Eyes in the Back of My Head

My first horsemanship mentor had three stallions at their facility when I was visiting and helping out there. They also kept my first Fell Pony stallion after I bought him until I felt my horsemanship was up to having a stallion at my place. One of the first rules they shared with me was, “Never turn your back on a stallion.”

I now have my fifth Fell Pony stallion. The relatively mellow nature of our breed means it can be easy to be complacent around stallions, so I try to keep my mentor’s advice in mind. For me, it is often about turning on ‘the eyes in the back of my head’ when I turn my back to a stallion. I raise my awareness of where the pony is and how far from me before I turn my back to them, keeping my senses tuned so that I return my gaze to them if they approach me so I can manage our interaction.

Now that it is spring, there is green grass in my stallion grazing paddock. The gate is at the bottom of the incline that is the stallion paddock, so I walk with my stallion from the top to the bottom. I have taught him to walk calmly beside me with no tack, stopping and starting when I do. Nonetheless, his energy can be high in anticipation of green grass, and because it’s breeding season, mares and mating are on his mind. So I am extra mindful about watching using either the eyes in the front or the back of my head.

At the bottom of the hill, I ask him to stop ten feet from the gate and stand still. If he moves, I ask him to return to where I left him. Then I move to the gate to open it. The eyes in the back of my head get a workout since I turn my back to my stallion to get the gate unlatched. Once I have the gate ready to open, I make sure my stallion is still listening to my direction, only moving toward the grazing paddock when I invite him.

I am always mindful of how quick our ponies can be. A colleague told me a story of entering a paddock where there was a three-year-old colt (‘colt’ because he hadn’t bred any mares yet.) My colleague, like me, headed across the paddock to open another gate and in an instant the colt had jumped on them from behind, knocking them to the ground. My colleague is an excellent horseman and took full responsibility for the accident, knowing that they had turned their back on a stallion without fully activating the eyes in the back of their head.

It was very easy to imagine how this sort of accident could have happened. There’s a reason my first mentor gave her rule about never turning your back on a stallion. My stallion has days where he is especially rambunctious and he finds it challenging to contain himself on our walk down the hill towards the gate to the grazing paddock. On those days he will shoulder into me to try to initiate some sort of game, sometimes trotting in place and then trotting off if he gets the reaction from me he is seeking.

I am thankful that my colleague shared their story about their young stallion jumping them. It has helped me to be more mindful to open the eyes in the back of my head when I am with my stallion.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2021

Gone in a Single Gust!

At another time when wind took his hay, Asi gave me a look asking for help. Not quite as astonished as the first time!

I went to feed my Fell Pony stallion Asi midday as usual. The weather had turned windy, enough to warrant a weather advisory. I had a second neck gaiter on for the occasion, and I flipped my hood up for extra protection. At Asi’s paddock, I filled a tub with hay and let myself through the gate. I then began spreading hay along the sixty-foot-or-so path that I usually follow, a large handful every pony length or two so that Asi moves as he’s eating as he would while grazing.

He had begun eating at the first pile I dropped, and I continued along the path. As I reached the end, I felt a stronger-than-average wind gust hit my back and watched hay blow past me and out of the paddock under the fence. I looked back where I’d come from, and every bit of hay that I had put out for Asi was completely gone. While that was surprising, what was priceless was the look of utter shock on Asi’s face. His lunch had disappeared before he’d even had a chance to taste it! Of course I didn’t react fast enough to capture his expression. The photo here is a poor approximation at a similar moment when the wind had once again scoured all the hay from his pen. For the duration of the high wind event, I gave him intact wafers in one place that the wind couldn’t easily relocate!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2021

There are more stories like this one in my book What an Honor, 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.

Our Good-Minded Stallions

The kindness and relative docility of most Fell Pony stallions is often remarked upon.  One multi-supreme champion stallion was especially valued because he threw good-tempered offspring that young women could easily handle in the show ring.  And with the majority of Fell Pony owners today being female, good-tempered ponies of all genders are important for the safety of pony and people alike and for the reputation of our breed.

Why might it be that our stallions are generally so well-regarded?  Here’s what Dr. Deb Bennett said in an article about the evolution of mountain horses in North America.  I think it applies just as easily to the history of the Fell Pony in Cumbria.  “Our pioneer ancestors had no time for difficult horses.  They valued good-mindedness as much as soundness.”  (1)  I think it’s very likely that today we are blessed with good-minded stallions because for generations they have been selected for by hill breeders who had no time for challenging temperaments, no matter how good the pony was otherwise. 

Dr. Bennett then touched on a business case for producing good-minded equines.  “All sectors of the horse industry would do well to remember that today, comparatively few people have the knowledge or experience to work successfully with horses who are flighty or aggressive.  Any breed that consistently markets good-minded horses who are easy to break in and train is at an advantage now even more than in our great grandfathers’ time.” With fewer and fewer people taking up the equestrian life, it seems paramount to the success of any breed that good-mindedness be a focus.  We with Fell Ponies may have an advantage!

1)      Bennett, Deb, PhD.  “In Praise of Good-Mindedness,” Equus, #489 June 2018, p. 70.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2018

More ponderings 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.