The Fell Pony Society
Registered Charity, Number 1104945.
Patron: Her Majesty The Queen

Foal Immunodeficiency Syndrome Testing

A report of the EGM held on 19 January 2010 will appear in the spring magazine next month.

The carrier test is available from 1 February 2010 at a cost of £40 including VAT, on a non-profit basis. Hair samples must be taken by a vet who must complete the form on the sample bag before sending it to the Animal Health Trust. At the present time, kits can be obtained from the FPS office by sending a cheque made payable to the Fell Pony Society. The results of the test will be returned to your vet within 30 days. The AHT would prefer the FPS to deal with the supply of the test kits, but your vet can obtain them directly from the AHT if you prefer. Tests for sick foals can be fast-tracked to establish whether or not the foal has the disease.

The AHT may already have archive samples from some ponies in their files (for example, colts that have been licensed as stallions and been DNA profiled.) It may be possible to use these existing samples for FIS testing if the sample was taken by a vet - please contact the office to enquire about this and they will liaise with the AHT to establish whether or not this is possible. The fee will still be £40.

Further information is available on the AHT website - follow this link:
http://www.aht.org.uk/genetics_tests.html#equine 

Reminder

Fell Pony Society Subscriptions for 2010 were due on 1 January. Subscriptions should be received by 15 February 2010 if you wish to be eligible to vote in the Council Elections. Also, all FPS judges should ensure that their subscriptions are paid as soon as possible.

'The Fell Pony' DVD

The Fell Pony Society has made a DVD to aid the promotion of the breed. It features the Fell pony, at home amid breath taking scenery, on the fells in Cumbria, seeing them as they have been for hundreds of years, running on the ground that shaped the breed and made it what it is today, with interviews from some of the hill farmers that run the ponies on the fells, where they talk about the ponies and how they manage them on the open fells. The filming also follows the ponies performing in some of the spheres in which they excel and features the Fell Pony Stallion Show, the Breed Show, the Performance trials, Lowther driving trials and through to the ridden finals at Olympia. It shows the versatility of this wonderful breed and gives an insight into why it is so important for the breed to hold onto the remaining hill herds.

The DVD was filmed by Alan and Denise Tibbitts of DVX Productions with narration by Brian Blessed and together they have produced a film that will be of tremendous value to all with an interest in native ponies.

The DVD is available from the Fell Pony Society office at a cost of £15, plus £2 postage and packing for the UK and Europe, or £3 for the USA and Canada.

Online Access to the Fell Pony Stud Book

Council have agreed to give Society members free access to the Society's Grassroots database, so that they can view animal details, member details, pedigrees and progeny lists online.
To access this, you need to enter your member number and password as notified to current members with the Spring 2009 magazine.

Click here to access the database