South Dakota Wind

I learned a new word the other day.  My friend Bruce asked if I survived the perihelion.  I told him I wouldn’t know until I looked it up.  I asked him if it explained the intense wind we had that day.  He said he didn’t know.  (Perihelion occurs about two weeks after the December solstice, when the earth is closest to the sun.  It isn’t thought to affect wind.)

The wind blew hard all day, so I used that as an excuse to not go out riding my pony Willowtrail Wild Rose midday like I usually do.  Instead, I finished a bunch of office work and ran to town to put things in the mail, then hustled back with just enough daylight left for a ride.  And the wind laid down!   One serious gust blew as I headed to the barn, but during my ride, the breeze varied from light to still.  And the evening was once again glorious with incredible color in the sky.  I felt so fortunate.

One thing I really noticed about the recent heavy wind is that because it was relatively warm, it turned the snow in many places to ice.  Bruce told me that ice is the greatest challenge in winter here, and now I understand what he means.  On my ride, I guided Rose around icy spots as best I could.  She was patient the few times she slipped.  Generally, though, we found enough good footing to make the ride enjoyable.

When I first told people I was moving to South Dakota, they pitied me for wind and cold.  So far I believe what I’ve been told:  that I’m living in the Banana Belt of the state; the temperatures haven’t been as extreme (yet) as I had in Colorado.  And I’m told the wind isn’t bad here compared to the rest of the state.  I notice it a lot more because of the deciduous trees around the house; I’m not used to the sound they make when the wind blows after living in a lodgepole pine forest for so many years!

If the wind I’ve experienced so far is part of what makes this place what it is, then I accept it.  I’m very blessed to be able to be here, riding Rose at sunset under a stupendously colored sky.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

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

Hair Care: Supplementing Fats

I recently had visitors who were new to Fell Ponies.  They asked about hair care.  They observed the long manes on my ponies that were free of tangles, and they asked how often I brush them.  ‘Almost never’ was my reply.  I have found that the best way to get healthy and silky hair – coat but also mane, tail, forelock and feather – is to feed for it.  Then whenever I see a tangle starting to develop in the mane, rarely more often than every few weeks, I take the tangle out.

Here’s how I feed for healthy hair:

• Balanced and comprehensive vitamins and loose, free-choice minerals

• Copper supplementation (click here for a blog post on that topic)

• Good quality fats

It has always puzzled me why people add oils like corn and soybean to their equines’ rations.  Oils are the farthest thing from natural in an equine diet.  But then I read the following:  “Fat from any source will make your horse shiny….  Any fat will do; the type of dietary fat doesn’t matter when it comes to making the hair coat shine…”  (1)  So that explains one reason why people add oils to their equines’ diets:  shiny coats.  Another explanation is likely that the equine’s owner is making a laudable attempt to replace starches and sugars in their equines’ diets with fat as an energy source.

But then the quote above had an important caveat.  “Any fat will do; the type of dietary fat doesn’t matter when it comes to making the hair coat shine – but it sure does matter when it comes to your horse’s health.”  The point here is that a proper balance between Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids is crucial for equine health, just as it is for people. 

Pasture/grass has the proper balance.  Finding equally balanced supplementation when our equines do not have access to fresh grass can be more tricky.  Corn and soybean oil are heavy on the Omega 6s which can lead to inflammation if fed in sufficient quantity.  Flaxseed has been fed to equines since at least the 1850s. It is gaining popularity because it has a more favorable ratio, but how flaxseed is fed is crucial to its effectiveness.  But there are benefits of special interest to pony owners who are vexed by a problem some ponies face.  Researchers at the University of Guelph in Canada “found evidence that the fatty acid source flaxseed can potentially reduce the allergic inflammatory response in horses susceptible to biting midges (Culicoides),” also known as sweet itch. (2)  “Also, omega-3s could have beneficial effects for horses suffering from inflammatory diseases such as heaves and osteoarthritis. Researchers have not yet determined the exact physiological mechanism to these benefits, and more research is needed to further examine flaxseed’s role in immune response.” (3)

Another Omega 3 source starting to show up in equine rations is chia seed.  It is higher in Omega 3s than flaxseed and is more digestible without processing.  Chia seeds are an ancient grain of the Aztecs and Mayans.  “Legend has it that when the Spanish conquered Mesoamerica, they banned the seeds, attributing the fierceness of the indigenous warriors to a diet of chia.” (4)  “Unlike flaxseeds, chia seeds have softer hulls and can be fed whole.  While chia seeds are likely to have similar benefits as other Omega 3 sources, no scientific research has been conducted on feeding them to horses.” (5) 

There are other sources of healthy fats available for equines such as fish oil and whole extruded soybean meal, but as with flaxseed, the key is in the preparation to make them both palatable and nutrient-dense. Because my ponies are off fresh grass part of the year, I make sure they get good fats when they need them. I attribute the health of my ponies’ hair in part to the quality of the fats that I feed them.

1. Getty, Juliet M., PhD.  “Myth:  A Shiny Horse is a Healthy Horse,” Horse Journals, 5/21/14, at  https://www.horsejournals.com/myth-shiny-horse-healthy-horse

1. Getty, Juliet M. PhD.  “Feeding for Immunity,” the Horse, 12/3/12, article #118796 at thehorse.com

2. Janicki, Kristen M.  “5 Facts about Flax,” the Horse, 7/15/19, article #148473 at thehorse.com

3. “Flaxseeds or Chia Seeds:  Which do I feed my Horse?”, Biostar, 7/31/17 at https://www.biostarus.com/blogs/formulators-corner/flax-seeds-or-chia-seeds-which-do-i-feed-my-horse

4. Moore, Jennifer, PhD.  “Top Sources of Omega 3 Fatty Acids for Horses,” Equine Wellness, Jan/Feb/Mar 2020, p. 40

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

The Stories We Tell at the Holidays

At the holidays, we often tell stories at meals or in front of a fire or at other family gathering places.  It turns out those stories carry more weight than we might think.  Researchers at Emory University have found that adolescents and young adults, despite appearing distracted or uninterested, actually retain the stories they hear in family settings. (1)  Further, the research says that the stories provide important senses of identity for youth and may also help them navigate difficult emotions when they hear how other relatives have done the same.

After hearing about this research, I asked myself what story I would tell at the holidays if I had the chance.  It didn’t take long before I knew it would be about how important animals are in my life, especially this year.

When my husband was killed in an accident, I instantly knew I had to move, but I didn’t know where.  And I knew I wanted to keep my ponies, but I didn’t know how.  Then the shock that took over my body wore off, and it was easy to think about just lying in bed.  But the ponies needed to be fed and the dogs needed to be let out, so I got up and going.  Over and over again.  Day in, day out, several times a day.  In hindsight it was a great way to put my grief in context.  While life was different, it also went on in many ways as it had before.

I spent that first month after Don’s death ‘poking the universe,’ seeing how it responded to various ideas about where to go and what animals to keep.  I chose not to view feedback from the universe as good or bad but rather as information.  Reactions came as useful information or nothing at all. 

Despite thinking that my ponies and dogs would be with me until the end of their days, I knew I was physically unable to care for all of them alone.  I poked the universe, and suddenly there were opportunities that made alternative realities easier to ponder.  As it turned out, I placed four ponies very quickly in fabulous homes and two dogs also in great places.  But I still needed a place for me to land, hopefully with the ponies that I still had.

I have my dog Tika to thank for solving that part of the puzzle of my new life.  The people who bred her had evolved from acquaintances to friends and had even started learning about Fell Ponies.  They reached out soon after they heard about Don’s death, and what they offered fit like a proverbial glove.  Every time I poked the universe about it, the reaction came back richer than the time before.  It felt then and continues to feel like a miracle, and strangely at the same time it feels like a natural evolution of things.  As one small example, they were disappointed that they sold Tika, and now they have her back!

I’m still dealing with transitioning my life.  And my dog and ponies are still helping me navigate the tough emotions that sometimes surface.  Tika still needs to be let out, and on occasion she gets very intense hugs when I need to give one and get one back.  And while the ponies don’t require as much feeding now that many of them are on pasture, they still like to see me and appreciate their feed buckets.  Some of them are even pretty good at receiving and returning hugs!  I always come back inside feeling better than when I went out. 

Prior to Don’s death I had never lived alone, sharing living space with family or a roommate or a spouse.  While I may no longer share living space with a person, I do have a new appreciation for the companionship I have from my animals.  I recognize now that companionship has dimensions far beyond what I previously understood.  While it isn’t uncommon to be given support and assistance from people when one is grieving, I can testify to the fact that animals are also capable of giving, and the assistance can be profoundly helpful.

So be sure to tell stories this holiday season, and don’t be afraid to let your stories evolve as you gain perspective.  If you can, include your animals in the tale.  Sometimes when people aren’t able to give us answers that we need, our animals can and do!

1. “The Psychological Benefits To Hearing Family Stories This Thanksgiving,” All Things Considered, 11/26/19, npr.org

 © Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

More stories like this one can be found in my book The Partnered Pony, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

More Fell Ponies in South Dakota

Lori Welbig at Dakota Fells showing her obvious love of her ponies.

My ponies and I are newcomers to South Dakota, but there have been Fell Ponies in the state for a few years.  The first Fell Pony to arrive was a Willowtrail one:  Kathleen Beech has had Willowtrail Mountain Storm since he was weaned in 2014.  The second Fell Pony to the state was, I believe, Crystal Young’s Stonecreek Onyx whom she brought to Reclamation Ranch, a riding center with a broad spectrum of services from therapeutic riding to coaching to riding lessons. 

At the moment, the largest herd of Fell Ponies in the state is at Dakota Fells, owned by Lori Welbig and Rick Kruthoff.  Lori and Rick graciously welcomed my friend Linda and me to their home and herd.  We split our time between talking over breed characteristics and pedigrees and wandering amongst the ponies.  I very much appreciated Lori and Rick’s sincere interest in the breed and their many good questions, as well as their desire to put their ponies to traditional uses such as packing. 

Lori Welbig and Alison Emslie-Smith’s stallion Hardendale Henry

Lori and Rick also deserve credit in their breeding program.  They have been working with Alison Emslie-Smith of Garrighyll Fell Ponies in Minnesota to bring many of Alison’s imported ponies back into the North American breeding population, further diversifying the bloodlines here.  Rick and Lori have been standing Alison’s stallion Hardendale Henry, and have foals coming next year from some of Alison’s mares.

I have not had another Fell Pony breeder in such close proximity before, so I look forward to staying in touch and watching the evolution of the Fell Pony breed in South Dakota.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

Hiding!

A dark spot on an otherwise white landscape gave me a focus for my search for three missing ponies

I was doing midday chores, and it was time to bring the mares and foals into the corrals.  I had seen them at dawn off in the distance moving away, so I opted to bring them in later in the day rather than spend more time outdoors at zero degrees Fahrenheit.  When I started midday chores, they weren’t anywhere to be seen, so as I did preparatory things, I kept sweeping my gaze across the landscape.  Before long I saw one and then another come into view, heading my way. 

I counted my blessings as I welcomed the first pony and then the second, third, and fourth.  When the other three weren’t in view, I shut the first half of the herd in and pondered my search strategy.

There were six inches of snow on the ground, so I opted to follow the hoofprints of my arrivals back in the direction from which they’d come.  I went down into the ravine and up the other side then headed west, slowly climbing a small rise.  From that summit, I still didn’t see any ponies, so I kept tracking north.  Finally I saw something suspicious, a dark spot interrupting the white landscape.  It didn’t look like a pony, but it looked like a possibility, so I headed in that direction, thinking there’s an advantage to black and brown ponies versus grays in a winter landscape!

Found!

Slowly the dark spot began to take the shape of a foal’s hind end, sticking above the edge of a draw.  A few more minutes walking, and I arrived at the head of the draw where the two missing foals and the head mare were grazing.  I suspected the mare was hiding from me to avoid the discomfort of part-day weaning.  Nonetheless, she came to me as I approached and accepted the halter.  I tied the lead rope into reins and hopped on.  I hadn’t ridden her in awhile, but she carried me willingly where I needed us to go.  It was a thrill to be riding for the first time in some time across a beautiful landscape on a pony I love, the highlight of my day.

And a ride in that was the highlight of my day.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

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

Busted!

Mares and foals innocently following me into the corrals before I separated them for weaning. Such a tough process for all of us.

I received an email updating me about Mya the Wonder Pony. One of the stories made me chuckle.  Mya was my first pony and best friend for twenty years.  She’s now in semi-retirement with her new best friend Smith and his mom Ericka.  Ericka said she had decided to repurpose a heavy duty garbage can as hay storage.  She went out to fill it, and Mya was at the far end of the back lot.  By the time Ericka had returned to the house, she looked around, and Mya had come to investigate the garbage can, had tipped it over and popped the lid off and was feasting on the contents.  ‘Busted!’ was the caption to the photo Ericka sent me, as in ‘caught in the act!’  After I got done chuckling, I responded to Ericka’s email with ‘Busted’ stories of my own about Mya!

I hate the first day of weaning.  I try not to ‘hate’ but it’s just really hard on me to hear distress calls from my mares and foals.  It’s even more challenging this year because I have a mare that’s never been through the process before.  And we’re all in a new place with new routines and facilities so there’s not much familiar for the foals to fall back on when they’re separated from their dams.  I separated the mares and foals in the morning, putting the foals in a corral a couple of hundred yards away from my house, and the mares of course hung as near there as fences would allow.  The inevitable cries of distress from mothers and children weren’t as audible at that distance.

After dinner and dark, I sat down at my desk to work.  I was in the middle of a project requiring lots of concentration, so I hadn’t gone out for final feeding of ponies in the corrals at my usual time.  Suddenly there was a distress cry from my mare new to weaning, and it sounded like it was right outside my window.  It wasn’t, but it was at the fence as close to the house as she could get.  She could see me through the windows, and repeated her cry to me to ‘fix the problem.’  ‘Busted’ immediately came to mind – she could see me and ‘caught me in the act’ of ignoring her.  She repeated her call until I couldn’t ignore her anymore!

We will of course all survive weaning, and the good news is that the process is started and one day closer to being completed.  I will have to ignore distress cries that are normal to the process until those calls subside.  We’ll all be happier when that day comes, and until then we’ll muddle through the toughness together.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

You can find more stories about my life with Fell Ponies in my book What an Honor, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

The Purple Bucket

I woke up and tipped my head off the pillow to look out the window.  There through the trees I could see a pony walking across the hillside.  Such a blessing to have that view from my bed!  And it was such a contrast to the day before that I jumped up and headed out to greet my friends.

The previous day I had looked in all the usual places that the ponies like to be in the morning, and I didn’t find them.  Finally I discovered them far to the west, across a ravine.  So I was thrilled when they started heading to me as soon as they saw me, navigating the ravine themselves rather than me having to!

I gave the mares their vitamin buckets, then I greeted each of the foals and then the mares individually.  When everyone had had their fill of my attention, I went to pick up the buckets.  I found three, and then realized one was missing.  I surveyed the bench we were all standing on above the ravine and confirmed that it was nowhere to be found.  Then I chuckled and looked where I didn’t want to, and sure enough, there was the missing purple bucket at the bottom of the ravine.  I would have to navigate the steep climb after all!  Fortunately the view up towards the ponies was pretty awesome, especially when young Henry began descending to see what I was doing!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2018

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

Fell Ponies on My Road Trip

Kimber Bishop at Kimberlake Fell Ponies with some of her ponies and horses.

Whenever I travel away from my ponies, I try to incorporate something pony-related into my journey.  My recent trip was no exception.  I attended the Suffolk Horse Association annual meeting in St. Louis, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And then on the way home, I stopped and met two fellow Fell Pony breeders which was icing on the cake.

Like Fell Ponies, Suffolk Punch Horses are a rare breed and even more endangered.  I enjoying listening to the stewards of that breed talk about traveling stallions, looking for outcrosses, and striving to preserve type.  In January in Colorado there are two big draft horse shows, and it was disappointing to learn that Suffolks aren’t allowed to enter one of them because they aren’t Percherons, Belgians, Shires, or Clydesdales. Someday I’d like to hear more about that line of reasoning!  I also enjoyed watching the Y Bar Hitch of six Suffolk Punches pull an historic wagon around Suson Park.  If you’d like to see video I shot of the hitch, including getting to ride on the wagon, click here.

My first stop on the way home was at Kimberlake Fell Ponies between Kansas City and St. Louis.  Kimber Bishop was a warm and welcoming hostess as we toured around her paddocks and met all of her ponies save her homebred stallion and a gelding.  I had hoped to visit her stallion at a different location later in the day but I ran out of time.  I feel somewhat ‘related’ to Kimber and her ponies because two of hers are in Beverly Patrick’s four-in-hand that also includes Willowtrail Mountain Ranger.

Gina Schaffert of Prairie View Fell Ponies with her stallion.

My second stop was at Prairie View Fell Ponies in Aurora, Nebraska.  Gina Schaffert was likewise warm and welcoming, and I found her generosity of time amazing given she had a dog in labor that she needed to midwife!  On other trips to other places, I had met several of the parents of Gina’s ponies so it was fun to see full grown progeny.  I was surprised how much I enjoyed my time with her stallion, but I suppose I shouldn’t have been.  He is out of a Sleddale mare, distantly related to my first pony Sleddale Rose Beauty, and he captivated me!

I am grateful to all the breeders of Suffolk horses and Fell Ponies who made all those miles of driving worth enduring.  I always learn from other breeders and especially from seeing them with their ponies.  This time was no exception.  I came home looking at my ponies with fresh eyes, which is always a good thing!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

You can find many stories about breeders and breeding 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.

My New "Friend" Gumweed

I’ve now relocated my Fell Pony herd twice during my stewardship of the breed, and each of the three locations we’ve lived together have had tremendous good characteristics as well as occasional challenges.  It took my ponies less than a week to find the challenge in our current location. 

When I visited here prior to relocating the ponies, I saw what I thought were burrs in the horse pasture.  I was immediately transported back in time.  At our first location, Turkey Trot Springs, I put my stallion and mare into a new pasture I had fenced, and when I went to fetch them a few hours later, Midnight had completely filled his forelock with burrs from burdock plants.  I of course never pastured my Fells in that pasture again!

Willowtrail Wild Rose and her ‘horn’ after I worked briefly to remove gumweed from her forelock

Here my new ‘friend’ is called gumweed.  It took the ponies several days to find it, and I was hopeful during that period that I had been wrong about seeing burrs in the pasture.  And technically gumweed isn’t a burr; it is a sticky seed head as its name suggests.  It therefore has an advantage over burrs since those require gloves to remove, and gumweed can be comfortably pulled barehanded.  But the two are common in the amount of rearrangement they can do to my ponies’ beautiful manes and forelocks.  Even the foals with their short manes have adornments! 

I have been told this is a particularly productive year for the weed, and I have been told by locals that it is an inevitable factor in equine ownership here.  We did do some mowing around the sheds and waterers where we thought the ponies might be getting into gumweed, but I think my friend Bruce probably made the observation that will shape my management strategy:  there is likely something particularly tasty growing under and around the gumweed that has attracted the ponies’ attention.  He suggested it might be late season cheatgrass, and a USDA publication confirms that gumweed is often found alongside that species. (1)

Each pony will likely require an hour or two of work to get their manes and forelocks to flow free again.  I’m pleased that my stallion and one mare have been confined and therefore haven’t modified their appearance like the other seven have.  Two ponies in particular have strikingly new appearances.  Drybarrows Calista looks like she has been roached:  she has not a single strand of her mane or forelock flowing free.  It is really odd to see such a ‘clean-headed’ Fell Pony!  And after I worked for a few minutes on Willowtrail Wild Rose’s forelock, all I had to show for my efforts was what looked like a unicorn’s horn.  Maybe that creature isn’t as fictional as we think!

The definition of a weed that I find most useful is ‘a plant growing where you don’t want it.’  Gumweed does have beneficial qualities.  It is attractive to and useful for late-season pollinators, and since pollinators are having a rough go these days, that gives gumweed some redeeming value.  Native Americans also apparently used it:  “A decoction of root was used for liver trouble, and a paste made from flowering tops was applied to skin diseases, scabs and sores.” (2)  I also found the Latin name for gumweed entertaining:  Grindelia squarrosa!  I will keep that entertainment in mind during my hours of work making my ponies look like Fells again!

1. https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_grsq.pdf

2. Same as #1

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

Hefting the Ponies at Scotty Springs Ranch

Drybarrows Calista surveys our progress so far while others graze. The ranch road to my house is behind the pine tree at upper right.

On their first morning at our new home at Scotty Springs Ranch in South Dakota, my Willowtrail Fell Ponies had yet another adventure before them.  The mares and foals, after our long trip and late arrival, spent their first night here in a paddock.  After checking and feeding them at dawn and then giving them their late morning feeding, though, it was time to acquaint them with their pasture.  I had planned it to be a special experience because where they now live is unlike anything I’ve ever been able to provide them.  It is so much like a Cumbrian fell that a few English friends who have seen pictures have indeed called it a fell.  And now after seeing the ponies on the ground here, it does feel much like my own experiences on the Cumbrian hills.

Fell Ponies on the fells in Cumbria are often referred to as extensively grazed.  They range over large tracts of land, able to wander to find the food that they want and return to water and minerals as needed.  Movement is a regular feature of their days, and hills are climbed as needed for forage and to cope with weather conditions.  I am so very fortunate to now have an extensive grazing situation for my ponies.  I have the ponies’ minerals in sheds near my home, and water is available in an automatic waterer several hundred yards away at the ranch paddocks.  Pockets in the hills above create diverse forage opportunities as well as providing shelter from the wind, while higher elevations are available to catch those same winds during warm weather and insect season.

My house is near the one seen in the distance above Calista’s rump. Willowtrail Henry looks ahead.

To be hefted is to have a knowledge of and relationship with a piece of ground on which the animals are expected to live and thrive.  When I was doing research on hefting a herd of ponies to a new place a year ago, I learned that equines can become hefted to a piece of ground by learning from other equines there.  However, here, the Scotty Springs Ranch herd was moved off the pasture in order to give the ponies their own place, so the ponies would need to learn the boundaries and key locations another way – from me! 

My plan involved haltering the two lead mares and leading them around the perimeter of the pasture, along the way showing them where the minerals and water sources were.  I chose to lead two mares and not one because I feared that the second mare might not follow, and then others might choose to stay with her.  It ended up being a good choice to have a mare on each side as we were climbing and descending steep slopes; I often hung onto their necks to keep upright and to keep up!

It took us well over an hour to circumnavigate their pasture.  I don’t know its size, but I do know we didn’t get to the most distant corners.  The Murdocks told me that their horses rarely went that high, and when I climbed to the top earlier in the summer, it was true that I didn’t see horse manure past a certain elevation.

The fall colors are just now peaking here, especially the grasses.

What a magnificent experience it was to see Fell Ponies climbing fell-like hills!  Four mares and three foals made the trip around the pasture with me, and I felt so blessed to see these ponies both free and yet with me.  I chose to walk with them rather than ride because there were so many unknowns:  new terrain, foals at foot, extreme steepness, etc.  While my legs at the end wished I’d ridden, I didn’t regret sharing the experience of walking the terrain the same way my ponies did.

My only fell-born pony, Drybarrows Calista, is usually a follower in the herd, but here she led us up and onward, often at a canter across ground that didn’t seem suitable for that gait.  She appeared truly in her element, and I had to think she was remembering running above Haweswater a year earlier.  None of the ponies seemed winded or hesitant about our trek.  I was especially appreciative of the senior mare Bowthorne Matty who was fell bred (Wansfell) but not born; she was quiet and accepting of being constrained by the halter and lead rope and also patient with me grabbing on when I needed help staying upright or matching her pace.

One of the sheds my late husband built for the ponies that the Murdocks so graciously transported here from Colorado. The ponies’ minerals are out of the weather inside. The boundary of the pasture is the ridgeline.

The only regret I had was that there wasn’t someone else with us to photograph me with my ponies on our adventure.  I tried as best I could to capture the ponies running with joyful abandon, stopping to enjoy grazing when we would take a break, and looking out at the vistas which were many and varied.  And when we were back down to the ranch paddocks and everyone was getting a drink, I assured Willowtrail Wild Rose that next time she’d be carrying me on Scotty Springs Fell!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

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

Welcome, Ponies, to Scotty Spring's Ranch!

Willowtrail Spring Maiden by Bruce Murdock

Nearly six months of planning paid off on the day we transported nine Willowtrail Fell Ponies from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to our new home at Scotty Springs Ranch in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  One trailer with three box stalls housed the three mares with their foals, and another trailer brought the stallion and two more mares.  The trip took seven hours, with the first few in intense wind, first at the head, then at the tail.  My friend and Scotty Springs Ranch co-owner Linda Murdock drove the big load, and I drove the smaller one.  We got off later than I’d hoped and pulled in after dark at 9:30pm. 

I couldn’t have been more pleased with how the ponies handled the trip.  The mares and foals all loaded into the unfamiliar trailer with little hesitation, despite it smelling strongly of cattle, which are its normal occupants.  Then in the other trailer, I devised a divider to allow two mares to lower their heads to eat without the dominant one picking on the lower ranking one.  At the other end of the trip, everyone unloaded without issue, taking deep breathes of their new surroundings while I walked them around their overnight housing and introduced them to automatic waterers which they’d never seen before and which the Murdocks graciously installed for the ponies’ use.  The Murdocks also removed as many of the unfamiliar weeds from the paddocks as possible so that burrs and dry bits wouldn’t get stuck in the ponies’ hair.  Nonetheless, a few ponies had adornments the next morning!

Bruce Murdock traveled ahead of us with hay bales from Colorado so the ponies would have familiar feed for the first few days.  I of course also supplemented their feed buckets the morning of the trip (and several of the previous days) with various edibles to improve the ponies’ ability to cope with the stress of the journey, trusting that the foals would get some benefit via their mothers’ milk.

Madie and Asi with a barn in the midground that we will be renovating for the ponies and the fell-like pony pasture in the background

It was with great relief that I watched everyone tuck into their hay piles immediately after entering their overnight paddocks.  I also was relieved when at least one mare in each paddock drank from the waterers, since I knew the others would follow suit at some point during the night. I was able to sleep peacefully after a tough drive.

With the long trip from old home to new complete, now we will get to explore this beautiful place and get to know it in depth.  It will be an exciting journey of a more grounded sort!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

More stories about life with my Fell Ponies can be found in my book What an Honor, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

Unexpected Returns

One of the big projects I have undertaken since my husband’s death is an auction of our business’s assets.  With the auction over, the items are now being dispersed to their new owners.  Due to my need to move and lighten my load, some of the items in the auction were pony-related, and I feared that when they went, it would be difficult for me to watch.  While there will be financial returns from the auction to offset the loss of these items, there have been returns in other forms that were unexpected and equally valuable.

Willowtrail Mountain Honey and her foal in the paddock my late husband built for me just a year ago. The paddock fencing has now been sold and removed.

The first pony-related item to leave was a fence in one of the stallion pens that my husband had completed for me just a year ago.  It was the pen that my beloved stallion Guards Apollo occupied for nearly all of his fourteen years here and is shown in the picture.  When the purchaser of the fencing was due to arrive, I was concerned I would burst into tears.  Instead, when I learned that the purchaser ran an equine-assisted therapy program, our conversation was so inspiring that the expected sadness was replaced with excitement that the fencing would be helping facilitate such important work.

Another pony-related item to leave was a very large box of electric fence supplies.  I didn’t have the same emotional attachment to these items, so it was relatively easy to help the purchasers load them into their trailer.  I asked what they planned to do with the fencing, they replied that they too had horses.  I of course asked what kind, and they replied Friesians and Friesian sport horses.  It was easy to get them talking about their more-than-thirty-years as breeders of sport horses, and since I know nothing about that market, I learned a lot.  As they were about to leave, they asked what sort of horses I had.  When I answered, the response was, repeatedly, “You breed Fell Ponies!”  After three or four of these choruses, they said of course they’d like to meet my ponies, and we had fun meeting the whole herd in two different locations.  They were sufficiently appreciative of my stock to ask for a business card, a reminder to me of something else I must revise before I move!

A local rancher came to pick up some items for a friend, and they saw my ponies in a nearby paddock.  They shared that they feed with Percherons, including a Percheron-Friesian cross.  I enjoyed hearing their perspective on the conformation, temperament, and action of their drafts and draft-crosses.  The unexpected return from that visit, though, was hearing about the movie they’d just watched.  It was about pit ponies, so I shared about my first pony who was similar in conformation to pit ponies and about my first Fell Pony mentor who trained pit ponies when he was young.  You won’t be surprised to learn that I immediately came inside and ordered the movie!

One lot and its purchaser gave me a chuckle.  The lot contained a bunch of heavy duty free-standing fence panels.  I bought them nearly two decades ago when I purchased my first Fell Ponies.  Then I moved the panels here with me seventeen years ago.  And now I will see them at my new home after I move.  My hosts at Scotty Springs Ranch have purchased them!

Another purchaser wasn’t at all horsey, but I enjoyed their question about the ponies, who were watching us load timbers that my husband had milled.  They said, “Aren’t they too tall for ponies?”  I explained how tall ponies can be and how I appreciated their height when lifting harness and packs.  That was all they said, and we went on about our work. 

While it is still possible that I will be brought to tears by an auction item leaving, I now know that the visits by purchasers are bringing me unexpected returns, and for that I am exceedingly grateful.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

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.

One Thing After Another

I needed to escape my desk, and the convenient excuse was to take my stallion Asi and his girlfriend Madie to pasture and to spend time writing while they grazed.  It was a good thing I wasn’t as tired as I thought I was because I had one thing after another happen that kept it from being the relaxing time I had hoped for!

The first unexpected happening was when I arrived.  The mares and foals were lining the fence and watching with great interest as I unloaded the two newcomers.  Asi was reasonably well-behaved despite the mostly female audience, but I still had to modify where I was going to put he and his girlfriend because I didn’t want a lot of cavorting at the fence.  I thought I had a good solution, but it depended on the mares and foals respecting the river as a barrier.  That didn’t work!  Calista climbed up the three foot nearly-vertical river bank to tease Asi.  After trying to drive Calista back across the river, I realized I was faced with too many hormones, so I caught Asi and moved him to another pasture then I returned to the river bank to drive Calista across the river again. 

My presence on the river bank had the opposite effect than I wanted, as all the mares and foals headed my way.  It was incredibly flattering, but I really didn’t want pressure on that fence line.  Claire created the second ‘event’ by climbing the river bank onto a narrow ledge where the fence was.  Again it was incredibly flattering that Claire wanted my attention, but I didn’t like her being on that narrow ledge along the river.  I realized the only way Claire was going to go back down into the river and not try to come through the fence to be with me was if I disappeared.  So I went and hid in the shed and watched her.  Eventually the rest of the herd went across the river and disappeared. 

Claire, though, stayed at the fence and kept looking in my direction (she could tell I was close because she could see my dog Tika who was near me).  But eventually when she realized the herd was gone, she scrambled down the river bank and crossed the river and called and ran to join them.  Finally I could retreat to the trailer and sit and do some writing (and video production) while Asi and Madie grazed without company. 

There was to be one more bit of excitement.  Just before dark, Tika, who’d been laying near me, took off at a full run straight north.  I saw in front of her a flash of orange which suggested it was a fox.  They quickly disappeared.  I hastily wrapped up what I was doing, and when Tika hadn’t returned, I started calling her.  It was a long five minutes (and getting dark) before she came to me panting hard from behind me, from across the highway, and soaking wet.   Obviously the chase had taken her through the river and across the paved road.  I’m so thankful traffic was light and she wasn’t hit because she pays no attention to traffic when she’s on the scent of something. 

After all that, I was glad Asi and Madie weren’t too full of themselves at departure time.  They led and loaded easily to come home.  The upside of all the commotion was some beautiful photographs at day’s end.  And of course an improved attitude for dealing with my desk due to spending time with all my friends.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

You can read many more stories like this one about my life with Fell Ponies in my book What an Honor, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

Help When I Need It Most

When I arrived at summer pasture with the first mare/foal pair of the day, I immediately saw that fencing was going to be added to my day’s to-do list.  A few weeks ago, the ranch manager had put cattle in the pasture to the north of the ponies and had secured all but the piece of fence that crosses the river.  When the cows were put in, the river was extremely high and the cattle were far to the north, so the gap in the fence wasn’t an issue.  Now, though, the river is lower, and the cattle were just across the fence from the ponies, so I knew it wouldn’t be long before they’d find the gap and enter the pony pasture.

On my way home I made a mental list of the tools I would need when I returned to pasture with the second pony load.  I also realized I would need to call the ranch manager to ask for help because while the river was lower, it was still high enough that I couldn’t stretch the fence by myself.  I just hoped I’d be able to catch him on the phone on the first dry day for haymaking of the week.

As has been the case since my husband died earlier this year, help has been offered when I need it most.  Just as I turned on my blinker to turn into my driveway, a pickup and horse trailer came towards me down the county road.  I stopped, and I realized my logistical prayer had been answered.  It was the ranch manager.  He assured me he’d have someone there to help me immediately.  It was good that I had asked because I fell face first into the river while working with his ranch hand stretching fence.  No harm done, but good that someone was there just in case.

The larger pattern of my life has been that when my life is in transition, everything seems to be in transition:  job, home, life partner.  It’s happened this way twice before, and this time is no different.  Due to losing my husband, I lost my job, and I have to move my farm before winter.  But just as has been the case since things tragically changed earlier this year, help has been offered when I needed it most.  Bruce and Linda Murdock of Scotty Springs Ranch outside Hot Springs, South Dakota have invited Willowtrail Farm to relocate there.  I am so incredibly grateful.  I met Bruce and Linda through my dog.  They bred Scotty Springs Taptika, an Australian Shepherd, and we’ve gotten to know each other the past three years because of Tika.  The place they have offered is ideal for raising Fell Ponies, and I am humbled by the opportunity they have given me.

I so appreciate the many people who have asked how I’ve been doing and where I’m going and extending their well wishes.  Each and every one of those gestures has been just the help that I needed at the moment.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

Pony Shuffle 2019

This summer we’ve been fortunate to have abundant grass here at home.  I’ve been able to put the mares out with their foals here for several hours a day while I’ve been consumed by tasks related to moving my farm this fall.

Summer pasture is a four mile trailer trip from home, and being adjacent to a hay meadow, the grass is lush.  Therefore each year I undertake what I call the pony shuffle to accustom my ponies’ metabolisms and digestive tracts to the change in roughage from hay to green.  I progress them from 2 hours a day to four then eight then sixteen and finally twenty four, about four days per interval.  I usually do the two hour interval here at home, but this year with abundant grass I’ve been able to do the four hour interval here, too, a huge time and travel saver.

When I have foals, there’s a great advantage to the pony shuffle.  They get very accustomed to loading into, unloading from, and traveling in a trailer.  I always make sure my mares are excellent loaders and travelers so the foals can learn good habits from their moms. 

This year, I have a pony other than a foal new to the pony shuffle.  To introduce Drybarrows Calista to the sequence of intervals, I began by putting her out here with an old hand with the process, Bowthorne Matty.  Matty and her foal Ross and Calista grazed around here, and I was pleased but not surprised when the first day and every day since, Calista has followed Matty’s lead, coming to me to be put back in the paddock at the appropriate time.  Sometimes Calista has even just followed Matty and Ross through the gate without a halter and lead rope!  When she first arrived at summer pasture, I felt rather than saw her eyes bug out at all the grass!

With three foals this year, and just a 3 horse trailer, there’s lots of hauling going on to get all three mare/foal pairs plus Calista transitioned to summer pasture.  I won’t miss the time consuming nature of the pony shuffle after I move, but I do enjoy being forced to spend time with my ponies!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

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

That Worked Out!

I’ve been stewarding my ponies long enough that I can usually make a pretty good guess about their behavior in a new situation.  Nonetheless, there’s always that little bit of doubt, usually because some other pony at some other time has done something I completely didn’t expect!  Today I had a challenging start to my day, so I wasn’t able to put the mares and foals out to graze like I usually do.  When I finally got freed up about 2:30 in the afternoon, I decided to do something new for them.  For a while I questioned my decision, but in the end it worked out!

The something new was to take them to a part of the property they hadn’t grazed before which is quite a ways away from where they’ve been grazing the past month.  To begin the adventure, I haltered the two most dominant mares but let six ponies total out the gate, one additional mare and the three foals.  We then began walking down the road.  All three foals cavorted around us, but the third mare was quickly left behind as she grazed along the verges.  When we went farther than usual and disappeared from sight, I heard her call to us and then come trotting down the road to rejoin us just as we were getting to the destination.  So far, so good!

I let my two haltered friends loose, and all six seemed happy with the new grazing opportunity.  I returned to the house and fed the last three ponies, scoring a really nice hug from my stallion in the process.  Then I went in to get a much needed and overdue lunch. 

I needed to run to town to do some errands, so I headed out after lunch.  I drove through the gate, then a nagging thought wouldn’t leave me.  The ponies hadn’t been where I’d left them when I passed by, and I hadn’t seen them anywhere else.  I got halfway to the highway and turned around, thinking I’d best know where they were before being gone for an extended period. 

I found them fairly quickly; they had moved around a corner of the clearcut into an area I’d never seen them graze before.  All was well, but since it was a new area for them, I didn’t know where they might move to next.  They could choose to move closer to the house or farther away, and I needed to know which they would choose as the day transitioned toward evening.  I once had a mare and stallion who went away from the house and went visiting neighbors, an experience I wasn’t interested in repeating.  I aborted my trip to town and instead ran a short errand and came back to check on them, then did the same again.  By that second check, they had moved slightly towards the house, with the lead mare headed toward an area she was familiar with, so I decided I could move on to other things and didn’t need to check on them again.  The discovery of some wild strawberries that were incredibly tasty confirmed that things were heading in the right direction!

Around 7:30pm, before the sun began to set, I went outside to begin my last chores of the day.  I was about 45 minutes early, but I wanted to give myself plenty of time in case the ponies had done something unexpected.  Almost immediately that concern was put to rest when I heard a foal call at a distance and then a mare answer similarly far away.  If I could hear them, I could easily find them before dark, so I continued with my chores.  I put hay in the first mare/foal paddock, and as I was filling a tub for the second paddock, I heard a strange noise.  Then I realized it was rapid and multiple hoofbeats.  Very soon thereafter my heart pony and her foal cantered straight to me and stopped.  I led them to their gate and put them in after thanking them for making my life easy.  Then a second mare and her foal presented themselves, and I led them to their paddock and put them in, also thanking them.  And then the third mare arrived with her foal and I did similarly, again with no tack, just cooperation.  I felt triumphant!  I’d tried something new, and it had worked out well for all of us!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

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

They Try to be Helpful!

I’ve been putting this mare and foal out each day at 4:30pm to graze until sundown.  I walk them down the driveway a ways to release them in a clearcut, and they are free to find grass anywhere they like; there’s plenty for them to choose from.  The standing forest bounds them on one side and a fence on the other; the rest of the herd is a magnet that keeps them from going too far away.  I have learned, after doing this with mares for many years, that they have patterns.  Usually I know where they will be one, two, and three hours into their grazing period.

The past two nights Rose and Henry have come up to graze outside the office window just before sundown.  Last night I thought I was too busy to go out when I saw them, so I finished what I was doing before going out to put them in.  It was perhaps a half hour from when I saw them out the window, and since I hadn’t taken advantage of the helpful opportunity they had given me, they had wandered a quarter mile away.  It made a long day a little longer.  The only benefit was that I got to ride Rose in, and I really enjoy that.  Earlier tonight I was thinking I should take a camera with me to capture our end-of-day ride.

But as daylight gave way to sundown, I tried to be more mindful of the length of my day.  This time I was on the phone when Rose and Henry appeared out the window.  I quickly told my caller that I had to go; I didn’t want to miss tonight’s helpful opportunity!  And I forgot the camera, so I didn’t capture the light of the setting sun behind my ponies that was so gorgeous.  But I did tell them how much I appreciated them trying to be helpful!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2019

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