Why are we rejecting Exmoor foals for 'a few white hairs'?
We should be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water in the Exmoor breed
We humans should be cautious about rejecting Exmoor pony foals for 'a few white hairs'. This can often result in them being culled.
Let me tell you about Farleywater Firestar. She had an obvious scattering of white/grey hairs through her dark mane as a foal. After two coat changes, these came out - on their own. The consistency of these white hairs was weaker than the dark ones. They have never returned and she is now a particularly beautiful, well-conformed, well-moving, hardy pedigree Exmoor pony.
A question - if white hairs (that remain in the coat) are still coming through in pedigree Exmoor breeding stock over 100 years after forming a stud book, this is not 'taint' or cross-breeding - this is them. So why are we rejecting sometimes the very best filly foals in a herd, for a 'few white hairs' when they come from long pedigree lines, are not 'cross bred' and will likely breed foals without 'a few white hairs'?
The Exmoor pony gene pool is tiny and we need every healthy, true to type, good quality Exmoor possible. Why not have a pedigree Section B for Exmoor ponies with 'a few white hairs' that remain in the coat and register their foals, that don't have white hairs, back into Section A? Because at the moment, mares that breed a foal with 'a few white hairs' can still have other foals which don't, registered as pedigrees.
Let's face it, when a group of ponies was selected from all the ponies that ran out on the area now known as Exmoor National Park in the early 1920's, what was selected with them was the characteristic of some 'white hairs'. Continuing to reject foals for this reason 100 years later, when it is 'them', does not make sense. Especially when it is common for Exmoor ponies to develop white coronet bands, white in the forehead, manes and tails, as they get older.
We should be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Anyway, Firestar doesn't have any white hairs. Thankfully we were there to see her safely through to pedigree registration but others aren't so lucky. We can do more to safeguard them too.
We'd welcome constructive discussion and debate about this with Exmoor pony breeders and experts - where is the forum for discussion of such important issues?
