Title: The Joys and Challenges of Breeding Ponies: Insights from Heniarth
Meirion Davies and Richard Miller breed ponies under the Heniarth prefix. Their successes include 55 winners of 27 championships at the Royal Welsh show, 29 individual HOYS qualifiers, and LIHS Best of Breeds.
This time of year can be very stressful for breeders in all disciplines, fretting that all will go well with foaling and whether or not a maiden mare will accept her new role. Between planning and waiting, there are plenty of worries to keep you awake for the birth!
The reward is the breeder’s gift: the honour of being the very first person to see the manifestation of their dream.
Nothing can beat the feeling, in the early morning mist, of seeing your foal, fawn-like and ethereal, up on its feet. It makes your heart beat a little faster. Hopefully, the mare’s ritual, a pirouette around her foal, and the sound of mutual whickering soon follows. Finally comes the satisfaction of the slurping, suckling sound. All is well.
Some foals arrive as if from Ikea, flat-packed, taking days to unfurl. Others “make an entrance” – statuesque, their outline sculpted – cast from their future promise with that necessary “it factor” for showing already present.
It’s a tough call, that immediate evaluation of the newborn. But by the age of 10 days, you can evaluate most foals’ potential.
A Duty of Care
Our foals are the result of years of planning and immeasurable investment in time, patience and worry.
Despite this, the mares foal outdoors at Heniarth. We interfere very little with the birth, just moving in to spray the foal’s navel and ensure it receives critical colostrum.
The mares are inoculated eight weeks prior to foaling, so this ensures the foal has some level of immunity. Then we withdraw, allowing the combination to bond.
However highly we rate our mares and foals, or how excited we are to show them, we have a duty of care for all we breed.
On Show
At Heniarth, we approach showing a broodmare and foal with delicacy. Once we have a thriving foal, we enter a maximum of three shows, limiting the number for their wellbeing.
A show mare’s foal should have as normal a life as possible, with daily turnout to run and tire itself out so it can sleep and grow while enjoying the luxury of its stable at night.
In the ring, the foal handler’s role is to place the foal in a position where the mare is always alert, looking for it, capitalising on the bond without stressing the mare.
We do little handling of the foal beyond teaching it to tie up next to its dam. So when showing it, we sometimes lead from the other side of the mare, with the rein over her back so that the foal relaxes, trotting freely alongside.
However, if the dam does well, we will often forego the foal class in order to save the mare from tiring and keep her fresh.
When it comes to colts, our ethos is that few are good enough to remain stallions. Those who fall short should nevertheless be set up as youngsters to have a great life as a gelding, hopefully bringing immense fun for a child in the show ring.
Breeding brings challenges, but also great rewards beyond that breeder’s gift, such as watching a pony we have bred winning for new owners.
This spring, we’re thrilled to see a foal we sold to breeders in Sweden return to the UK. Seven years later, he has fulfilled his promise and is already notching up titles. We look forward to following the rest of his show season.
Enjoy What You Breed
I close with one piece of advice for all breeders: plough your own furrow. Create what pleases your interpretation of a breed or type’s description.
Showing is only the opinion of one judge on a specific day; you have the other 364 days to enjoy what you have bred.
Good luck with the breeding and showing season. Never mind thinking your geese are swans; may your swans be foals!
