PrintShe's perhaps best known for her famous Welsh pony breeding operation, but Joan Dunning's love for equines goes much deeper. Her stud farm called Farnley, located in White Post, Va., is the first American home to the Dartmoor pony, a rare breed that originated in Great Britain.
Dunning stumbled across the Dartmoor ponies while in England in the early 20th century, and a love affair began that's endured for nearly a century.
Dunning, now in her late 90s, founded The Dartmoor Pony Registry of America in the 1930s, and the 500th Dartmoor pony was registered in 2005 by Dunning's daughter, Mrs. C.C. (Hetty) Abeles of Shenandoah Pony Stud in White Post, Va.
Dunning was responsible for importing at least 35 ponies and breeding more than 197 of the 529 ponies registered in the United States to date. Abeles followed in her mother's footsteps and is credited with 28 of the total. And these numbers apply only to the purebred Dartmoors in the registry. There have always been a significant number of crossbred ponies as well.
Most breeders can't imagine having to name that many ponies, much less keep the bloodlines straight and make breeding decisions that will enhance the breed. Yet, according to current DPRA President Susan Deutermann (who has bred or imported at least 29 Dartmoors herself), the British breeders are pleased with American efforts to conserve the breed.
"The ponies have done well because of the pedigrees of the ponies we've imported," Deutermann said. "Mrs. Dunning was able to maintain a good solid base of mares. There was a lot of careful planning in all of this. The Europeans were all convinced we were going to ruin their ponies, but when Liz [Elizabeth Newbolt-Young, owner of Shilstone Rocks Stud] came here, she was really pleased."
The British breed standard was established in 1898 and is almost identical to today's American breed standard as maintained by the Dartmoor Pony Registry of America (www.dartmoorpony.com).
The ponies were originally used to haul tin from the mines to the market towns and for farm work, but registered ponies almost dis-appeared by the end of WWII. Mrs. Dunning's efforts to introduce the Dartmoor to America in the 1930s came at an opportune time and opened a new market for British breeders.
Spreading The Wealth
Dunning was responsible for all early importation and breeding, and from the beginning placed her ponies carefully. She began her dispersal of the breed rather modestly but very early in her importing and breeding program with the conveyance of registry #6 (the filly Farnley Pippin, foaled in 1938) to her sister, Mrs. A.S. Hewitt of Montana Hall.
Dunning sold 19 of the next 37 ponies that she imported or bred, placing them in different homes along the East Coast. In the mid-1950s, a six-time Dartmoor client of Dunning's became the first after her to import a Dartmoor to the United States. Before that time, she imported or bred all 43 Dartmoors officially registered in the United States, and she sold 28 of these in new homes across the Eastern seaboard.
The first nine ponies were all imported from the same stud in England, owned by Miss E.R. Scrimgeour of Sussex. The first batch of five imports included four fillies and one colt, Hey Nonny Nonny.
