Rare and wonderful, Dales Ponies are native to northern England. Dales Ponies typically stand 14-14.2 hands high, but smaller and larger Dales Ponies can be found. They have a fast and stylish trot and are beautiful, friendly, gentle, hardy, and very strong. They have great endurance, excellent conformation, and lovely temperaments. They are intelligent and easy to train. They are known as “The Great All Rounder” in their native England for good reason, being excellent riding, driving and work ponies. They were traditionally used in trotting races, fox hunting, pulling carts to town, doing whatever farm work was needed, and for carrying packs of lead and coal quickly over treacherous mountain terrain. When carrying packs they worked in groups of 9-20 ponies, working free-headed (not tied to each other) overseen by one person riding a pony. They are naturals at navigating the various challenges of trail riding, and thrive on being out and about, investigating their world, and finding solutions to problems. They tend to be well balanced and comfortable to ride. They tend not to panic in awkward situations. They are used for a variety of riding disciplines now, including trail, dressage, jumping, hunting, Trec, working equitation, endurance, and cattle sorting.
The Dales Pony Society’s webpage has a wealth of information about the breed: https://www.dalespony.org/
They are classified as critically endangered by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust in the UK. This classification is based upon the number of mares worldwide that have produced foals within the past 3 years. Critical status is reached when this number is below 300. Every foal we produce is extremely important.
Shuna is on stallion Kingmaker Talisman in the video above.
Here is information taken from the Dales Pony Society’s website regarding why the breed is critically endangered: The Second World War nearly saw the end of the breed. Ponies were taken by the Army and mares were used for breeding vanners, and even young mares were sold for work in towns and cities. Few ever came back, and after the war the fate of the Dales breed lay in the hands of a few dedicated breeders who refused to believe the day of the heavy pony was over. In 1964, the Dales Pony Society was re-organised, and “improvement” was dropped from the title. Ponies were sought and registered, and a grading-up register was introduced for inspected ponies. This far-sighted action has been successful. When the grading-up register was closed in 1971, the number of registered ponies had risen steadily, and the quality of ponies was excellent, as it remains today.
We have 4 mares, an imported black stallion, and an imported blue roan stallion.
Many of our ponies are shown in the photos below.
Above left to right are Raspotnik Arabella, Cascadiadales Beauteous, Cascadiadales Berry Blossom, and Cascadiadales Bounteous
Above is muzzle of Redprairie Anna with filly Cascadiadales Brilliant
Above is 2018 stallion Roandale Ragged Robin, at two and a half years of age
