Ponies Frequently Found Behind Rare Lines

Waverhead Rob is a pony frequently seen in pedigrees of rare bloodlines. Photo by Miss Jane Glass of the Wolds Stud where he stood

I noted in a previous article on my 2019 rare bloodlines study that the Dene and Greenfield studs were rare and contributed their rareness to many ponies on my 2019 rare lines list. The Gibside stud is now in the same category. Some Linnel, Sleddale, Guards, Waverhead, and Lownthwaite ponies are rare and contribute their rarity to ponies on the list. Most of these studs are or were of long standing, so it isn’t really surprising that they have some lines that are rare.

Shown here as a senior citizen, Townend Samuel is also found behind many ponies with rare bloodlines, especially in North America. Courtesy Claire Simpson

As I was reviewing the pedigrees of the ponies on the rare bloodlines list, several specific ponies kept appearing as ancestors behind the rare lines. They are shown in Table 1 below. In addition to listing these ancestors of today’s rare bloodlines, Table 1 shows the frequency with which these ancestors appear in the 2006 and 2018 foal crops. It is notable that only four of the seventeen ponies in Table 1 show up less frequently in 2018 than they did in 2006. Breeders are always searching for outcrosses, and these ponies, with the four exceptions, have served that purpose, with more foals in 2018 being born with these ancestors behind them than were born in 2006.

Several of these ponies were highly thought of at the time of their contributions to our breed’s genetics. I discussed Linnel Romany Boy and Border Black Prince in a previous article. Waverhead Rob was Appleby Show champion as a yearling and later was the winner of the Supreme Champion progeny group at the National Pony Society Show in 1973.

Lownthwaite Drake, a pony sometimes found behind rare bloodlines. Photo courtesy Ruth Eastwood.

According to the History page of the Lownthwaite Stud website, Lownthwaite Star Trek was “…described by the late Mr Joseph Dargue, president of the Fell Pony Society, as the best Fell Pony he had ever seen.” Star Trek was Supreme Champion at the FPS Breed Show in 1973, but her showing career was cut short by a freak accident resulting in a broken shoulder. She was able, though, to raise ten foals.

Lownthwaite Starbright II is a daughter of Lownthwaite Star Trek, a pony often found behind rare bloodlines.

Lownthwaite Drake was sired by Townend Samuel and out of the Lownthwaite Startrek line. Michael Rawlinson wrote in the Spring 2002 FPS Newsletter: “I bought him at Wigton Horse Sales, in 1988 for £165 where he was champion foal. I took him to the Stallion Show in 1989 and he stood 2nd in the Yearling class out of fifteen. At the summer Breed Show that same year he won the Yearling Colt or Gelding Class and at Keighley Show he won the Yearling to Three-Year-Old Class. In 1990 at the Stallion Show he won the 2 Year Old Class, was the Junior Champion and also the Overall Reserve Champion of the day. I sold him to Gordon Sutcliffe in the spring as I moved to Scotland and could not take him with me. Gordon kept him for two years using him at stud… (Bishopdale prefix) and then sold him to Walter Lloyd (Hades Hill prefix) who kept him until he died of tetanus in 2001.” (1)

Tarnmoor Prince. Courtesy Ruth Eastwood

Tarnmoor Prince was twice champion at the Fell Pony Society Stallion Show. He also received at-home premiums in 1988 and 1992 for covering a high number of registered Fell mares.

Frizington Duke and Christine Robinson at the FPS Stallion Show in 1987. Courtesy Christine Robinson

Twislehhope Druid was on display at the Open Day at Twislehope in the early 1970s. “The stallion T. Druid was brought out for us to see and very well he looked, too. We saw him ridden and then jumped over some little fences which he did beautifully.” (2) In the Autumn 1995 newsletter, Druid was pictured “with his mares and foals in the Scottish Border hills. Druid lived to 28 years old – still covering mares and being ridden. He had spent a working life hunting with the Liddesdale Foxhounds. In his last spring he proved he was still a working horse and cleared a five-barred gate at a trot!” (3)

Twislehope Druid sired Twislehope Rupert who stood at the Drybarrows stud and other places. David Thompson of the Drybarrows stud remembers, “When I was maybe eleven or twelve years old, I remember going with Dad and Sarge Noble to see a pony. We went to Molly Laing’s yard to look at a two or three year old colt. Sarge said ‘Don’t leave the yard without that pony,’ and we didn’t. Twislehope Rupert was the only pony Dad ever showed. He stood second at the stallion show. He was a good horse and bred well for Dad.” (4)

Christine Robinson stood Frizington Duke at her Kerbeck stud. “I rode Duke in the middle of a housing estate, and he wasn’t bothered, so I bought him. He was four years old. He became my favorite pony of all time. We did so much together. We literally did everything. Once I drove him to a show then we competed that day under saddle, working hunter, and driven. I rode and drove him at home for pleasure, took hay to the mares on him, took him hunting once or twice a week in season, and did pony club games. It was easy to compete him driving because he didn’t need a groom; he was that well behaved. I qualified him for NPS national driving champion one year. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. I retained lots of his fillies, and I still have two mares by him; they’re in their twenties now.” (5)

Whenever we are pondering rare bloodlines, it is important to keep two caveats in mind:

1. The older stud books of the Fell Pony Society (prior to DNA testing) occasionally do not have accurate parentage/pedigree information. Therefore we cannot necessarily draw accurate conclusions about ancestors of today’s ponies.

2. Sometimes bloodlines become rare for a reason. Breeders may have chosen not to propagate the lines, possibly because they did not represent proper Fell Pony type. Unless we have seen a particular pony in person, it is hard to make that judgment ourselves.

One of the great benefits of this rare bloodlines research has been corresponding with people who knew many of these ponies and shared photographs and/or stories of their relations. I am grateful to Alison Bell, Claire Simpson, Liz Whitely, Ruth Eastwood, Michael Goddard, David Thompson, and Libby Robinson and perhaps others to whom I apologize for having forgotten them.

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1. Rawlinson, Michael. “Lownthwaite Drake,” Fell Pony Society Newsletter Spring 2002, p. 58.

2. Brook, Joan. “Open Day at Twislehope,” Fell Pony News Volume III, p. 23

3. Photo caption of Twislehope Druid in Fell Pony Society Newsletter Autumn 1995, p. 26.

4. Morrissey, Jenifer. “Another Chapter: The Drybarrows Fell Ponies,” Fell Pony Express, June 2017, Fell Pony Society of North America, p. 20.

5. Morrissey, Jenifer. “Christine Robinson and the Kerbeck Fell Ponies,” Spring/Summer 2015, Fell Pony Express, Fell Pony Society of North America, p. 29.

Rare Bloodlines Revisited – North American and Dutch Divergence?

In my 2019 analysis of rare bloodlines in the Fell Pony, nearly 40% of the ponies on the list were born outside the United Kingdom. Most of these were North America-born and the rest were born in The Netherlands. (To read the overview of my 2019 analysis, click here. )

Kimberlake Lady Belle is one of the North American ponies that shows up on the worldwide rare bloodlines list. With both of her parents being North American-born, the question must be asked if our North American herd is diverging from the worldwide population.

My similar study completed a decade ago didn’t have this large non-UK population on the rare bloodlines list, so the obvious question is: are we beginning to see a divergence in bloodlines between the UK and the two other largest populations of Fell Ponies? This question comes to mind because several of the North American ponies on the worldwide rare bloodlines list are not from particularly rare lines within the context of the North American population. For instance, Laurelhighland Jack of Diamonds and his sire Laurelhighland Union Jack appear near the top of the worldwide rare bloodlines list but are near the bottom of the list for North America. Since they were bred at the most prolific of our North American studs, they are related to many of the other ponies on this continent.

Table 1 shows the non-UK sires and dams that show up at the top of the rare bloodlines list based on 2017 and 2018 foal crops. In addition to considering the relative ranking on the local versus worldwide lists, there are two other ways to consider whether the ponies in Table 1 are evidence of diverging bloodlines:

• How many of the non-UK ponies’ ancestors were non-UK born? If a particular North American pony, for instance, has one or more North American-born ancestors, then that pony would have fewer ancestors in common with UK ponies and would therefore be computed as being less related to the worldwide population. To determine the number of non-UK ancestors, I looked at the pedigree of each pony and counted the ponies with non-UK names/prefixes. This tally is shown in the column in Table 1 titled “# non-UK ponies behind.” The greatest depth that non-UK ponies reach in a pedigree is 2 (a grandparent.) Wiranda van Nuova, a Dutch-born mare, has a value of 4 in this column, with both her parents being Dutch-born and both her granddams being Dutch-born.

• How have the grandparents of these rare bloodline non-UK-born ponies contributed to the modern foal crop? By looking back two generations and seeing if those ponies are common or not in pedigrees of modern day ponies, we can get a better indication of whether the non-UK-ponies truly represent rare bloodlines. This analysis can be completed by looking at what percentage of the 2018 foal crop trace back to the grandsires and granddams of the ponies on the rare bloodline list. By averaging the percentages, it is then possible to compare the rarity of these non-UK ponies to each other. This analysis is shown in the column in Table 1 titled “Sum of Grandparent %.” A lower number indicates less contribution by the four grandparents to the worldwide population, and a higher number indicates more contribution. For instance, Laurelhighland Lyric, with the highest value in that column at more than 10%, has behind her grandsires that are relatively popular: Waverhead Prince II (represented in 20% of the 2018 foal crop) and Townend Samuel (represented in 15% of the 2018 foal crop). By comparison, Angelmeadow Crown Jules has a relatively low value of 1.18% because his grandparents are all resident in North America and have not had broad use.

The results of these two analyses support the hypothesis that UK and non-UK bloodlines are diverging. For a given pony on the list, as more of its ancestors are non-UK born, the less its grandparents are contributing to the worldwide population. For example, the mare Wildhoeve Romy has four foreign-born ancestors, and her grandparents on average are represented in only 1.66% of the 2018 foal crop. By comparison, Olimpia de Knip, who has no foreign-born ancestors, has relatively more relatives in the worldwide population with her grandparents on average being represented in 5.47% of the 2018 foal crop. Nonetheless Olimpia has numerous rare lines, qualifying her for the rare bloodline list.

Here are other key findings:

The late Waverhead Robbie, shown in 2004,  is behind the majority of the North American ponies on the rare bloodlines list; his offspring are the only descendants of his dam.

• The late Waverhead Robbie, imported to North America in 1994, is behind many of the North American ponies in Table 1. While his sire is somewhat common, Robbie represents the only continuation of his dam’s line in the current worldwide Fell Pony population, resulting in many of his descendants appearing in Table 1.

• When a pony is linebred, especially more than twice, the number of its ancestors is reduced so it has fewer opportunities to be related to the rest of the population. If the pony on which it is linebred is relatively common, then while the numbers may say that the pony represents a rare bloodline, in fact it has plenty of relatives in the population. Kimberlake Lady Belle and Maxiem van de Koekoekshof are examples; they are both heavily linebred on the oft-used stallion Heltondale Heather Lad. Because they also have rare outcrosses, they still qualify to be on the rare bloodlines list.

• The Dutch ponies in Table 1 have more generations of non-UK ponies (values of 4 and 3) than the North American ponies (values of 2 and 1), reflecting the fact that the Dutch began their Fell Pony program in earnest before North America did.

The divergence between bloodlines in the UK and the two largest foreign populations in North America and The Netherlands isn’t surprising. In fact, this sort of divergence is to be expected over time as relatively fewer ponies are imported and more ponies are born locally. It is important, however, that we know that the divergence is taking place so that worldwide breed management decisions can take it into account. For instance, in time, North American-born ponies may be interesting outcrosses for populations elsewhere, as the Dutch population has been in recent years for UK breeders. Finally, this sort of divergence is not a problem for the breed as long as the ponies born outside the UK are still displaying proper type.

(c) Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

Rare Bloodlines Revisited – ‘05/’06 Study Reconsidered

Introduction

Globetrotter Nimrod is one of the ponies on the ‘06/’07 rare bloodlines list. Courtesy Libby Robinson

I did my first identification of rare bloodlines in Fell Ponies in 2008 based on the sires and dams of the 2006 and 2007 foal crops. At that time, there were a number of Dutch Fell Ponies for whom I had incomplete pedigrees. Thanks to detailed research done for me by Joke Postma of the Westerkwartier stud in The Netherlands, all pedigrees are now complete in my database. As a result, I have an updated list of rare bloodlines from the 2006/2007 time period. I used the same methodology as for the current timeframe analysis, as described in my previous article. To read the previous article, click here.

My key findings from my updated analysis of ‘06/’07 are:

• The complete Dutch pedigrees resulted in changes to the list.

• A decade on from the first analysis, it’s now possible to look at whether the bloodlines that were rare in ‘06/’07 are still in our population or if they’ve been lost.

• As before, a number of ponies show up repeatedly behind the ponies on the new list, indicating that they are a source of rarity.

Changes to the List

Having complete Dutch pedigrees resulted in nine ponies previously on the list to drop off. Apparently their ancestors were also behind some of the Dutch ponies for whom I previously had incomplete pedigrees, so they were more related to the rest of the breeding population than previously indicated. Nine ponies were then added to the list. The new list is shown in Table 1.

(c) Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

Lost Bloodlines?

Fifty seven percent of the ponies representing rare bloodlines in Table 1 have no progeny in 2017 or 2018. They are indicated by a ‘no’ in the second column of Table 1 titled “in 2017-18?” These bloodlines are therefore at risk of being lost to the breed.

Sources of Rarity

Linnel Rapier II is behind a few ponies on the rare bloodlines list for ’06-’07. Rapier qualified for Olympia with Debbie Boylan in 2001 only months after having been broken in for the first time. Courtesy Fell Pony Society

As I found previously, the Dene and Greenfield studs were rare and contributed their rareness to many ponies on the list. The Gibside stud is now in the same category. Some Linnel, Sleddale, Guards, Waverhead, and Lownthwaite ponies are rare and contribute their rarity to ponies on the list. Other ponies that show up frequently behind rare ponies are Frizington Duke and Twislehope Druid and Rupert.

Two of the rare Linnel ponies are the stallions Romany Boy and Rapier II. In a 1980 Fell Pony Society newsletter, there was a story about Romany Boy. “The Ponies of Britain run a very successful stallion award scheme for the stallion whose progeny win the most at the Ponies of Britain shows held at Ascot, Kelso and Peterborough. Mr. R. B. Charlton, whose famous Linnel ponies have done so much to publicise the breed, knew nothing of the scheme until his stallion, Linnel Romany Boy, was reserve of all the native stallions in 1975 and a letter notified him of his success. Linnel Romany Boy went on to win the award outright in 1976, 1977 and 1978 - probably a record for any native breed in the country, and a great honour for the Fell breed.” (1)

Likewise, in a 2000 newsletter there was mention of Linnel Rapier II. “It was a fine, cold morning as we met at [Lownthwaite Fell Pony stud] lying under Cross Fell. Our first glimpse was of the stallion, Linnel Rapier II, in his paddock. He was a handsome animal who looked thoroughly pleased with himself and delighted to have admiring visitors to parade in front of, as only a stallion could. He exuded kindness and generosity as well as power and strength. Christine [Morton] told us he had never had his back feet picked up or his teeth rasped but the evidence seemed to be that here in his natural environment both feet and teeth were in fine fettle.” (2) The next year, Rapier II was sold on and backed and in just a few months qualified for the prestigious holiday show Olympia with Debbie Boylan. “He was just so incredibly easy according to Debbie, had the most wonderful temperament, and just loved people!” (3)

Caveat About Rare Lines

Whenever considering rare bloodlines, it is important to remember that some ponies may have become rare for a reason. They may have had some congenital defect, a temperament fault or not be true-to-type for the breed. I personally know of examples of some of these conditions in the list here. The perspective of time for this list from ‘06/’07 lets us see what breeders have decided so far. On the other hand, some of the ponies on this list, such as Globetrotter Nimrod, do not have current descendants in the breeding population, but Nimrod has a full sibling who continues to contribute to our breed’s population. So just because Nimrod is not represented now, the lines behind him are represented through his sister Polikarpov. Nimrod’s case reminds us that making judgments about rare lines requires great care.

Still to come are reflections on the divergence of North American and Dutch lines and more consideration of ponies often found behind rare lines.

1. “Notes from Here and There,” Fell Pony Society Newsletter, 1980, Volume 5.

2. “Mid-East England,” Fell Pony Society Newsletter, Autumn 2000, p. 31.

3. “Olympia Qualifiers,” Fell Pony Society Newsletter, Autumn 2001, p. 32-3.

Rare Bloodlines Revisited 2019 - Overview

Introduction

Border Black Prince, foaled 1987, is behind many of the ponies on the rare bloodlines list. Photo courtesy Michael Goddard

I did my first identification of rare bloodlines in Fell Ponies in 2007 based on the sires and dams of the 2005 and 2006 foal crops. I have now completed a second analysis of rare bloodlines. It updates the 2007 study and then analyzes the sires and dams of the 2017 and 2018 foal crops. This article provides an overview of the research. Subsequent articles will go into more depth about the various findings.

Methodology

How does one identify a rare bloodline? One tool is the Mean Kinship analysis. Mean Kinship (MK) is a calculation that measures the relatedness of a particular pony to the rest of the ponies in a given population. I have a database of Fell Pony pedigrees and the ability to run the MK analysis on sires and dams of foals born in a particular year. This sort of MK analysis gives insight into our breeding population.

My database only includes ponies appearing in the stud books of the Fell Pony Society. In addition to UK ponies, FPS registers ponies from The Netherlands as well as from the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Denmark. I know there are purebred ponies being born in Australia, and I suspect there are also purebred ponies born in Germany that are not registered with FPS. Ponies from those populations are not currently in my database.

For an MK analysis, I can specify how many generations are considered in the computations. I chose to include five generations. Almost ten percent of the ponies in the 2018 sire/dam analysis did not have full five generation pedigrees. In 2006, that number was 14.5%, so with time, as would be expected with a closed stud book, pedigrees are becoming more complete. Incomplete pedigrees exist due to: 1) the inspection scheme and grading up program instituted in the 1960s, and 2) prior to the inspection scheme, some ponies were registered without complete pedigrees.

For the purposes of my current study, a rare bloodline is defined as one having low relatedness to the rest of the population. When using Mean Kinship to identify rare lines, a low mean kinship value means low relatedness to the rest of the population. There are occasions, however, when a low MK may not mean a rare bloodline. For instance, if a pedigree only goes back two or three generations, that pony may have a low MK value because it has fewer ancestors to compare with those of other ponies. But since we don’t know what other ponies might be behind the pony with the short pedigree, I’ve opted to keep ponies with low MKs and short pedigrees in my analysis.

A second case where a low MK may not be a rare bloodline is if a particular pony is itself inbred, meaning it has the same pony in its pedigree multiple times. In that case, the pony may have a low MK value, but the low MK value may at least be in part due to the fact that the pony has fewer relatives (because of replication of some ancestors) to compare to the rest of the population. Therefore, its low MK value may not accurately reflect how it should be ranked as a conservation priority.

Globetrotter Polikarpov has a low mean kinship value from being linebred on the Dene stud and having the rare Linnel Rapier behind her.

courtesy Libby Robinson

For example, Darrenvale Dior, a dam of a 2017 foal, has a low MK value but her pedigree shows repeats of the popular stallion Lunesdale Jerry four times. Yet she also has numerous rare ancestors. On the other hand, the mare Globetrotter Polikarpov who also had a foal in 2017 also has a very low MK value. This mare has numerous ponies from the Dene stud behind her, a rare line, with repeats of the stallion Linnel Rapier from another rare line. Polikarpov might therefore be considered a higher conservation priority than Dior.

After pondering the problem of low MK values by high inbreeding, I’ve come up with an analysis that will identify the rarest of the rare, taking into account replication within a pedigree. Because it will be quite time consuming, I have opted to present the current state of my research and will return to that more detailed analysis at a later time. 

For my current analysis, I took the 20 ponies with the lowest mean kinships from each of the two years under consideration, ‘06/’07 and ‘17/’18. By taking two years at a time, mares who are not bred every year are more likely to be considered in the analysis. I combined the ’06 and ’07 top 20 into a single list and the same for the ’17 and ’18 top 20. For each of those two top 40 lists, I removed ponies that were duplicated and combined full siblings into a single entry. Finally, I annotated the list with the source of rarity of each pony. Table 1 shows the ‘17/’18 list.

(c) Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

Incomplete Dutch Pedigrees Resolved

I did my first analysis of rare bloodlines in 2007 based on the sires and dams of the 2005 and 2006 foal crops. At that time, there were a number of Dutch Fell Ponies for whom I had incomplete pedigrees, meaning the analysis was not as accurate as it could be. Thanks to detailed research done for me by Joke Postma of the Westerkwartier stud in The Netherlands, all pedigrees are now complete in my database. As a result, I have an updated list of rare bloodlines from the 2005/2006 time period.

North American and Dutch Divergence?

One result of the more recent analysis that jumped out was the number of North American ponies that showed up on the list. With over a quarter of the ponies on the list being born in North America, one has to wonder if our bloodlines on this side of the pond are diverging from the worldwide population. With the growing popularity of the breed here, this is a natural progression and only becomes a concern if our ponies start diverging in type as well. As long as we maintain good type in our ponies, as our stock genetically diverges, our ponies become more valuable as outcrosses for the worldwide population. In addition to the presence of North American ponies on the rare bloodlines list, two Dutch ponies and one German pony also showed up.

The Netherlands has been importing and breeding Fell Ponies as long or longer than North America has, yet there are fewer Dutch ponies on the recent rare bloodlines list than North America. There are several possible explanations for this difference. In the US, one breeder is responsible for a significant percentage of our homebred ponies, while in the Netherlands there are many smaller breeders contributing to the homebred population. There is less concentration, then, of stallion lines in The Netherlands versus in the US. Also, Dutch breeders tend to export ponies back to the UK for breeding at a higher rate than North America does, making the Dutch and UK populations somewhat more similar in terms of bloodlines. I’ve removed the German, Dutch and North American ponies from the rare bloodlines list for this first version of Table 1. I will revisit the North American and Dutch ponies in a future article.

Mare Lines

Three of the ponies in Table 1 are stallions, so more than 80% of the rare lines listed are mares. This is not surprising, since stallions are used more often than mares so will be more often repeated in pedigrees than mares. And sometimes mares are the only living progeny of a stallion line, for instance the stallion Swineside Lad is only represented today through the progeny of Bowthorne June and Lucky Jewel.

Pony Type

I was concerned by one anecdotal finding of my research. When I reached out to fellow breeders for pictures to illustrate this article, a few of them remarked what a good pony type the pony in the photograph was. For me a Fell Pony is indeed a pony, yet to my eye we have many horsey looking purebred Fell Ponies. For pony types to be represented in the rare bloodlines list is therefore very disappointing. I understand that there may have been other reasons those ponies have been selected out of the gene pool, but I also know that proper ponies can sometimes be hard to find in our breed.

More to Come

In future stories, we’ll be looking more closely at the North American and Dutch ponies in the rare bloodlines list. The ‘06/’07 list also needs to be revisited since the Dutch pedigrees are now all complete. In addition, a few ponies show up frequently on the list and need to be identified. So, more to come!