A veterinary researcher who wanted to prove that ponies could be bred scientifically and produced from the field by an amateur to win has done just that – and hopes to inspire others to follow in her footsteps.
Veronica Fowler, a post-doctoral research veterinary scientist from Hartpury University, started breeding Welsh section A ponies differently in 2022. Her colt Meonwara Aethelwulf King of Wessex is two, and has already won at county shows and Royal Windsor Horse Show, and Dr Fowler believes there is more to come.
“Aethelwulf has always been kept at grass, shown from the field and home-produced with welfare-friendly methods,” Dr Fowler said. “Critics may dismiss science and call me an amateur ‘pony patter’, but the show ring judges didn’t.”
Dr Fowler told H&H she had always had thoroughbreds but had to stop riding in 2018 for medical reasons.
“I thought ‘What else can I do?’” she said. “I bought a pony for my daughter, who happened to be a Welsh mountain, and that’s where my love for them came from.
“I was taking her lead-rein showing – not proper showing; we went to a few county shows, winging it at the bottom of the class! – and I quite enjoyed the atmosphere, and the idea of polishing up a pony, putting it in front of the judge, doing the best job you could do, and getting a judge’s opinion.
“So I thought ‘I can’t ride any longer, so let’s go and buy a couple of section A ponies and take them showing’. And that’s what I did. I didn’t do any research at all, just went and bought a couple, straight off the mountains.”
Dr Fowler said she “jumped straight in at the deep end” with her two “hill ponies”, both the semi-feral rather than the show-ring type, but she learned the ropes, and had success. And then she decided to breed her own.
“I wanted to prove that show champions can be bred, raised, trained and presented using evidence-based welfare practices, without compromising on success in the ring,” she said.
Rather than select her mare and stallion from their competition history, Dr Fowler employed “phenotypic selection”, breeding for the traits or phenotypes she wanted.
“What I’m interested in is what a good pony should be, from a health perspective, in terms of conformation and the characteristics of that pony, what the breed standard says it should look like,” she said. “Then finding two ponies who, if you marry them together, you’re likely to create that image.
“I’m not interested in whether they’ve got medal-winners in their history, or three crosses to a legendary pony, as that doesn’t get you anything but genetic problems.”
Both parents were tested for infectious disease, and the mare was scanned and vaccinated as recommended, and kept as naturally as possible while she was pregnant. Once “Wolfie” was born, he was handled daily, vaccinated and trimmed by the farrier. He self-weaned at 10 months old.
“I hate the fact people are weaning foals at four months old,” Dr Fowler said. “It’s cruel; there are more than 50 scientific papers telling us that’s not setting a horse up for success. There are so many myths; you have to take the foal away from the dam or she won’t dry up her milk. I wanted to prove to people that you can actually do all these other things in a scientifically, welfare-friendly way and still win. My foals are all self-weaned; they wean themselves about 10 or 11 months, when they’re mostly away with their friends. When the foal is spending most of its time away from its mother, all you need to do is to put the foal and a friend, or friends, in the next field, and they’re weaned.
Self-weaning
“The dam doesn’t call, the foal doesn’t call. They’re over the fence, in sight, in sound of each other. I filmed that a few times and posted on social media to show that foals do not need to be in isolation at four months old in a stable to be a show pony. They can be weaned in sight, in sound of their mother, in the next field, and it’s the most welfare-friendly way you can wean. There’s no stress associated with that at all.”
Wolfie was the top section A colt foal and Welsh foal reserve champion at the Bucks Counties Spectacular Show in 2023, and best yearling at Royal Windsor in 2024. He was the National Pony Society (NPS) overall in-hand M&M silver medal champion at Alresford Show 2024, but lost the prize owing to a lapsed NPS membership. So as a two-year-old, he went back to Alresford and won again.
“The judge said to me this year, ‘He’s my champion because he’s absolutely true to type’,” Dr Fowler said. “I want people, amateurs to be inspired, to know you can beat the professionals.
“Through this journey, I achieved what I set out to do: to show that champions can be bred and raised ethically, using science-based methods that prioritise welfare at every stage.
“Aethelwulf’s success is evidence that you don’t have to compromise the wellbeing of your animals to win in the ring. You just have to be willing to do things differently — and better.
“It’s time we asked harder questions about how we treat the ponies we claim to celebrate. Because true success isn’t just about silver medals – it’s about raising animals who thrive in mind, body, and spirit.”
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