H O M E

Photo © by Sue Millard.
This is Lune Valley Lauren aged 4, 2004, at Roundthwaite Farm, Cumbria, England

THE FELL PONY

The Fell Pony has an extremely strong international contingent.  Included here are articles from Sue Millard of Great Britain, Laura Hart of the United States, and Elizabeth Robinson from France.  All photos are courtesy of the authors and have been used with their kind permission.  Fell Ponies are considered 'rare' by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. 

Always There
by
Sue Millard

The likelihood of romantic stories containing anything more than a seed of truth is small, and British breed Societies wisely make little of them. The Fell pony’s very own little bit of popular myth is this: its frequently black colour, and long mane, tail and feather, are said to indicate Friesian blood, passed on through nearly 2,000 years from Roman cavalry stock in the 2^nd century AD.

Well, we can speculate, but that is all – because, really, how much influence is there likely to be left from 2,000 years ago? In all probability, the Fells’ myth is no more significant than the Spanish Armada or Katerfelto stories. In those distant times there were French, German, Sarmatian, Hungarian and many other tribal groups serving as cavalrymen in the North; not just lowland Dutch. We know a little about the  horses of the Germanic tribes of that time which Tacitus says were “remarkable neither for beauty nor swiftness”; but we really don’t know much about the ancient background of Fell ponies. They were just “always there”.

There is very scant evidence of what any particular type of British ponies might have been like in the 12 centuries between the end of Roman rule and the era of Elizabeth I. There are some sculptures, small pony-size bits, harness parts, and the thin scatterings of the bone record[i]. Some manuscripts, both ecclesiastical and secular, have small marginal drawings. The Bayeux Tapestry shows a little pack pony, and paintings show horses in the service of monarchs. But who was going to make any fuss over the workaday rustic pony, especially in the wild and inhospitable North? Who would bother to write about the everyday runabout when there were Ferraris or Rolls Royces to admire? They were just “always there”.

The term “Galloway” comes into use in Shakespeare’s time. Galloway was a former horse producing region of Southern Scotland, close to Cumberland. Scottish Galloways were said to be small, fast, tireless, very sound, and able to move quickly over rough country[ii]. Cumbrian racing Galloways are traceable in the foundation stock of the Thoroughbred[iii] but as they are sired by Barb horses, the term must also be a generic one of size and use, rather than a reproducible breed. What is clear is that these little saddle horses were valued; when they went missing, owners advertised rewards for their return. 

In Cumberland and Westmorland, just as in other parts of Britain, for centuries ponies were the main method of transporting goods: wool, cloth, lead, pottery, foodstuffs of all kinds, wines and spirits, spices, fuel, and slate for roofs. They walked long distances, from the north of England to London, from the west coast ports to the smallest inland farms, from the Pennine lead mines to the east coast ports. Even after the arrival of metalled roads, and the fast coaches and railway trains of the 19^th century, there was still a need for pack ponies on the narrow, steep and stony tracks of the Lake District. The Galloway and the Fell were just “always there”. They were probably the same thing in essence; smallish, tough, and useful. Old farmers today may still be heard using the term[iv] “Galloway” about Fell ponies.


There is both Welsh and Norfolk cob blood recorded in the Fell Stud Book in the early 20th century where pedigrees show that such stallions had been used two generations back[v]. Norfolk is far from Cumberland, but here we must go back and look at our “myth”: if there is any Friesian influence on the Fell, this is a much more likely source than the heavy work-horse of 2,000 years ago[vi]. In the 17^th century[vii] Dutch drainage experts came into Norfolk to drain the Fen country, bringing with them trotting horses that contributed to the Old English Black, later the Shire. This “roadster” blood could therefore have contributed some Friesian or Hard-dravers influence to the Fell. However, it has been smoothed over by the passage of time; and to an extent the sale of valuable offspring takes crossbreds into work and out of the breeding pool.

When did the Fell start being a “pony” and not a “horse”? Dr Johnson’s dictionary of 1755 contains the word but he admits he does not know where it came from. Spelt “poney” it appears in advertisements in the Westmorland Gazette in 1838 and is sometimes linked to the terms “Scotch” or “Galloway”. But it isn’t until 1894 that any reference appears to “Fell” ponies specifically. Hesket-New-Market and Shap were the first two shows that offered classes for “Fell” ponies in 1894 and 1895 respectively. So it is not till 1894 that we have our first glimpse of recorded, dated,  “Fell history”.

The Polo and Riding Pony Society, later the National Pony Society, opened a stud book in 1893 to register native pony types suitable for breeding light horses for sport and recreation. It classed the ponies by the areas in which they were located, and stipulated that the ponies must be at least three-quarters “native” bred. This is when areas such as the New Forest, Highlands, Dales, and Fells began to be identified as pony producers, and the idea of a local “breed” emerged in place of a local “type”. Their registrations of Fell ponies from 1898 onward indicate that brown and bay were the commonest colours, followed by black and grey with a few broken-coloured piebalds or skewbalds, roans, duns or chestnuts. The permitted coat colours eventually settled to brown, bay, black and grey. Chestnut and broken-coloured ponies were debarred in 1940.  The other alternative colours, red or blue (“grey”) roan, were last registered in 1952 and 1966 respectively and are represented by some of the grey bloodlines.

Fell ponies were registered through a Fell Pony Committee based in Penrith. In 1916 this Committee passed a resolution to become a Society in its own right, which became reality by the time it made its annual report in 1918. Since then the Fell Pony Society (FPS) has been the governing body for Fell ponies. The FPS’s aim was “to foster and keep pure the old breed of pony that has roamed the northern hills for years and to circulate knowledge and general information about the pony breed.” Fells were registered through the National Pony Society from 1914 to 1980, when the FPS took over responsibility for its own registrations.

For thirty years the ponies of the Pennines were considered so similar that they could be cross-registered within the Dales and Fell stud books. However, around 1924 the FPS ruled that mares must measure under 13-2 hands, and in 1948 that the progeny of Dales or other stallions could not be registered as Fells without inspection, at 2 years old, for Fell type. These  were big steps towards separating the two types of ponies.

In 1945 the FPS set up a breeding Enclosure scheme at Berrier, west of Penrith, whereby mares could be taken to a large “allotment” of land where a Fell stallion – voted for by the membership – would run all summer. This proved so successful that another Enclosure was organised in the southern part of the Lakes, though it moved to three different locations over time. The scheme was discontinued in 1976 owing to the difficulty of finding suitable secure land for the Enclosures, and to the stallion owners preferring to keep an entire horse at home rather than travel their mares[viii].

A regulation passed in 1952 lowered the Fell stallion height limit to 14 hands with half an inch allowed for shoes; the height limit for mares was later raised to the same measurement and this is still the rule today.

There was some difficulty for the Fell breed in the years 1919 to 1939, when Fell mares were being crossbred to the Clydesdale horse to produce a bigger, all purpose farm animal. Some pure Fells were used for shepherding, and light carting such as taking hay and feed to outlying animals. Some ponies at the smaller end of the height range still went to work in coal mines in County Durham; larger ones were bought to work in milk floats; they took dairy produce from the colliery farms, which overlay the pits, to customers in the local towns and villages. They didn’t have the weight for heavy agricultural work such as ploughing. Such cross-breeding had caused the extinction of the Scottish Galloway, which was absorbed into the Clydesdale breed in the early 19^th Century. But when the War Office withdrew its premium for breeding ponies, numbers of Fell stallions dwindled, until in 1932 only three paraded at the Stallion Show. Fells were still “always there”, but like all working horses of the time they were very much less wanted; two-year-olds could be bought for £3 each in 1936.

So how did the Fell survive as the pure “old breed” which the FPS still aims to foster?  It was thanks to the work of the FPS and to families such as the Charltons, Harrisons, Nobles and Waleses who were prepared to keep them for their own qualities. Financial support also came to the Society from King George V and Mrs. Heelis (Beatrix Potter).

Strong, sound ponies were still wanted for trap work in the towns, and that market enjoyed a resurgence when motor cars were subject to petrol rationing during the Second World War; but another lean patch followed the relaxation of those restrictions after the peace in 1945.

However, by 1950, the upsurge of interest in riding as a leisure activity brought British native ponies back into popularity, and the Fell among them.

As a strong, sensible mount that was a good doer and could be ridden by almost any member of the family, the Fell was an economical choice for pleasure riding in both private and commercial ownership.  The ultimate accolade was its ownership and use by HM Queen Elizabeth II and later by Prince Philip, which assured the Fell’s place in the public eye.

Today Fells are used successfully for many leisure and commercial activities; private hacking, activity holidays such as trekking or trail riding; long distance riding; showing and working breed classes; dressage; low level cross country events (a Fell does not have the jumping scope of the Thoroughbred though in proportion to his size he can probably jump higher!); long distance driving, as well as driving competitively across country, or for pleasure or show. They are used for riding and driving in activity centres for the disabled, and a few owners use Fells for light forestry work and agricultural duties such as shepherding, and carting hay and feed to outlying animals. And, of course, there are still some semi-feral herds providing a core example of hardy, tough, sensible ponies who can look after themselves.

The key attribute of the Fell, which has assured its survival, is its ability to be useful in many different situations. To be just “always there”.