The Pink Princess Cowboy and the Pony

When I told my friend Bruce that I’d had a dream about his granddaughter riding my Fell Pony mare Rose, he said he’d had the same dream. So when I found out Jackson was due to visit soon, I made sure Rose was ready for her precious cargo. Jackson is just two and a half years old, so riding means sitting on a pony that I lead with Grandma Linda spotting her (or sometimes Mom or Dad).

When Linda and Jackson showed up the first day, I realized I hadn’t prepared Rose for the tutu. The pink poofy skirt is apparently a favorite of Jackson’s. Fortunately, Linda was able to convince Jackson to take it off before riding, and while Rose would likely have been fine with it, I was glad we didn’t have to find out. The pink theme remained, though, with Jackson sporting pink bib overalls, pink boots, and a pink tinged helmet. (Please note that we know the helmet isn’t perfectly fit; we will get it right eventually.) Smiles on Jackson’s and Linda’s faces made my day!

The next day Linda and Jackson arrived with a pink-trimmed saddle and saddle blanket that Linda had bought. We put it on Rose and found out it fit her, and I was surprised how good pink and black go together! Jackson was stylish with her dark glasses, and I soon learned that when I asked her to smile for the camera, she stuck out her tongue, so my pictures of her smiling are more impromptu. Jackson had apparently been saying over and over again after her ride the day before, “I’m riding a horse!” and she treated me to that refrain several times on our next ride. By day four, I got her to say, to my delight, “I’m riding a pony!”

So far, Rose has been a champ, as I expected her to be. Even after having her hooves trimmed and then on our windiest ride she has been perfectly behaved. Jackson’s dad warned me that I had started something, and I replied that it was a thrill for me to share my ponies. And I told Linda these rides are a little thing I can do to help Jackson be bonded to this ranch and ensure its future.

After I realized the pink theme was a fixture and I knew I didn’t have a pink halter or lead rope, I at least made sure I chose colors that wouldn’t clash. I fully expect that someday, if Jackson’s interest continues, that my black ponies will sport pink more completely than Rose has so far!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

More stories about ponies bringing joy to life can be found in my book What an Honor, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

Fell Ponies and Hot Weather

I appreciated my inquirer’s concern when they asked about how Fell Ponies do in hot climates.  Southern California was of particular interest to them.  I shared what I knew about Fell Ponies there and in other places with hot summers.  And then our first summer began here in South Dakota.  I now have more first-hand experience than I did when my inquirer asked their questions.

I have never seen my ponies sweat like they have during this summer that has been five to fifteen degrees warmer than our warmest days in Colorado.  Nonetheless, the ponies seemed to get by just fine.  I did what I could to keep them comfortable. 

• I made sure they had access to drinking water, which here is in automatic waterers so it’s reasonably fresh and clean so they are inclined to drink it.  And we cleaned the waterers just to make sure.

• I made sure they had access to loose trace mineral salt.  I learned a long time ago that salt blocks aren’t necessarily ideal for equines because their tongues aren’t as rough as those of cattle so they may not be able to get what they need out of blocks. 

• I made sure they had places to stand where they could catch breezes.  I know some Fell Pony owners rely on fans to accomplish this when their landscape doesn’t allow for it.

• I made sure they had access to shade.  As one friend so aptly put it, “Our ponies are black!”  At least most Fell Ponies are black, and in hot summer sun, their coats get very, very warm.  This was an advantage during our long winters in Colorado, but it is a challenge during longer hot summers here.  Shade is in sheds, under trees, or behind hills at either end of the day.

It is this last one that I need to make improvements upon next summer.  My stallion Asi told me by his behavior that his shed isn’t to his liking in the heat.  He was rarely in it or around it to use its shade.  So I plan to build him a wall-less shelter next spring for shade and put it where he likes to stand, which likely has good breezes as well as good views of his mares.

I have been told that this summer has been 15% hotter and 30% drier than normal for here.  I am sure our second summer will teach me even more about keeping my ponies comfortable in hot weather, even if it’s closer to average.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

More stories about Fell Ponies and weather can be found in my book What an Honor, available internationally by clicking here.

High Heat to Snow Flakes

The ponies and I are experiencing a bit of physiological shock.  In 48 hours, we went from a high in the 90s (33 degrees Celsius) to a high in the mid-30s (3 degrees Celsius).  In addition to the change in temperature, clear skies turned to rain which turned to snow, and lots of wind blew.  Many of us were left shivering. 

When we lived in Colorado, it wasn’t uncommon to have these sorts of swift weather changes in the spring and fall.  A few things are different for us here in South Dakota, though.  For instance, in Colorado, at 9,000 feet in elevation in the Rocky Mountains, we rarely saw temperatures as high as we have had here.  Nor for as many days in a row; this summer we’ve seen more hot days than we were accustomed to, with one of the hottest at 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius) just the day before. 

Another thing that I recognize that I took for granted in Colorado is how protected we were from wind.  Here we get hit by wind both from the west and the east, and while we’re protected compared to most places in South Dakota, we still experience more wind here than we did in Gould.  My late husband chose to build his home where he did because it was protected.  I heard today that the first pony shed he ever built that stood well for 17 years in Gould, and that I gave to a friend when I moved, was blown over onto its roof where it is now located about 20 miles north of where we lived.  In a testament to Don’s carpentry prowess, the shed was not damaged despite being rolled.  And his judgment about our home’s location and wind was confirmed.

As the weather dried out, the ponies quit shivering but stayed opinionated.  The ones that were confined got extra hay at extra feeding times.  The weather is supposed to warm up, with no more snow in the forecast at the moment.  I am grateful that the ponies are tough, and I appreciate that they require me to toughen up, too!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

From White-Eyed to Willing

Pearl loading easily by the fourth day

It’s so good for me to have an older Fell Pony here to work with because it reminds me to not take for granted all the work I do with my youngstock.  Recently I’ve been working with three-year-old Pearl on trailer loading.  It was gratifying to see her progress from white-eyed to willing.

Pearl of course has loaded into trailers before; she had to to get here!  And she didn’t offer any resistance to being loaded when I met her breeder half-way after I bought her.  Nonetheless, when I knew I needed to take Pearl on a ride in the trailer, I decided to be sure she was willing and able since it had been six months since I’d last asked her to take a ride and we’d only had that one experience together.

On our first day, when we approached the trailer, she started getting concerned.  Her head came up, she started moving away from the trailer as far as the lead rope would allow, and she started showing the whites of her eyes.  I let her stand about six feet away while I went ahead of her into the trailer.  I put a little pressure on the lead rope, asking her to come towards me, and when she shifted her weight the slightest bit, I released the lead rope.  Having established that communication pattern, I got her to approach the trailer a footstep at a time and then sniff it warily.  After several minutes, she stepped up and in.  Clearly she was able to load, but she was not confident about it.

We took a short ride, during which she pawed a lot and spread lots of manure all over the trailer floor.  When it came time to unload, she again was very unconfident, hesitating at the edge of the trailer floor, lowering her head and sniffing and looking at the ground before jumping out of the trailer rather than stepping out and down.  All in all, though, that she loaded and unloaded with as little effort as she did was great news.  The next goal was to get her more confident about it so when we’re in an unfamiliar place, she will hopefully not have second thoughts about trailering.

Pearl unloading more confidently than she did the first day though still with a jump.

The next day we repeated everything just as the day before, and she loaded more quickly with less white showing in her eyes.  The next day the same, except there was less manure in the trailer and no white showing in her eyes.  I took both as a sign that she was a little less concerned about the ride.  The next day she stepped right in after me.  She was still a little hesitant about unloading but much less so.

Since she’d loaded so well, the next day I asked for something a little different.  Instead of me going first, which has some safety disadvantages, I led her to the trailer opening and then asked her to go ahead of me.  I was pleased when she did so without concern.  Then she unloaded the calmest she had yet. And there was a single pile of manure in the trailer, undisturbed. Great feedback!

We’ve now taken a few days off, so I will repeat our little exercise again to see if and how much she regresses so I know how much more work we have to do.  My goal is for her to be not just able to load but to load and unload calmly and without hesitation so that in different circumstances we can trust each other.  So far, so good!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

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

A Pony Excellent Adventure

Nearing the end of the day, I was in the mood for an adventure.  I had scouted the location a few days before, and the stars all seemed correctly aligned for the adventure to turn out well.  I went to get my Fell Pony mare Madie and her daughter Aimee.  It was time for Aimee to cross water for the first time.

When we lived in Colorado, the ponies crossed water regularly because the Michigan River ran through their summer pasture.  Here, we have wonderful hills but no live water, so I had to create the opportunity to cross water, hence the adventure.  I couldn’t have been more thrilled with my two homebred girls.

The first step was to load the girls in the horse trailer.  Again, back in Colorado, taking rides in trailers was a regular part of life because summer pasture was four miles from home, so all my ponies get excited when I have the trailer hitched, thinking that there will be abundant green grass at the other end of the ride.  But here, there is no reason to trailer the ponies because the hill pasture is right outside our door.  Aimee and Madie, then, hadn’t been in a trailer in three months, and back then Aimee was just a month old, so it was still a novel experience for her.  Nonetheless, our adventure got off to a good start when Aimee followed her mom right into the trailer.

The trip to the river took 25 minutes, and was quite varied, from highway speed to corduroyed gravel to rough two-track. When we got to the river, I put on my rubber boots and unloaded the girls, neither of whom had ever been to the Cheyenne River before.  I opted to lead rather than ride Madie across the river to be as sure of success as I could be.  I hadn’t ever ridden Madie across a river before, though she’d crossed it on her own, and this one was new to me, too, so I felt leading her was the best strategy.  This lesson was for Aimee, after all, not Madie!

When I had scouted the river a few days before, I had decided on a particular crossing point that was wide and shallow (about seven inches at its deepest.)  Madie followed me through the coarse grass on the bank and down into the river and across without hesitating.  Aimee hesitated for a moment at the bank and then followed her mom.  Success!  I had a foal once who would not follow his mom across the river until several days of opportunities had passed, so I was ecstatic that Aimee was as confident with this adventure on the first try as she has been with everything else.

We went back and forth a few times before the failing light of the day dictated an end to our adventure.  The girls loaded up without hesitation, another success, and we returned home without incident.  I will repeat the water-crossing experience for Aimee when the stars align again.  The access road is not passable if it is wet, and the river is low right now because the region it drains hasn’t had much rain in the past month.  The river can easily become swollen and too high for safe crossing if a rainstorm hits northeastern Wyoming or southwestern South Dakota.  For now, though, I will savor the excellent adventure I shared with Madie and Aimee and my canine companions.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

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

Jackson's Present

Jackson, Linda, and Asi

My neighbor Linda stopped me on the road and said, “We were coming to look for you.  Jackson got you a present.”  Jackson, Linda’s 2-year-old granddaughter, was sitting in the passenger seat of Linda’s Jeep.  Linda asked Jackson to hand something to her, and then Linda handed it to me.  “Asi!” she said.

Linda and Jackson had been to the farm supply store.  While there, Jackson had surprised Linda by saying “Asi!”  Asi is my Fell Pony stallion whom Jackson sees whenever she comes to the ranch to visit.  On the store shelf was a small figurine of a black stallion with flowing mane and tail.  Actually, there were three of them, and Jackson had to have all three.  One for her room here at the ranch, one for her room at home, and one for me.

I was, of course, incredibly touched.  And terribly impressed.  That Jackson at her young age would see a resemblance between Asi and the figurine – well, kids are amazing!  And then that she would want to have three figurines of Asi and give one to me – well, kids are amazing!  Linda and I often chuckle together about Jackson’s preference for pink and purple clothes and toys, but more often than not, there’s a horse theme to them.  As Jackson’s mom told me once, “Linda may get her veterinarian granddaughter yet!”

This story got even better two days later.  Jackson had returned home with her parents for her first day at preschool.  Linda couldn’t wait to show me the picture on her phone that she received.  Pointing, she said, “Aimee!”  Jackson was holding a small black stuffed pony that she had named after my young Fell Pony filly.  Jackson and Aimee have known each other since a few days after Aimee was born, and Jackson asks to visit Aimee every time she comes to the ranch.  They seem to have a mutual admiration society.  Only now I understand how deep Jackson’s admiration of Aimee is.  First day of school?  Really? Amazing!

I am keeping the figurine that Jackson gave me at the barn.  Each day when I do my chores I take it out of my feed shed and put it where it can watch over the pony proceedings.  While it might look more like a Friesian than a Fell Pony stallion to some, to me it will always be Asi, thanks to Jackson!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

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

Fell Ponies and Fossil Cycads

I did my evening pony chores early so I could go on a tour of what was at one time Fossil Cycad National Monument.  The parallels between this lost treasure and Fell Ponies on the fells of Cumbria were hard to miss.

Fossil Cycad National Monument was formed to protect a site here in the Black Hills of South Dakota where fossilized cycadeoids, an extinct order of plants on which dinosaurs once feasted, were commonly found on the surface.  The monument existed in name only, and just between 1922 and 1957, because most of the fossils had been removed from the site prior to the monument’s creation.  So complete was the removal of the fossils that my friends Bruce and Linda Murdock who have ranched adjacent to the monument for nearly fifty years have only once found a fossil cycad on their place.  The monument’s namesake is gone, making the monument unneeded.

Oddly the principal proponent of Fossil Cycad National Monument was also the person who is usually blamed for the monument’s demise.  George Wieland homesteaded the land and donated it to the federal government for the purpose of the monument.  At the same time, he also removed the greatest number of fossils from the site, most of which are now at Yale University’s Peabody Museum where he worked.  When it was widely understood that there were no longer fossil cycads at the monument named for them, the monument was officially deauthorized.

Linda Murdock holding a fossil cycad they found on their ranch adjacent to the former national monument.

I see parallels between the monument that’s missing its namesakes and the fells in Cumbria that are losing their Fell Ponies.  As National Park Service paleontologist Vincent Santucci has written about the ‘case of paleontological resource mismanagement,’ “I get a chance to go out to classrooms … and whenever we talk about [Fossil Cycad National Monument], there's sort of a disbelief that we've actually lost a unit of the National Park Service. We've all sort of been cheated the opportunity to get out and experience and learn about this remarkable resource that at one point stood at the threshold of becoming a national monument. So we need to think hard about ways to promote stewardship and preservation of these nonrenewable resources so that we don't see something like this happen again.” (1)  In the Fell Pony community, some people use similar words about stewardship and preservation of a unique resource when they talk about Fell Ponies on their native fells and the threats to their continued presence there.

On a somewhat humorous note, there is also a terminology parallel between Fell Ponies and fossil cycads.  Sometimes fossil cycads are referred to, incorrectly, as petrified pineapples.  I immediately thought of Fell Ponies being, incorrectly, referred to as mini Friesians.

I am hopeful that there is a sufficient drumbeat in support of Fell Ponies remaining on the fells that those hills won’t lose their namesake ponies the way Fossil Cycad National Monument lost its namesake specimens.  There is such value to being able to view a resource on its native land, rather than in some remote museum or stable.

1. Zimny, Michael.  “Fossil Cycad:  The National Monument That Wasn’t,”  blog post, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, 8/12/20, www.sdpb.org

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

For more about Fell Ponies, see my book Fell Ponies: Observations on the Breed, the Breed Standard, and Breeding, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

When Traits Seem to Skip Generations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

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

Calista's Comet

I am outside after sundown every night at present,

Tending to my stallion’s wound.

When I came in at dark, a message from a friend

Was the first I’d heard that there’s a comet to see.

I went out again right then to have a look.

It was in vain, though, for I didn’t know enough.

The next day I got guidance in hopes of success,

And I vowed to give viewing another try.

The day was long and after the sun was down,

My resolve about viewing began to waiver.

Going to bed seemed much more attractive.

But then when I went to fetch the mares in,

Calista helped to recharge my resolve again.

She was standing on a knoll all by herself,

Looking to the northwest as if she could see

The comet hidden still by the light of the day

But worthy of her attention in spite of that.

The pictures I’d seen set my expectation

That the comet would be close to the horizon.

I decided then that I would drive to a high place,

Armed with the guidance to find what I sought.

The guidance was to use the Big Dipper’s stars

As an arrow towards where to gaze.

When I arrived up high only two stars were visible

And I wasn’t sure to which Dipper they belonged.

A third one soon appeared but I still couldn’t tell

If the guidance would lead to success.

Minutes ticked by and darkness seemed slow to come,

And my resolve began to waiver once more.

To pass a few moments I pondered my stallion’s wound

And how its dark edges are growing in on pink flesh,

Just as, at the horizon, the darkness of night was closing in

On what lightness was left from the day.

Then I looked up again and there the Big Dipper was

And I lined up the stars of its cup’s base.

Following them, angling down towards the horizon,

I was greatly rewarded to see what I’d come to see.

The comet faintly shone through the day’s end.

My tired eyes made its faint light flicker.

Its tail appeared to move about like a cat’s,

Back and forth, up and down, short and long.

Then as darkness grew, the comet became still

And larger and somehow worthier of awe.

It also stood higher in the sky than I’d expected,

So I returned home to see where it would be.

My house is in a protected hollow.

The protective hills mean my horizon is high.

I was rewarded again, though, as I found my guides,

For the comet was perched just above the hill .

I’m thankful to Calista for helping me view

Comet Neowise in person not just in pictures.

Without her stance on that knoll on the hill,

I might not have seen this comet at all.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

A Pearl Puzzle Piece

I try to start my evening chores an hour and a half before dark.  Right now my evening chores involve bringing in four ponies (two sets of two), putting out two ponies, and cold hosing my stallion’s wound.  When the four ponies who’ve been out all day are in close at day’s end, then I get done earlier.  But during this hot weather we’re experiencing (perhaps normal but hot for us previously-mountain-living folks!), they’ve been laying low midday then go out to actively graze as it cools, so they’re rarely handy for me to bring in.

Gorgeous sunsets are one of the benefits of playing the catch-me game with my puzzle Pearl, barely visible in the midground.

One of the pairs I bring in are my two three year old Fell Pony mares Drybarrows Calista and PrairieJewel Pearl.  When Calista sees me, she comes to me to be haltered and taken in.  Calista is the dominant of the two, so in normal herd dynamics, Pearl would follow us in even without being haltered.  That’s obviously my preference, too, to save me walking all the way back out from the barn to get her.  Pearl, though, has shown she is not herd bound and rarely follows Calista in. Haltering her at the same time as Calista doesn’t work very well either because Pearl moves away from the dominant mare as I approach with her.

Pearl has been a puzzle since she joined my herd (click here to read more).  And her behavior in the evening has only increased my puzzlement.  Not only will she not follow Calista in, but she has preferred to play the catch-me game instead of coming to me to be haltered.  She will move off when I approach, sometimes at a walk, often faster, sometimes towards the barn and sometimes farther away.  One evening when I had to walk a half mile to halter her, reaching her as dusk was headed to dark, I decided a new strategy was in order.

The next night when I approached she and Calista, I gave Calista a treat when she approached, as I normally do to thank her for her cooperation.  But I didn’t halter Calista.  I knew that Calista would follow Pearl and I in; I just needed Pearl’s willingness to be caught.  I then approached Pearl with my hand outstretched and shoulders down and eyes cast down, all the while shooing Calista away.  Pearl let me walk up to her and halter her, and I gave her a treat, the first she’d had from me.  I also gave her several kind words and scratches in her favorite places as I usually do.  The treat, though, caught her attention.  We went to the barn with Calista following, and we ended the day on a good note.

The next night and then the next, I was able to approach Pearl, halter her and bring her in rather than have her run off, with me trudging through falling light after her.  She’s also been asking about getting a treat at other times.  So far I haven’t given her one; I want her to clearly understand the circumstances in which she gets that reward.  And I want to clearly understand what it is about our new routine that is motivating her better behavior.  I feel like I have a new piece of the puzzle that is Pearl, and there are a lot more to be discovered.  I look forward to finding the next one!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

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

Flat Bone

In the Fell Pony we also have the challenge of evaluating bone behind hair!

One of the earliest characteristics of the Fell Pony that I learned about, and was confused by, was flat bone.  I remember watching a Fell Pony judge and breeder whom I respected place well a pony in a show that I thought had round bone, the opposite of the desired flat bone.  Later I saw a pony that the same breeder and judge had bred and the bone in the lower legs was so flat as to appear razor thin.  The breed description says, “plenty of good flat bone below the knee (eight inches at least)…” so that razor thin bone didn’t meet the ‘plenty of’ part of the breed standard, so I remained confused.

When I took a homebred colt for his stallion licensing exam - a new experience for me, the colt, and the vet - the vet measured around the cannon bone to be sure it was greater than 8” in circumference.  “You know that there’s tendon as well as bone in that measurement, right?”  I hadn’t thought of it before, but of course he was right, yet that circumference measurement was the standard by which flat bone is judged in our breed. 

After all this confusion in my past study of this characteristic of the Fell Pony, I was thrilled to finally find an explanation of flat bone that made sense to me.  I’ve been working on an article on draft horse conformation with my colleague Doc Hammill, and he suggested that I read as background Heather Smith Thomas’s book The Horse Conformation Handbook.  Thomas says that modern day equines have less bone for body weight than ancestral types and hence we have challenges with soundness.  Yet flat bone has to do with something different than bone quantity. 

“When viewed from the side, the lower leg, including bone and tendon, should be wide, not narrow and round.  The horseman’s term for ideal distance from front to back of the lower leg is flat bone (describing the combination of bone and tendon), which gives the lower leg the appearance of more substance from front to back.”  (1)  Ah ha!  At last my confusion about flat bone is resolved!  If that tendon is placed too far forward, it reduces the circumference of the lower leg.  But it also lessons the leverage of the tendon, so weakness and eventual lameness can result.

Thomas goes on to say that typical equines for riding should (but often don’t) have 8” of ‘bone’ for every 1000#, so it’s clear why the Fell Pony, which is often lighter than 1000#, is considered to have plenty of bone with typically more than 8”.  I’m now looking at lower legs to evaluate flat bone with new eyes!

1)      Thomas, Heather Smith.  The Horse Conformation Handbook.  Storey Publishing, 2005, p. 121.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

Rewilding's False Promise

When I turned the page of my business magazine and found an article on rewilding, I groaned.  NO!  I said it loudly, but I was the only one around to hear. Then on the next page I found a picture of Exmoor ponies illustrating the article.  My opinion, though, was unchanged, in part because the type of native pony wasn’t mentioned in the caption.  I suppose in some way it is laudable that Exmoors are being used in a rewilding project, but rewilding hasn’t necessarily been good for Fell Ponies.  In some places Fells are no longer allowed to graze fells that they have grazed for centuries. 

The article discusses an aristocrat, one of several in Britain, who “aims to return denuded farmland and deforested areas to their native state by removing invasive species and replanting and reintroducing native ones….  Rewilding attempts to reverse [denuded farmland and deforestation], not for the sake of nostalgia, but for a more viable future.” (1)  The article suggests that agriculture and forestry businesses are the cause of the problems that rewilding wishes to solve.  Having owned businesses in both those vocations, I know they don’t have to be the cause of problems; they can instead be solutions.  And with the right incentives, these sorts of businesses can be more enduring than philanthropy for problem solving.  Hence my vehement reaction to the heralding of rewilding by my business magazine.

While the intentions of people wanting to retain wildness and native species in our world are not bad ones, often these people miss an important point about our world and the landscapes within.  Denuded farmland and deforested areas have resulted from humans trying to meet our needs.   If our needs are not taken into account in these rewilding projects, then rewilding isn’t really solving the problem, is it?  It’s just punting the problem to the next landscape down the road, so to speak.  And no landscape deserves that, though there are plenty which have suffered that fate.

Often, native ponies like Fells are not considered native species by rewilding enthusiasts, hence the ponies’ needs are not a priority in a rewilding plan.  And the needs of their stewards, too, are often unaddressed because farmers and loggers are seen as the cause of the problem that rewilding is trying to fix.  In the Lake District and its environs, this is especially odd since the very landscape that was heralded by the World Heritage Site designation was in large part created by farming.  One would think that there, at the very least, the needs of farmers and their livestock would be addressed in any landscape management plan.

Because rewilding fails to take human needs of landscapes into account, its promise of a more viable future is a false one.  How can rewilding claim to be creating something viable when the needs of the most impactful species on the planet aren’t considered?  Instead, our planet needs each of us to be honest about the needs we have of landscapes and who we share those landscapes with.  Only when we make each decision – personal, political, business - with these things in mind can we create a more viable future.  There is no one-size-fits-all solution.  Each place has its own unique opportunities.  Our charge as citizens of this planet is to make our decisions wisely because all lives - humans and ponies and native species included - depend on it.

1)       Ekstein, Nikki.  “Keep Wild and Carry On,” Bloomberg Businessweek, 4/27/20, p. 55.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

My Puzzle Pearl

I was absorbed in my own thoughts in the pasture when I felt a light touch on my sleeve.  I turned to find my three-year-old Fell Pony mare Pearl beside me.  As I stroked her and scratched her in her favorite places, she pricked her ears forward and stood still and relaxed, seeming to truly enjoy our time together.  This exchange was a thrill for me because Pearl has been a bit of a puzzle, a good kind of puzzle, but a puzzle nonetheless.

The last thing her breeder told me about Pearl when I decided to bring her home was that she lays her ears back but she hasn’t ever done anything mean.  I was somewhat surprised to hear this because I hadn’t seen the behavior when I’d been with her in her herd there.  But after bringing her home, I quickly became familiar with that expression on Pearl’s face, and her breeder was right; she wasn’t doing it out of meanness.  In time I came to understand it as an expression of unconfidence.  Then a friend said that that sort of expression of unconfidence is relatively common in equines yet often misunderstood.  I completely understand why.

While it was easy to think that Pearl’s laying her ears back was a communication of aggression, my instincts told me otherwise. 
Nonetheless, I watched her turn her butt to the other mares and kick at them, but with a fence in between.  Then I found out that when she was turned in with the other mares, it was the other way around – Pearl was getting the kicking rather than giving it.  She put up a tough girl look that really wasn’t representative of her nature.  She has shown me that treating her as though she’s being aggressive isn’t a way to make progress.

I figured that in time as Pearl got to know me and my ways of communicating with her, she would come around, and I was right.  Now I’m able to ask a little more of her in our ground work, and with that has come an increased understanding of what I expect.  And also with that has come the small uptick in her confidence that is expressed by her approaching me for attention and putting her ears forward when she’s with me.

We still have much work ahead of us to get her confidence even close to that of my other mares.  For instance, one evening when I really needed Pearl to come to me to be haltered, she instead ran off, costing me a sleepless night and veterinary bills when another pony ran after her and had a close encounter with a fence that I wish they hadn’t had.  I have dug down deep to not blame Pearl, and it really helped when she touched my sleeve as a reminder that she’s trying.  And my other mares are a daily reminder that in time Pearl and I will get to the type of relationship that I want and need with my ponies.  In the meantime I will enjoy solving the puzzle of Pearl.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

Madie Made It Easy

I am very thankful to my Fell Pony mare Willowtrail Spring Maiden for how easy on me she made her daughter Aimee’s birth.  For instance, Madie let her milk down less than 24 hours before foaling, and when I tested it, the pH indicated that she would give birth within 24 hours.  With her first foal, Madie defied the pH test and took ten days before foaling, which translated to lots of sleep deprivation.  Not this time.  The test results made an accurate prediction!

In the morning I put Madie out with the herd, but I checked her at 2pm. Unlike previous days when she’d seen me on the hill and walked away, this time she came to me. She had looked physically uncomfortable in the morning, and she did at this point in the afternoon, too, confirming my earlier sense that she was in labor. I haltered her and brought her in for the rest of the day.

When I checked Madie at dusk, I was even more convinced that she would foal that night because she was starting to drip milk (not just wax.)  I also checked the weather forecast, and a storm was due to move in, which has been a fairly consistent theme when my mares choose to foal.  Normally I would check a mare several times during the night to make sure that foaling went okay.  The first time she foaled, though, Madie made it clear she did not want us present, so this time I told her I would be out halfway through the night.  When I checked her at 2am, Aimee was on the ground but still wet, the placenta was still warm but had been expelled, and there were snowflakes in the air – all as it was meant to be!

After foaling, my job is to watch for milestones in the foal and mare.  In the foal I watch for urinating, defecating, nursing, and napping.  Aimee was cooperative in all but defecating.  It was so dark, though, that I wondered if I had missed Aimee passing her meconium.  When I mused aloud about this while standing next to Madie, she touched my arm with her nose then lowered her head to point to a dark spot on the ground.  I pulled out a flashlight, and sure enough, there was a pile of meconium.  As you would expect, I was struck by how Madie had understood my question and answered it!

In my mare herd, Madie is low pony on the dominance chart, so I don’t spend as much time with her as I do with the more dominant ponies.  Having her in the foaling shed at night has given me a chance to get to know her again.  She definitely reminds me of her mother Restar Mountain Shelley III who also made so many things easy on me.  What a blessing life is with these ponies!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

More stories about how amazing life with these ponies is can be found in my book What an Honor, available internationally by clicking here or on the book cover.

Feeding Weanlings

When I first learned about Fell Ponies, I thought, rightly, that their hardiness and easy-keeping qualities would make them a good fit for the Rocky Mountain environment I called home. Indeed they endured winters of three or four feet of snow without difficulty, often to be found during a storm with several inches of snow accumulated on their backs. When I began keeping weanlings through the winter, though, I learned quickly that many of them needed different care than older ponies.

On my first trip to the homeland of the Fell Pony in Cumbria, England, one of the hill breeders I visited had three weanlings in a large, well-lit shed. Later I observed that other hill breeders similarly keep their weanlings indoors or in sheds all winter where they can be fed and protected from the weather. This practice explained why the youngstock that I have imported from England are all much more physically mature than the ponies I raise at home at the same age. Over my two decades of breeding these ponies, I’ve observed that weanlings through to yearlings put all their extra calories into growing, so that they have to be monitored closely in extreme winter weather conditions to ensure they stay in good condition.

In the winter weather of my Colorado home, my Fell Pony weanlings put on quite a fluffy coat. Some of them developed an almost fleece like layer that was as much as two inches think. I quickly learned that it is critical, when monitoring weanlings in cold climates, to work my fingers deep under their coats to the skin to assess body condition. Feeling the ribs doesn’t necessarily mean a pony is too thin; in the Henneke Body Condition Score, moderate or acceptable condition is “Ribs cannot be visually distinguished but can be easily felt.” (1) There’s no way you can visually distinguish ribs under that typical weanling fleece coat, so in addition to palpating the ribs, I have found that palpating the withers is helpful in assessing condition. If I find a hollowness behind the withers then I know that a weanling’s condition needs to be improved. Sometimes I can also get good information by stroking the neck, though that typically gives the best information when done frequently so that changes can be noted. (Click here for more information on assessing body condition.)

What I have found that pony weanlings need more than their older relations in tough winter conditions is digestible energy with low non-structural carbohydrates. Non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) are the sugars and starches in feed that cause glycemic reactions in equines which can lead to digestive upsets, colic and founder, among other diseases. Hay causes a very low glycemic reaction; oats, corn and barley create large swings. NSC values, then, are a measure of the possible glycemic reaction. Typical sweet feeds have an NSC content of 67%, while low-NSC products typically range from 9 to 20 percent. Low NSC feeds are designed to give extra high-quality calories without triggering a glycemic response.

I’ve now moved from my Colorado location and its very snowy winters to South Dakota. We still have real winter with prolonged cold and some snow, but my ponies are eating less hay and more pasture. How I need to care for my weanlings, though, seems similar so far. They do best out with the herd as much as practical, but then need that extra help from regular supplementation of digestible energy. Just like in Colorado, anything extra that they get is put into growth, with just enough flesh to stay warm. So they get very used to me prodding under their heavy coats to see how much flesh they have covering their bones to make sure I’m giving them enough. And they get used to eating their feed with me holding the bucket so they don’t spill those precious calories!

1. https://thehorse.com/164978/body-condition-scoring-horses-step-by-step/

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

Welcome Willowtrail Aimee!

Willowtrail Aimee

From the moment we met, we’ve liked each other.  I first laid eyes on Willowtrail Aimee about an hour after she was born, about 2am.  I hung out until 3:30 when the clothes I’d rapidly put on weren’t enough for the snowflakes spitting from the sky.  I went inside to change then came back out, and when she heard my voice, she nickered at me!

As the day-old photo shows, she has been my shadow whenever I let her.  That fact and our affection suggested her name.  I was a student of the French language when I was younger (fluent in high school but don’t test me now!).  One of the first verbs we learned was ‘to like’ or aimer (pronounced somewhere between ay-may and ee-mee.  Aimee is usually translated as ‘beloved.’  One of the other verbs we learned early was ‘to help’ or aider (pronounced somewhere between ay-day and Eddie).  Since the filly and I liked each other and she was such a helper with all my foaling stall chores, the name Aimee (pronounced like Amy) seemed to fit!

I look forward to getting to know Aimee better as her life unfolds.  I will enjoy watching her grow up in an environment more like the Cumbrian fells than I’ve ever been able to provide my foals before.  Aimee is out of Willowtrail Spring Maiden (a fabulous mom) and by Kinniside Asi.  Aimee is Asi’s third offspring and second daughter.  Aimee is Madie’s second daughter.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

To read stories about the other Fell Ponies at Willowtrail Farm in my various books, click here.

Update on North American Fell Pony Population Status - 2018 stud book

Each year I review the stud book of the Fell Pony Society to learn about changes to the North American Fell Pony population. In January 2020, I finished my review of the 2018 stud book. The chart below shows how the population has changed since 2000 through 2018. The blue bar is the resident population. Red shows foals born in the year and green is imports in the year. At the bottom of the bars is purple, showing deaths in the year.

Here are the highlights of my review of the 2018 stud book. 

• There are roughly 650 registered Fell Ponies in North America.

• As our population ages, the number of deaths annually is understandably increasing.

• The number of foals was greater by a dozen than the previous year.

• In 2018, we had sixteen breeders.  That is tied with the highest number of breeders we’ve had; the previous year we had that many was 2008.  Half of the breeders in 2008 weren’t still breeding in 2018. 

• There were two new breeders in 2018.

• There were about twenty five new owners of registered Fell Ponies in 2018.

For me, it seems like there are lots of Fell Ponies in North America now because compared to when I got started, there’s more than 20 times as many.  Yet there really aren’t that many, and there are lots more people who need to learn about this breed because they will fall in love!

This article was originally published in the January 2020 edition of my e-newsletter Fell Pony News from Willowtrail Farm. If you would like to subscribe, click here.

Ross Did Me Proud!

We arrived in Laramie, Wyoming an hour before the arranged meeting time.  The early arrival was by design; I wanted yearling Fell Pony Willowtrail Ross to have time to eat before undertaking the second half of his journey to his new home.  He appreciatively dove into the hay in the trailer, and I walked my dogs and ate my lunch.

My friend Mike who lived nearby surprised me by coming to visit us, and one of his objectives was to take a picture of the transfer of Ross between trailers.  Then after Ross’s new owner arrived, she expressed thinly veiled concern about Ross loading into her trailer.  Figuratively, the pressure was on.  I admit to wondering how it would go once I saw the other trailer.  The step up was bigger than anything I’d yet asked Ross to do, more than 15”.  Nonetheless, I knew I could get him loaded eventually, so I said nothing and we completed the business portion of the transfer and prepared the other trailer to house Ross for the next several hours.

I had mistakenly left behind Ross’s halter and lead rope, so I used one I had in my trailer and was pleased when he didn’t indicate any concern about the unfamiliar tack in already unfamiliar surroundings.  Then Ross and I unloaded out of my trailer, and Mike snapped the picture here.  Ross’s owner’s trailer was parked right next to mine, so I led him the few feet between and stepped up into the other trailer and ahead into the stall.  I heard Ross follow me without any hesitation at all, and I was one proud pony trainer!  We all laughed though because it happened so fast that Mike wasn’t able to get the picture he’d come to take!

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

Out of the Draw

Between the barn where I do most of my work with my ponies and the hill, there is a draw.  In the picture, the trees between Calista and me and the barn are in the draw.  The ponies are of course quite adept at following their favorite paths down off the hill into the draw and back up the other side, usually at a decent rate of speed.  I, on the other hand when traversing the draw, take a very thoughtful approach, seeking out the least elevation change possible to accomplish my goals.  Except when I am with a pony.

Most often it is my lead Fell Pony mare Bowthorne Matty who assists me with navigating the draw. Most of the time I’m navigating the draw when I’m bringing the mares in, and I use Matty’s influence on the rest of the herd to draw them along with us.  If I ride Matty, then we stop at the top of the draw on the hill side, and I dismount; there are numerous low-hanging branches that I’m not interested in encountering on her back.  Going down into the draw she is always very respectful, staying back so as to not step on my heels.  Going up the other side, though, she comes alongside me, and I willingly get her help to get out of the draw. 

The help I get is a handful of mane.  I grab on and where normally Matty would outpace me going up the hill, I am able to keep up because she pulls me along (as long as I keep my feet going!)  We have done it often enough now that she knows we stop at the top of the draw where I say thank you and release my handful of mane.   I am starting to realize how this quiet, undemanding mare has given me a partnership I didn’t know we had.  What a blessing this life with ponies is.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

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

Being Available When They Offer

I am fortunate to have created a life in which I can be available when my Fell Ponies offer something interesting.  One morning when I went out to bring the mares in, I realized the benefits of having this life.  Two of the four mares were sunbathing, and the other two were grazing nearby.  When the mares saw me, the lead and second mare, who had been napping but got up, started walking toward me to greet me.  When I got to the lead mare, who I planned to ride in, she was next to the mare still lying down. 

I greeted the lead mare then dropped the rope hackamore and knelt down to greet the recumbent pony.  She remained where she was as I scratched her withers, and I felt privileged as I always do when my ponies allow me to touch them when they’re lying down.  I pulled out my camera and succeeded in snapping the picture here.  Then I got up to return to the job at hand, bringing the mares into the barn. 

When I got up, I suddenly realized what the lead mare was offering me.  The other two ponies had begun to make their way to the barn, but the lead mare had stayed right there with me, as if looking forward to our ride in as much as I was.  I picked up the hackamore, tied it on her, and jumped on her back.  Two gifts from my ponies - the lead mare remaining and the recumbent pony allowing a photograph - made me appreciate again being available when my ponies offer.

© Jenifer Morrissey, 2020

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