Tolkien could hardly have imagined a more beautiful landscape for his novels – nor a creature that would better suit an epic than the Carneddau pony.When they wander in herds through the misty Carneddau Mountains and plateaus, they seem like an apparition from another time. Their home is around 200 square kilometers in size and almost 1,000 meters above sea level. It makes up just one-tenth of the Eryri National Park (Snowdonia) in North Wales.
.jpg)
With their height of 110 cm to 120 cm and their short, thin necks, they have little in common with the English riding ponies that became import hits worldwide. Thank goodness. History has often spared this breed – from complete domestication and from being bred to meet the needs of humans.
Carneddau ponies: the species that is not a breed
In fact, Carneddau ponies are not formally a breed at all. This is because they have neither a stud book nor firmly defined breed standards. Even though their strikingly broad foreheads, large eyes and sensationally long manes are considered typical, they have never had to conform to an ideal image.They remained as beautifully unique as nature created them. Nature has decided that it is predominantly grey horses, as well as chestnuts and a few brown ponies, that suit the Carneddau Mountains. There they live, semi-wild, in herds large and small, in summer and winter alike. The owners of the neighboring farms are responsible for their welfare.
One of them is Gareth Wyn Jones, Chairman of the Carneddau Pony Society and probably the most prominent farmer in the region thanks to his TV and social media presence. Together with the other traditional farming families, he brings the herds together once a year in late fall to take stock. This tradition has its origins in Tudor times. In 1535 and 1541, King Henry VIII issued laws on grazing, according to which old and sick animals were removed or culled, as was customary at the time.
Status: endangered
There are only 300 of these ponies still in existence today. This number is so low that even the Rare Breed Survival Trust has categorized this breed that is not officially a breed as endangered. It’s a status that allows more to be done for their preservation. This is important because the Carneddau pony’s genes are unique. Carneddau ponies have inhabited the Welsh countryside since Celtic times. But while their closest blood relative, the Welsh Mountain Pony, was crossbred with Arabians and Berbers to produce larger, more elegant and more rideable horses, Carneddau ponies have hardly changed in over 3,000 years. This is true not only of their external characteristics but also of their resilience, which ensures their survival in the wild and determines their feed preferences.
Important for landscape conservation and biodiversity
The herds graze plants that are considered invasive and thus promote the growth of native species. And even their natural dung (as semi-wild horses, they are not dewormed) acts as a fertilizer that promotes biodiversity and offers a foundation for the lives of native animals and plant species. Qualities that count for at least as much as a perfect appearance or top performance, if not more.
Visiting the Carneddau ponies
The nearest airports are Manchester and Liverpool. Manchester Airport is much larger than Liverpool and has a railway station nearby, from where you can get a North Wales-bound train to Llandudno Junction or Conwy. From Conwy, catch the train or bus directly to the Carneddau Mountains in the north of the Snowdonia (Eryri) National Park. This is where the ponies live and, with a bit of luck, you will actually get to see them. Conwy Mountain and walks near Dwygyfylchi, Llanfairfechan and Penmaenmawr offer the best prospects, with occasional sightings in the Ogwen Valley.
