A series of conversations with friends and guests including riders, drivers, breeders, judges, adventurers and beyond.
Two-time winner of the Best International Podcast award at the Equus Film Festival, 2021 and 2023
Episode 18. Terry Pendry
On todays show I’m talking with a man who’s journey from very humble beginnings has taken him to the pinnacle of horse culture. You may know him from the image of him standing on the Long Walk at Windsor castle with Carltonlima Emma paying his respects to the late Queen Elizabeth
So I would like to introduce my guest Terry Pendry who for the last 28 years served as head groom to the Queen and was awarded the title of Military Knight.
Episode 17. Paul Metcalf
Episode 16. Penny Randell
Episode 15. Charlie and Gina Parker
Episode 14. Walter LLoyd
On todays show I have something a little bit different for you, and have put together a show from all the archive interviews I have of my dad Walter who died in 2018 age 93.
I had done many interviews with him over the years, mostly about his travels to Appleby Fair with our ponies which he lived for every year, and also from some interviews recorded with children at Settlebck school in 2010.
Episode 13. Eliza Brown
Episode 12. Christine Morton and Alison Bell
There have been Fell Ponies at Lownthwaite since at least 1889, when Thos Wales and his mother Mary moved to Lownthwaite at a time when equines were the “power house” of agriculture. Today the Lownthwaite ponies are one of the last semi-feral herd of Fell Ponies to roam the Northern Pennines and are managed by mother and daughter who are the 5th generation of the family.
So I would like to introduce my guests Christine Morton and Alison Bell, Christine is President of the Fell Png Society, and Alison site on the Fell Pony Society Council.
Episode 11. Sarah Charlton
Episode 10. Ruth Chamberlain
Ruth Chamberlain who many of you will know through her Instagram account @ruthonthehoof has spent the last couple of years photographing Fell ponies in their native habit as well as some of the other less well known native breeds for her project The Hidden Hoofbeats of Britain and Ireland.
Episode 9. Nicola Evans
Episode 8. Jenifer Morrissey
On today’s show we’re travelling across the pond to South Dakota, talking about the practicalities of establishing a herd of ponies in another country, genetic diversity how data from stud books can help establish a breeding program and a whole host of subjects that my guest has written about in her 8 books so far
Episode 7. Bert Morland
Bert Morland is a judge and breeder of the Lunesdale Fell ponies who have won shows at the highest levels. On todays show we’re going to go into the finer points of breeding with Bert who’s credentials in the show ring tell you that anything he doesn’t know about breeding Fell ponies isn’t worth knowing.
Episode 6. Libby Robinson
Libby Robinsons journey has weaved its way through 3 countries but has always kept coming back to working ponies. In 2018 she managed to move her herd from France to re-establish them as a semi-feral herd on a Cumbrian Fell and now her journey has turned into a quest to to establish a Fell Pony Heritage Centre in the Lake District to protect the Fell Pony breed characteristics and preserve the working practices for future generations.
Episode 5. Bill Potter
Bill Potter breeds the Greenholme ponies on Birkbeck Common.
Having been bred and reared in the harsh conditions of Shap, they are tremendously hardy and will do well in any situation. Some of the mares have never been handled and live in feral conditions, trusting to their instincts in hard weather; In a recent wildness survey, the Greenholme ponies came in the top 5% of wild equines in Europe
Episode 4. Peter Boustead
As well as being current Chairman of the Fell Pony Society, Peter Boustead is a Fell Pony and Mixed Mountain & Moorland Judge and Breeder of the Summerhouse Fell Ponies.
In this show we’re going to talk about all things Fell Pony Society -Judging, the breed standard and a few stories about some of the old guard of the Fell Pony Society.
Episode 3. Vyv Wood-Gee
Long Rider and adventurer Viv Wood-Gee rode on horseback with her daughter Elsa in 2006 from John O'Groats to Land's End and in 2010 from Dunvegan on Skye to Smithfield Market in London, retracing old drove roads used to move cattle reared in Scotland to markets in England.
Episode 2. Sue Millard
Sue Millard is an author, editor of Fell Pony Society magazine, webmaster of the Society website and for the last 15 years has been a member of the Fell Pony Society Council. In 2002 Sue created the online Fell Pony Museum. As well as her non-fiction, Sue is about to publish her 6th novel and somewhere in her life finds time to drive her mare Coppyhill Suzanne.
Episode 1. Andrew Thorpe
Fell pony breeder Andrew Thorpe established the Wellbrow Stud in 1995 and has risen to be one of the most successful and prolific breeders of the last 25 years.