Sleddales 2/Maturation

This article appears in the May 2014 issue of Fell Pony News from Willowtrail Farm.

Highlights:

Bowthorne Matty and Willowtrail Mountain Ranger

• This past winter, Matty visibly changed and matured as she turned from seven to eight years old.

• I watched Matty’s bone increase, leaving her in wonderful proportion throughout in the bone and substance department.

• Willowtrail Mountain Prince, Matty’s two year old son, gave me reason this spring to ponder the slow maturing rate of ponies with Sleddale blood.

• One of the concerns I had about Prince as stallion potential was that he seemed to lack bone.  

• At the same time that I was scheduling Prince's castration appointment at two years old, I realized his bone was increasing.

• I began pondering how we choose stallions in this breed today..

• Colts must mature in the bone department relatively quickly if they are to pass the licensing exam at two years old. 

• After my experience with Prince, I began wondering how many good quality colts are neutered just because they are slow to mature.

To read the complete article, click here.

To subscribe to Fell Pony News from Willowtrail Farm, click here.