NEWS:

THE knowledge and wisdom of the last fell pony breeders high in the Cumbrian Fells will be preserved on film thanks to a Heritage Lottery grant of £19,500. The grant was awarded to the Fell Pony Breeders Association. The ponies are an important part of the heritage of the Cumbrian fells, and yet few people are aware of them or their place on the Cumbrian landscape. The project aims to promote their significance in an attempt to protect their future.

The Fell Pony Breeders Association, working with film-maker Tom Lloyd and storyteller Emma Aylett, will capture the oral history of the last of the Cumbrian fell pony breeders and promote understanding of the fell pony. As a result of falling numbers on the fells, the fell pony is now on the endangered list of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, and the breeders themselves are a generation facing a bleak future, with virtually no family members or young breeders prepared to carry on the valuable bloodlines.

The film will be used to raise awareness of the breed, and will form the basis of a community project, working with schools and community groups from Tebay and Sedbergh. This project aims to make contact with and talk with the breeders amongst their herds of ponies, gathering stories, anecdotes and tales to build a social document through film. This community generated work and the archive will form a resource which we aim to share through ‘public showings’ in communities, sited near herds, and to raise awareness of the breed to a wider audience. Christine Robinson from the Fell Pony Breeders Association says “We are absolutely delighted to have received this award from the Heritage Lottery fund. It was quite nerve-wracking putting everything together but has been more than worth the effort, we are really looking forward to getting to work on this project and hope it puts the fell ponies and their breeders back on the county map.”

Die Britischen Ponyrassen

In vielen europäischen Ländern begann die Zucht und Verbreitung der diversen Ponyrassen mit Importen von den Britischen Inseln; meist waren dies Shetland Ponys, denen bald andere folgten. Die Rassen Dartmoor, Welsh, Connemara und New Forest sind inzwischen im deutschen Sprachraum weithin bekannt, neuerdings stoßen Highland, Fell und Dales hinzu. Einige andere britische Rassen, wie etwa Exmoor, Kerry Bog oder Hackney Pony sind noch relativ unbekannt. Tinker, die man zu den Kleinpferden zählen kann, erleben eine unglaubliche Popularität. Die Vielfalt an britischen Ponyrassen macht es leicht, für jeden Zweck und jeden Geschmack die passenden Tiere zu finden und es wird nicht mehr lange dauern, bis man im deutschen Sprachraum über die gesamte Palette der Rassen in ausreichender Zahl verfügt. Diese umfasst mittlerweile nicht mehr nur die „klassischen“ neun Rassen, sondern hat einige Ergänzungen erfahren, da mittlerweile „neue, alte“ Rassen wiederentdeckt, bzw. neue geschaffen wurden: