Chair

Pippa has a PhD in sustainable land management and a lifetime’s experience of managing and breeding native ponies. She has kept native ponies on Exmoor and in the New Forest where she was a registered Commoner and now runs the Honeywick Native Pony Stud in Sussex. She also has many years of lecturing and tutoring experience, useful in designing educational resources and is currently a committee member of the British Horse Society. Pippa’s research experience will enable her to review, collate, organize and summarize relevant peer reviewed papers and other useful resources into a relevant, accessible online library and educational resource for those interested in managing native breeds. Her experience of communicating with and presenting to Government departments and other agencies will help ensure that the views of those working on the ground are represented at the highest levels. Pippa’s expertise will in particular focus on objectives 1, 3 and 5.

In addition to these skills, Pippa is a semi-retired Chartered Accountant with many years of experience at a senior Director level, including acting as a Trustee of various high-profile charitable trusts and organizations, so brings the essential financial acumen and administrative skills to the board. She is also a photographer of children’s ponies, with a particular interest in native breeds.

Trustee

Grace is an extremely well-respected Highland pony breeder (Rumach Highland Pony Stud) keeping herds on SSSI conservation grazing land in the North East of England. She is particularly interested in ensuring diversity of the Highland breed and to that end is unusual in breeding rarer lines to widen the gene pool. Her experience and expertise will be particularly helpful in advising on objectives 1, 2 and 3.

Trustee

Ruth lives in Cumbria and is enmeshed in the Fell pony community and was previously a trustee of the Fell Pony Heritage Trust. Ruth studied zooarchaeology with some focus on British horse breeds and their history with people. She has spent many years travelling around Britain and Ireland talking to owners that keep ponies in their natural habitat. She photographs these ponies in stunning locations and has documented their breed traits alongside details of their culture and history. Ruth has also given numerous talks and has a large following on social media where she posts information on native breeds. Ruth’s expertise is particularly helpful for objective 4 but this also feeds into objectives 1, 3 and 5.

The organization is being set up with just three voluntary trustees but once established the charity will add further trustees to increase the spread of knowledge and experience and to provide geographic representation across all native breeds and regions of Britain and Ireland, particularly in areas where native ponies are still living in their traditional habitats.

This summer trustees will be touring the UK visiting breeders and owners across the country and are already in discussion with potential new voluntary trustees in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and the South West of England to represent members in those regions.