The 21st century

The Museum web site has been in existence for so long that it needed an update to cover the first 2 decades of the 21st century.

Fells still live out on the fells in Cumbria and Lancashire.

The Fell Pony Society will reach its centenary year in 2022 and continues to champion the breed and to publicise it through its web site and Display Team.

The Fell pony is listed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust as a rare and vulnerable breed, Category 2 "At Risk": https://www.rbst.org.uk/rbst-watchlist. There are an estimated 6,500 ponies alive, globally, with approximately 300 foals born annually and registered with the FPS. (304 in 2019, 301 in 2020.)

There are Fell ponies in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Germany, France, Czech Republic, Russia, Italy, Hungary, New Zealand and Australia. The Society has a Daughter Society in the Netherlands, and 4 Overseas Branches: 1 each in Denmark and Sweden and 2 in USA.

Books continue to be written about the breed. The Lake District National Park continues to attract visitors and as a World Heritage Site it helps to promote the breed; the Fell ponies, however, mostly live round the less popular edges and can avoid the crowds.

Fell ponies, reprising their historic role as pack-horses, are being used to carry equipment up the fells to fix footpaths. Fell ponies are also used as conservation grazers on a short-term basis on areas of botanical interest and to support insect and bird populations.

You can read many of the stories of individual Fells on the FPS web site, in back numbers of the FPS Magazine, which describe these ponies as the much-loved mounts of pleasure riders, long-distance trekkers, dressage enthusiasts and show trophy-hunters alike.

I personally love them for carriage driving.

Webmaster and Fell pony driver

My ponies have mostly been broken to drive when they were mature - Mr T when he was rising 6 and Ruby when she was 9. Ruby's foal Sonny was 8 when he started his driving career and came on a visit to us for a few weeks. However, my very first Fell, Swindale Rose, I bought broken to ride and drive at the age of 3.

black fell pony gelding being drivin in a Leftley Gig at Dalemain.
Sue Millard and Mr T (Tebay Tommy) in the driving class at the FPS Stallion and Colt show at Dalemain, 2003.

bay fell pony mare being driving in a red cross country carriage
Sue Millard driving Ruby (Coppyhill Suzanne) at home in 2008.

brown fell pony and his trainer teaching him to accept the exercise cart
David Trotter teaching Ruby's son Shacklabank Sonny to accept the exercise cart; at Tebay in 2009.

brown fell pony gelding
Sonny at "boot camp" (being bossed by his dam) in 2009.

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