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Credit:
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Breed Info
A
Sketch of Fell Pony Conformation
By Megan Elisha H. Tong of
Chanhassen Farm
Brief introduction: For seven weeks in January and
February 2008, Megan
stayed with the Woolley family of Littletree Stud to learn about fell
pony breeding with a specific focus on conformation and
movement. The following is the result of her note-taking at
Littletree. All opinions and information offered here are
presented as the thoughts and experiences of Megan, who welcomes
feedback from readers, positive or constructive! Get in touch with her
at leipsw@gmail.com.
Before
I was able to
experience fell ponies en masse in Cumbria
with the Woolley family, my repertoire of fell pony-specific
comformation facts was limited to dozens of relatively useless
phrases like "flinty flat bone," "clean and defined," "good length of
rein" and the like. Even our beloved breed standard could easily be
boiled down to "What makes a good fell pony is a pony with a good head,
good legs, good neck, good hocks, good..." and you get the picture.
"What
does "good" mean?!" I wanted to shout, because until these phrases can
be defined and explained, they are quite meaningless. So my task in
this little report is to crack into these cherished phrases and talk
about what they mean in practical terms. PLEASE
NOTE: I am not setting out to write down everything I know about equine
conformation, but rather to focus on the fell-pony-specific details
that I learned to take into special consideration while in Cumbria. A
treatise on conformation would take volumes and
volumes to fill, and can be researched independantly of fell pony
studies. I hope this sketch of fell pony conformation is enjoyable and
informative!
legs
- body
- head & neck - movement
Legs
Of all the little
catchphrases that one hears in
Defined,
clean
legs with perfect expression of feather.
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reference to fell pony conformation, the one to treat with grave
reverence is this: Judge a Fell Pony From the Ground Up.
Because, as I learned, there is no such thing as a good fell pony with
bad legs.
Flat Bone:
To be
technical, flat
"bone"
is actually determined by how far set back the tendons and ligaments along the cannon
bone are. Tendons and ligaments set well back will give the lower leg a look of being
wide when viewed from the side and deceptively thin when viewed
straight on. In terms of judging a fell pony's bone, it is easiest to
note "flatness" by looking at the legs first from straight on (stand in
front for the forelegs, behind for the hind). Notice how below and
just above the knee or hock, the leg is thinner. If the bone is flat,
these parts will be noticably skinny and have a "clean" look, or lack
of
puffiness. Below and just above the joint, the leg should be roughly
equal in width.
Next, the legs should be viewed from the side.
There
should be a
Hock study
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general look of boniness to the leg. Any poofiness, swelling, or
coarseness is a fault. The lack of those faults is what horsepeople
will call "clean." The grooves defining the forearm and between the
tendons and the cannon bone should be visible: this is what is meant by
the term "defined."
Good
Pasterns:
Pasterns often seem
to be a bit overlooked among fell ponies, but Emma Woolley's
(understandable) repetition of their importance spurs to me to mention
them. Emma's interest in pasterns is particularly well-founded due to
the amount of riding she does with their ponies. A pastern must
be long enough and sloped enough to absorb the concussion of footsteps,
especially when a pony is carrying extra weight. It's hard to define
"enough" in this circumstance, as there is no magic measurement to
alert a person as to whether the pastern is too long or too
short. However, a nice piece of pony-lore was handed me in
the
form of this idiom: You should be able to balance a matchbox on the
pastern and not have it slide off.
Good
feather and pastern: note how the feather can distort the look of the
joint.
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Rule of thumb: if the pony has a
shoulder that is long and laid back enough to provide "good length of
rein" (defined later), then its pasterns are likely to be of similar
good quality, and vica versa.
Good Knee
and Hock:
Joints are
exceptionally important. When judging knees, they should look from the
front to be square or rectangular. The sides of the joint should be
flat and the width of it significantly greater than the width above
and below (see "Flat Bone"). From the side, they should have flat
fronts that do not stick out in front or appear further back than the
rest of
the leg. Avoid rounded fronts.
The hock should be as wide, when viewed from the
side,
as the
gaskin. It should have a distinctly bony appearance, with no puffiness
and have noticable grooves to define the point and muscle attachment.
It is
said that the one should be able to fit four fingers comfortably on the
front side of the hock...though if you are like me and have very slim
hands you may have to imagine an extra finger or two for that to work!
Good Hooves:
A strange
phenomenon
that we discussed at length in Cumbria is that quite a few fell ponies
have lost the perfect hoof structure that the breed calls for. Many
ponies, we noticed, had white soles even if their hooves looked
perfectly blue when standing still, for example. So it is important as
we breed to keep in mind that hooves should be blue and large in
Clean,
defined hind legs
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proportion to the height of the pony (they ARE draft ponies, remember!)
and also to check their soles. Avoid "boxy" hooves, which will look
quite small with upright walls, instead preferring larger, round
hooves, particularly in front. Hind hooves tend to be smaller and a bit
more upright.
Good
Feather: Feather!
The
coveted, flashiest feature of our beautiful native ponies! The breed
standard says this about feather: "Plenty of fine
hair at
heels (coarse hair objectionable), all the
fine hair except that at point of
heel may be cast in summer." Well, if you've noticed, most breeders
seem to be erring on the side of "plenty of fine hair ALL THE TIME!"
While some breeders still prefer moderate to very little feather and
others prefer loads and loads and loads, there are some general
guidelines as to what makes good feather.
First, as stated, the hair
should be as straight as possible. Straight hair sheds dirt and
provides a direct route for water to take. When clean, it should start
high up the back of the leg (sometimes up to the knee or hock) and just
touch the ground. In front, it will not start very high as is required
for heavily-feathered breeds like Gypsy Cobs. Instead, it is important
to look at the "spat," the little fringe of hair that covers the front
of the hoof. Usually, not the entire hoof is obscured and often the
spat is lost to mud or water, but for show season people do their
utmost to be sure that their ponies' spat is preserved and as long as
possible.
return
to conformation
Body
Note the
long, sloped shoulder and resultant short back, with matching long,
sloped pasterns. This pony has an excellent conformation in general as
well.
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Don't get TOO caught
up on bodies, as I tended to do before LEGS LEGS LEGS got pounded into
my vocabulary. There are just a couple of points that are necessary to
point out about fell ponies, the rest is just common horse conformation
knowledge.
Back:
Not too long!
Especially
where riding ponies are concerned, long back=weak back, and should be
avoided. For driving ponies, this is a bit more lenient,
but long backs
are never preferable. The back from withers to croup should be shorter
than the underline from elbow to stifle.
Hindquarters:
Strangely, hindquarters are like some kind of fiction among fell pony
literature. They never talk about them!
And because the breed standard
says little about them, breeders are rarely that concerned. The
following is
partly what I gathered in Cumbria, and also what I pull from my general
horse
"Applebutt"
effect!
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knowledge: Avoid tails set on too low, and quarters that are steeply
angled. This is very very common in the fell pony breed, but weak,
short quarters lead to all sorts of problems once the ponies are put
into work, and should be avoided at the get-go just to make things
easier for the future. Look at the angle of the shoulder,
and it should
roughly match that of the hindquarters. Similarly, a horse with a short
back will likely have a good angle and length to its shoulder and hip
as they are all affected by each other. On this note, it is important
to also avoid the other extreme, which is high tailsets with flat
croups--at this end there is danger of losing type altogether. Also
bear in mind that hindquarters are often something grown into by fells.
Do not judge a young one without proper muscling poorly, so long as the
structure itself has the desirable angle as discussed above. One funny
thing to not worry
too much about is that sometimes the point of croup seems to be
strangely high and far back when looking at the fell ponies from the
side. Often (though not always, so check!) this is just due to the
"applebutt" effect of muscular hindquarters that protrude above the
croup itself, distorting its actual location.
Shoulder:
For a fell
pony intended
for riding, a good shoulder along with the previously mentioned good
pasterns is essential for comfort. A straight shoulder will jar badly,
especially at the trot, and also break down the front legs much faster
than one that allows for proper concussion. A good way to check the
length and angle of shoulder is to draw an imaginary line from the
point of its shoulder to the wither. Again, there is no foolproof
formula or specific angle in degrees of what a proper shoulder is, but
clues about the adequacy of the shoulder lie in the length of back
(short), and length of rein (see "Head and Neck"), which have more
definite ways of being assessed. Another rule of thumb is to check to
make sure that the wither is behind the elbow when the pony is lined up
squarely.
Girth:
The underline
(elbow-stifle) should be significantly longer than the back and
relatively level all along (deep at the stifle AND deep at the elbow).
return
to conformation
Head
and Neck
Neck-set
of
Lunesdale Rebecca
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Heads
The variations
on head
preference make it difficult to say exactly what to look for in a good
one. Most people prefer a head that is not too big or coarse. Like the
legs, look for a clean, defined (read: bony!) look. Don't be a stickler
for refinement though--that can start leading down the
Arabian-heads-are-best route, and fell ponies are first and always a
hardy little native pony that evolved in wind, rain, snow, and hail.
Necks
The phrase "good
length of
rein" is an ever-present phrase that I really hate but have finally
been forced to start using. The reason that I hate it is because it
3 y/o
filly with good length of rein
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is a bit nonsensical: it has pretty much nothing to do with the
length of the reins you use when riding or driving. All it means is
that
the topline of the neck (wither-poll) should be significantly longer
than the
underline (throatlatch to where it joins to the chest). The topline of
the neck should be comparable in length to the wither-to-tailhead
measurement, not significantly longer or shorter. This is to
allow for ease of collection and the rounding of the back desirable for
riding and driving.
The neck should have a clean, defined jugular
groove.
It should
always be slightly visible. There should be no thickening on the
underside
of the neck, particularly in mares. Stallions will naturally
have thicker necks than mares, but bullish ones
should be
avoided. There should be a little flat space at the throatlatch: the
neck should not meet the head at a sharp angle. Similarly, the neck
should join the chest relatively high, leaving a noticable "step" of
free chest.
return
to conformation
Movement
Movement is a bit
more difficult
to describe in paragraphs and with still images as supplemental
material. So, I hope to start compiling videos to add,
and am trying to decide what format to do that in. Also, it will be
quite a while before I'll be back in Cumbria where I can video a wider
variety of ponies. Also, I have been trying to avoid personal bias in
this article, and therefore excluded images of my own ponies or my very
favorite ponies from Littletree, which makes this section in something
of a stall for the time being. In the meantime, though, I will do what
I can to sketch out some basics of fell movement for people to mull
over.
Straight
Movement
The term
"straight movement" is actually quite complete and self-explanatory,
unlike many conformation terms. Fell ponies should ideally
move
each leg in a nice straight line, without the hoof flipping out to the
side or inward. This is good for several reasons. A pony that moves
straight is distributing pressure more evenly and therefore less likely
to go lame or wear their hooves unevenly. It also helps keep them
surefooted, saves energy (dishing
and swinging in add wasted motion), and in the case of the pony whose
hooves swing inward will prevent the hoof from brushing against the
opposite leg which can lead to soreness, lameness, or even
splints. A nice way to tell if a pony is likely to have straight action
(besides just watching it move) is to pick up the hoof and flex
it. If when the leg is bent the hoof does not line up with
the
pony's elbow, it is unlikely to move straight.
Knee
and Hock Action
Breeders' preferences with regard to flashiness of movement differ
somewhat. A noticable lift to the knees and hocks is always desirable,
however. This fancy, active trot is a trademark of the fell pony. As
stated at the beginning, it is very difficult to describe a good trot
without video to accompany it. In this case, I will state my own
opinion, which is that I like a fell pony's trot to immediately attract
attention. I find an active, high-stepping trot to be 100% riveting and
absolutely can't look away (don't read Hackney here...the movement is
active without exaggeration). I know that's not too helpful yet (I WILL
get videos up eventually), so here's something more concrete: It is
Fell pony
tracking up well at the canter
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most important to judge the movement of a pony's hocks. If at the trot
the pony seems a bit straight in the hind leg, it is probably working
its back legs from the stifle and neglecting to properly bend and flex
its hocks. Good use of the hocks will allow the hind leg to lift
comparably high to the pony's knees, and the hind leg will set the hoof
down well under the pony's body (see "Tracking Up" below).
Tracking
Up
Tracking up
refers in part to the length of a pony's stride. A pony that "tracks up
well" is one that engages its hind legs such that the hoofprint of the
hind hoof falls directly over or slightly in front of the front
hoofprint. This is also what is being referenced when someone says that
a pony's hind leg comes "well under the body." This is something to
look for at all paces.
return
to conformation
For further information about the author and her
experience in Cumbria, please visit her website at http://www.chanhassenfarm.com/.
All questions and comments should be directed to Megan
(leipsw@gmail.com). This article and all photos belong to the author
and should not be copied or reproduced without permission and/or proper
citation/credit.
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