History

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Early History

The Fell pony is a living legend from Northern England. There, the forces of nature forged their heritage, and fate brought them to a crossroads, and into a partnership with civilization.

During the North American ice age, their ancestors migrated across a land bridge between Alaska and Asia.

Eventually, these travelers would inhabit many geographical areas. Some would stay, and others would move on, adapting to their new environment, and to those who would share it with them.

Across the span of geologic time, their search would bring them to Northern England. There, in the Pennine mountain range, nature would use ice again to sculpt their future homeland.

Here, they would live in valleys called Dales, drink from mountain lakes known as Tarns, and cross upland moorlands covered with heather, boggs, and bracken.

It was here, in Cumbria, where the hills are called fells, that the Fell pony awaited its destiny.

Over the centuries that followed, the environment and the changing demands of civilization, would form the Fell Pony we know today.

Their history was painted on the walls of caves, and their likeness formed in gold and silver.

They were here, when the Phoenicians mined for tin during the Bronze Age, and were witness to the building of Hadrian’s Wall, and the four centuries of occupation by the Roman's along the northern frontier of their empire.

When the Vikings controlled their homeland, the ponies pulled ploughs, harrows and carts. And, during the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, the Cistercian Monks found them valuable as pack ponies and mounts.

The centuries that followed found the ponies on farms, pack horse trails and trade routes. Their reputation was earned, by their strength, agility, and endurance.

They pulled artillery carts during the war to end all wars, and sadly, were used as “Pit Ponies” in the coal mines.

Twice, the ponies were near extinction, during the reign of King Henry the VIII, and again, when the farms in England became mechanized.

Today, through the efforts of a group of dedicated breeders, and the Fell Pony Society, the Fell Pony faces a bright future.

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