What Fell Ponies Have Taught Me About Wild Horses, and Vice Versa

It was a cool overcast early spring day when I joined a couple of dozen other people to round up some wild horses. I felt it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I admit when I came home I was on a high after spending all day outdoors outside the reach of phones and the world wide web and watching the movement of equines.

My Three Sisters herd traversing the hill at high elevation.

When I was once again connected to the greater world, I was asked if the wild horses had taught me anything about Fell Ponies. For me, it was actually the other way around. All of my time with Fells running on a large landscape taught me a lot about how the wild horses would and did move as we tried to encourage them to go where we wanted. I knew I didn’t need to be up close but instead be a presence in an area to keep them heading away from me. I also have learned that my ponies can see and sense my location usually long before I know where they are, so I am lucky if I can spot them. Fortunately I have a few ponies who like to let me see them before hiding again with their herd mates so I know roughly where they are.

Willowtrail Spring Maiden barely visible on the ridge. As soon as she felt me see her, she returned to her herd out of sight. I was thankful to know where they were!

My ponies have also taught me that going across and up or down rough terrain is no issue for them, unlike the humans trying to follow them. I can’t count the number of times my ponies have - after I have greeted them on the hill - headed down towards the barn at a speed and on a path that I would be afraid to try to copy. I also am always aware that while my ponies will give me an opportunity to halter them and lead them down, they will also occasionally - if I don’t take advantage of the offer on their schedule - head away from me with focused intention at a moment’s notice. I watched the wild horses make similar decisions when they didn’t like the options they were being given by the humans in their landscape. To be fair about my ponies, as often as they head away from me on the hill, they will also walk with me to the barn untethered.

Wild horses moving away from me like they were supposed to.

Upon a few more hours reflection on the roundup day, I did discover one thing the wild horses taught me that I could use in my stewardship of my ponies. It was the timing of foaling. They were choosing March and April, and I have been trying for April and May. I can see the logic in their choice, given the persistent drought conditions we find ourselves in here and when adequate green grass is available to nourish lactating mares.

While it may have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience rounding up wild horses, I came away firmly with the realization that my ponies give me similar experiences regularly. I count myself very fortunate indeed.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2025

Wassailing the Ponies '24-'25

A wassailing ‘hug’ from Bowthorne Matty and Willowtrail Mountain Honey. photo courtesy Jackie Gericke

As the calendar turns the page during the darkest part of the year, I have a ritual I call ‘Wassailing the Ponies.’ I have been doing it in some form for nearly two decades. It is my way of recognizing the important part of my life that my ponies are and thank them for their presence here, since I know they have choices to be elsewhere. I express gratitude to them throughout the year, but during the wassailing, I am more intentional.

Each year, wassailing is different because my herd is always changing, the weather is always different, and where the ponies are at the time that I wassail them varies. This year, all the ponies were in the paddocks at the barn, and we had bright morning sun which made picture taking challenging but logistics easier.

This year’s gingerbread pony cookies were once again gluten-free, this time with the primary ingredients oat flour and avocado.

One frequent part of the wassailing celebration is partaking of gingerbread pony cookies after we are done. We enjoyed them, despite my gluten-free improvisations!

I am very grateful to my friend Jackie Gericke for participating in the wassailing for the ’24-’25 season. She was also primary photographer, capturing the great images you see here!

Wassailing my stallion Globetrotter Moth. Photo courtesy Jackie Gericke.

This time the camera’s on photographer Jackie with Bracklinn Phoebe.

On the left is Drybarrows Imperial; herd dynamics made it challenging to get to this pony on the bottom of the pecking order! At right are Willowtrail Wild Rose and her daughter Willowtrail Lettie, with Willowtrail Spring Maiden looking on and my canine companion Scotty Springs Taptika hoping for a dropped apple! Photos courtesy Jackie Gericke.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2025

Listening to Rose

When I stepped outside just after sundown, I could see the mares up on the flat to the east of my house. I climbed to them and realized it was windier and colder than I’d expected, so I was motivated to get to the barn as quickly as possible.

I asked my Fell Pony mare Willowtrail Wild Rose to carry me to the head of the trail down the hill. I also asked her to take care of me since I hadn’t worn a helmet. I mounted, and she carried me about one hundred feet then stopped and wouldn't walk again. I assumed it was the cold wind bothering her.

When I ask for Rose to take care of me, I have to accept that a refusal like this is because she's doing as I asked, so I dismounted and started leading her to the edge of the hill. After walking another hundred feet, she stopped and looked as you see here. I followed her gaze and saw that there were seven bull elk on the side of the far hill. From their direction of travel, they likely were closer to us when Rose first refused. She saw them; I didn't. She had determined that she couldn't take care of me and monitor the elk's movement. So she refused to carry me any closer. Fair enough!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2024

An Unlikely Assistant

It was time for my Fell Pony foal Amanda’s trailer loading lesson. I try to get them started at loading at 3 days old or so, and then do at least seven short trips in their first two weeks of life. Their mom has to be stellar at loading, so I make sure that’s in order first. With Amanda, her mom’s been loading into trailers for me for almost two decades, so no problem there!

Amanda is a confident little girl, so she’s apt to go exploring when she gets the idea in her mind. So I wasn’t surprised after I opened the gate into the grassy area where the trailer is that she wandered off away from her mom and me. Then she would run towards us then past us in the other direction, obviously enjoying herself. My goal was to have her follow her mom into the small pen I’d set up outside the trailer then into the trailer itself. However, she kept going past the opening into the pen and then turning and running past it in the other direction, intentionally.

I’ve been through this routine before, having raised many foals and done many trailer loading lessons, so I know eventually they will follow mom. I’m always wanting to get to the goal sooner, of course, so I was pleased when I got some unlikely assistance. My young stallion was in his grazing paddock about fifty yards away, and he was watching what was going on. When Amanda went past us again and toward him, he let out a high volume whinny. Amanda was immediately alarmed that another pony was seemingly that close and whirled and came to us. Loading into the trailer then proceeded easily. Thank you Moth!

And lest you think that that was an isolated occurrence, Moth helped out again in the exact same way during the next lesson. I was very grateful!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2024

Traveling the Hill

After sitting in a vehicle all day, I was thrilled to return home to find sunny skies and my three Fell Pony sisters high on the hill. It was an immediate excuse to take a long and much-needed walk to see them. My dogs were thrilled as well, since because there are lots of calves around the barn, they aren’t allowed to be loose there, so they enjoy traveling the hill even more.

There was a pony in the background, but not with this framing! Just pretty pasqueflowers!

My initial climb to where I saw the Three Sisters herd had the benefit of going past numerous pasqueflowers in bloom. They are my favorite early spring flower. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to get a picture of them with a pony because the flowers live under pine trees, and the ponies prefer to be in the open. I took the picture here hoping it had a pony in it in the distance, but alas I got the framing wrong thanks to the sun in my face!

The Three Sisters had moved since I had first seen them, to the southwestern edge of the pasture.

The ponies weren’t where I had seen them but instead about a quarter mile farther, in the upper southwest part of the pasture. I had been wanting to visit that area, so I was doubly happy for an even longer walk. The light was unusual due to haze; I wasn’t sure whether it was dust from the high winds we’d had or humidity. At sundown when I felt the wind on my cheek, I concluded the latter. And I admit that the weather forecast I’d heard confirmed that! The views from the spot were amazing and definitely justified the hike.

Rose and Ace add to the beautiful view!

After I greeted the ponies, I began my descent diagonally across the hill towards the east and home. About five minutes after I’d left the ponies, I was surprised to hear pounding hooves. I looked uphill, and sure enough the Three Sisters were passing by above me and then continuing below me. They would get to the bottom long before I did!

I barely caught the Three Sisters in this photo as they descended above me.

After I had gotten all the way down to my house farther east, I got a text from my partner saying the ponies were at the northwest corner of the pasture at the bottom, about three-quarters of a mile to the west. They had apparently had as much fun traveling the hill as I did, though going a much longer distance in less time!

Willowtrail Wild Rose mid-descent with my canine companion Ace at right.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2024

Humble Pie and Summer Blacks

Over the course of the few months it took him to read the book, my nephew would give me reports via video chat. It finally became clear I needed to read the book, too, and I gave him a book report back. His response was, “Your comment about making a regular diet of humble pie made me laugh, but I think it’s a good philosophy to live by.”

What if the summer black color is an asset rather than a sign of nutrient defiiciency?!

The book was 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann. I thought I was aware of the newer understanding of how Native Americans worked with the environment of the Americas to support their lives. This book, though, made me realize I had no idea how extensive their stewardship was and how large their populations were that were supported by that stewardship. Hence my comment about needing to make a regular diet of humble pie; there will always be more to learn, and I’d best not get too set in my way of thinking about things!

Since I spend a lot of time everyday thinking about Fell Ponies, I wondered what might be cause for eating humble pie on that topic. Immediately what came to mind was the color summer black. I started my Fell Pony career with two jet black Fell Ponies, but a few years later I learned that black ponies also come in a variety that fades in the summer. The conventional wisdom was that it was a copper deficiency that led to the fading, and indeed I have been able to keep the fading black ponies that have since joined my herd blacker by supplementing with copper. Since copper also is a necessary nutrient for the immune system, I felt it was an important way for me to support the health of my ponies in many ways.

My ponies and I lived at high altitude in Colorado for many years, where summer temperatures were moderate. Since moving to South Dakota, we have had to get used to hotter summer weather, and for the first time I have seen my ponies sweat not from exertion but from heat. I am grateful for the many sheds and forms of natural cover available to them so they can get out of the sun when they want to.

My serving of humble pie came spontaneously. What if a fading black coat is an adaptation for hot summers because it doesn’t absorb quite as much heat as a jet black coat? I can make many arguments about why it’s still important to supplement copper, but I will try to be open to the idea that if my ponies’ coats fade, the change in color may be helpful to them, too!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2024

“Fell Pony Hair and Copper” is one of the chapters in my book Fell Ponies: Observations on the Breed, the Breed Standard, and Breeding, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.