At the recent Horse of the Year Show at Kyalami Equestrian Park, five of the six supreme championships were won by either a Welsh Pony, or crossbred Welshie. This feat was by no means a flash in the pan. Welshies are more often than not in the final line-up at interbreed shows. And they don't seem to limit themselves to specific disciplines only.

So what is their secret? What makes them so successful?
Welsh Pony and Cob Society of South Africa secretary, Sue Cook, has an easy answer.
"We were very fortunate," she says, "with the quality of the original stock that was imported into South Africa. The two original stallions to be imported were of exceptional high standard. The Section A stallion, Coed Coch Seryddwr, that was brought into the Cape by Mrs Lasbrey in 1948, was one that they have always regretted to have allowed to leave Wales, as a son of his was probably the most prepotent stallion they had afterwards in Wales.

"The other one, a Section B stallion called Valiant, that was imported in 1954 by Miss Illingworth, had already won the Royal Welsh Show and had beaten his father at that time, so the foundation stock in South Africa was really of exceptional quality."

A Welshie plan
Another factor that definitely played a role in the success of the Welsh Pony in South Africa, says Sue, was the broad vision of both the owners of these two stallions, Mrs Lasbrey in the Cape and Miss Illingworth in White River.

"They had a specific plan with these imports. They were looking for ponies that would improve the quality of children's riding ponies in South Africa. They both had the idea of using the Welsh stallions on quality local stock. Later on Mrs Lasbrey became very involved in breeding pure-bred Welsh Ponies, but Mrs Illingworth of the Foresyte Stud really made her mark in producing quality part-bred ponies for the children's market.

North vs south
Interestingly, the country is rather clearly divided between north and south in terms of use, and therefore popularity, of the various sections of the ponies.

"In the north, and notably Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Kwazulu-Natal, the demand is for riding ponies, so the cross-breds are much more in demand, whereas in contrast, the Western and Eastern Cape have a much more defined driving culture, in which the small Section A's are doing very well and are in very good demand.
"To illustrate the point, when I go down to the Cape to judge at shows, it is not uncommon to encounter 25 or 26 stallions in a single harness class, all of very good quality. It is also not uncommon still for the Section A's and B's to be used in harness or under saddle as working horses on farms in the Western and Eastern Cape."

A good children's pony
It is therefore logical that the breeding of cross-bred Welshies, aimed at the children’s market, is concentrated much more in the north.
"A good children's pony has got to be a good allrounder, so rather than concentrating on just a breed, or even a specific ability such as jumping, there is a lot of emphasis placed on conformation and breeding good looking ponies. If the pony has good conformation, chances are that it would be able to do a variety of disciplines."

A very similar story to that of the Foresyte stud, was the Weyden Magic horses. The Jamani Arabian stud of Mrs Charmaine Grobbelaar also bred Welshies. In putting an excellent Welsh Mountain Pony stallion to a very good Arab mare, the result was a stallion called Jamani Blue Magic. Mrs Wendy Armitage bought this stallion and crossed him with Thorougbreds to breed the very well-known Weyden Magic strain of ponies who dominated the children’s sport arena for many years.

Definite breeding programmes
"This Weyden Magic story, I think, illustrates another success factor of the Welsh influence in this country. This is that there hasn't been a real wide mixture of blood. The crossings have been done in very definite breeding programmes, involving very specific breeds, namely Thoroughbreds and Arabs."
Sue Cook's own stud is called the Caegwyn Stud, and it has had a hand in several of the winning Welshies at the Horse of the Year Show.

"We were very fortunate, in that we bought a Section B mare from the Foresyte Stud who was in foal at the time. This foal (Foresyte Prince Edward) turned out to be an excellent stallion and went on to become my stud stallion for many years. The mare that won the Supreme Breed Horse Championship at the HOY, Caegwyn Lady Guinevere, is by my stallion out of an Anglo Arab mare. Similarly, the horse who won the Supreme Ridden Horse Championship, Vintage Dimple Haig, is also by my stallion out of a Thoroughbred mare."

The society
The Welsh Pony and Cob Society of South Africa has around 300 members and in the region of 2 000 ponies, the majority of which are Section A Welsh Mountain Ponies, mostly based in the Cape.
The Section B's, which is the slightly bigger pure-bred pony, are fewer in number. Similarly there are not very many Cobs around, which are a fairly new introduction to South Africa.

Although the history of the Welsh Pony goes back a thousand years, the studbook only closed after the Second World War, not before notable Thoroughbred and Arab influence to put a bit of "quality" to the population in the Welsh mountains during the nineteenth century. The Cobs came about by crossing the Welsh Mountain Ponies with various ­other breeds, notably some of the lighter draft types as well as Hackney. In order to refine these Cobs again, they were put back to the Section A's, resulting in what became known as the Section C. This is described as a Welsh Pony of Cob type. In Wales the Section C is currently among the
most popular of the four sections.

The state of the children's pony market in South Africa?
"At the moment," says Sue, "the market is largely served by Welsh crosses, but it is not well saturated at all. There is always a demand for good ponies, and good ponies bring good prices. The thing to remember about the children's pony market, is that the pony has to be a quality show pony, able to do everything. Very few people in this country are able to buy a pony exclusively for one discipline.
"Interestingly enough there is also a great demand for children's lead rein ponies. The implication is that the Welsh Section A pony must be the only pony in the world that gets more valuable as it gets older, for it has a second life awaiting it as a children's lead rein pony."