Have just seen your piece about the use of photos on the internet. We had the same thing happen to us a few years ago now. It was amazing how quickly the photos were withdrawn once the words Trading Standards & the Police were mentioned! T.T.
Trouble is, not all these sites enjoy a personal relationship as you all do with me. I can spot things which don't ring true and take care of both vendors and buyers. Also, communication with these sites is at best difficult as they often do not respond to email and there rarely is a phone no.

Just saw your post regarding photo's being used to advertise ponies, the photo's not belonging to the vendor. We had this happen to us almost two months ago, whilst browsing through dragon driving, I saw one of my foals pictures "Bobby Dazzler" being used to advertise someone's ponies up country. 31 ponies in total for sale, but with only one picture of our foal. I immediately contacted Nikki on dragon driving who promptly removed my picture from the advert, sent me an email back apologising, saying that she was going to contact the advertiser for an explanation. Attached is the picture they used, I thought if you have 31 ponies for sale surely you could get one good picture of at least one of them! Y.J. (Er, not if they are poor type/condition)
Got to say, given its target audience, Dragon Driving are very helpful. They posted my stolen ponies free of charge for months.

Just a warning for everybody to watch out the fraudulent 
use of pony photos on various free websites. The adverts
are listed under Llanelli & Carmarthen. As far as we know
photos are being used from Collytown, Halstock &
Snelsmore studs. C.B

Be warned, you may take a long trip to see what you think
is HRE Bigton, to be disappointed at what the 'actual'
piebald is.  (Yes, they are even using his picture!)

All of us who have witnessed the 0-20 mph acceleration of a Shetland pony will happily, and now it's scientifically proven, go along with the following. And no, it's not April 1st!! ~
                                SHETLAND PONY GAVE HORSES GIFT OF SPEED
(Robin Henry Sunday Times 29^th January 2012)

 Next time you back a winner at the races, you’ll have a squat Shetland pony that lived in Britain 300 years ago to thank. Scientists believe they have traced the “speed gene” that propels modern racehorses to a single 17^th- century mare.

History has long credited Arabian stallions imported from the Middle East in the 1680’s as the predecessors of modern thoroughbreds. However, the genetic predisposition for sprinting in reality came from a Shetland mare chosen for them to mate with, the researchers say.

As with humans, horse sprinters are born with fast-twitch muscle fibres, which are suited to explosive bursts of activity. A team led by Emmeline Hill, an equine geneticist at University College Dublin, identified the speed-gene variant that drives this muscle development.

“We found an unusually high frequency of the C – variant in modern thoroughbreds best suited to sprint racing,” said Hill, whose findings are published in Nature Communications. Her team analysed DNA from 593 modern horses and museum specimens from 12 historically famous stallions.

They discovered that, while the speed gene was prevalent among modern sprinters, it was rare in top racehorses before the 20^th century. Before then, long distance stamina had been favoured. The team then looked further back in history. “Thoroughbred stallions were brought over from the Middle East and bred with native British mares and our results suggest there was a single one of these Shetland ponies who passed on the variant we see in modern sprinters,” said Hill.

Any information to locate its owner appreciated

ghkw@showpony.com

Thimbleby & Shorland spring sale of Registered Shetland ponies, Harness, ephemera. Wednesday 21st March. 
Spring sale NOT under auspices of SPSBS Pony per entry fee £18

PONY ENTRY FORM            TACK, HARNESS ETC              CONDITIONS

SPSBS Driven Performance Awards 2010/2011
The annual lunch and presentation of awards was held on Sunday January 8^th when 35 members and guests from across the country made the journey to Stoke on Trent. We were delighted that Marie Brooker , President of the Awards Scheme  was with us and to welcome several new members and to catch up with friends before sitting down to lunch.

2010/2011 had been a very successful year with 26 turnouts in various combinations entered and most heartening to hear that 25 junior grooms had been nominated for awards. The guest speaker Denis Walmsley from Hampshire, a Shetland enthusiast and bespoke whipmaker presented the trophies (see web site) followed by a fascinating talk on traditional whipmaking. A well supported raffle organised by Doreen and Peter Tindale boosted the Scheme’s finances. Marie thanked Willowe Keeley for her unstinting work organising the Scheme and wished everyone a safe trip home and happy driving in 2012. The 2011/2012 Awards lunch will be on Sunday January 13th 2013 at The Holiday Inn Stoke on Trent (at junction 15 M6 and very accessible!)

Information on the Driven Performance Awards from Willow Keeley, 51 High Street, Albrighton, Nr Wolverhampton WV7 3JF

Date 17-November 2011.
Dear Peter, and NPS committee

At the risk of appearing paranoid, as a breeder of Shetland ponies, I really do worry about NPS' attitude towards my chosen breed. Some four years ago, following correspondence from myself and others, the NPS agreed, that as children were so much taller and heavier than in the past, the age for them riding small breeds stallions would be reduced by one year, to must have attained their 11th birthday before January 1st. To my knowledge this has been incident free in terms of accidents. A clerical error by the Shetland breed society, stating 12 years, was seized upon by the NPS who refuse to accept the error prior to a NPS meeting, denying receipt of the Shetland Society's letter 11th October (since re sent) pointing out its clerical error.

Similarly, an answer regarding height of the Shetland pony, given by then SPSBS President, was again seized upon by the NPS without any notification that there was 'no upper height' for Shetland ponies and put in their rules based on an answer that referred to whether over-height ponies could be removed from the studbook. May I reinforce the fact that the Shetland pony breed standard is sacrosanct and the height is 42ins at maturity. Any pony (rare) which grows over should be measured out of affiliated competitions. The height for WHP has been increased making it all but impossible for the breed to compete, with one or two at most, notable exceptions. Whereas this no longer is the concern of the NPS the Olympia competition is a disaster in the opinion of myself and others, the NPS has not come forward with anything remotely compatible. At least with a breed qualifier there was a chance something of good breed type would qualify.

Many owners/breeders like myself will wonder what the value is of continued  membership of the NPS, even though I support the NPS ethic and my area group with sponsorship.  You will know how much myself and others have done to elevate the perception of the breed over the last ten years. All we ask is for a little consideration to ensure we can compete on a level playing field and not be sidelined as a sort of freak show. Further could you ask those  judges who often are heard to state, "I can't stand Shetlands" or "I don't know anything about them" to either get clued up, or decline appointments that include Shetlands or others, where owners have spent as much time and money as everyone else to be totally ignored by those judges and dumped en masse irrespective of their worthiness.

Yours sincerely, 

G S Hart. No **** Prop. Cranford stud and www.shetland-pony.com

Was it six or seven years ago? What I DO remember, was a Society newsletter stating that any stallions that had been inspected under the Society scheme as 2 or 3 year olds, even if 'passed' would have to be re-inspected again at 4 years. This was 'justified' because 'there had been cases where some colts' dentition was incorrect and it only became apparent at 4 years. Despite repeated requests by members for veterinary evidence of these 'cases' none was ever produced. Further, It was mooted that a set of measurements, bone, length of this, width of that ought to be set up as criteria for acceptable build/conformation for issuing a permanent license. Members of the SPSBS were then informed in our newsletter that further inspections and subsequent re-licensing (or not) of stallions of 4 years and under would now be required. At that time there were reports in the equine press that the Connemara society were involved defending litigation against what appeared to be arbitrary rules for registration which did not comply with EU legislation, ending up in the European Court.
My phone rang – it was Sue Bowling, aghast at the draconian edict in our newsletter regarding further inspection and the consequences for progeny sired by 2 and 3 year old colts. She asked what I thought, and bearing in mind we were both area organisers for the stallion inspection scheme at that time, we were in agreement that both in principle and effect, such a re-inspection would have devastating  consequences for the breed Society. It took Sue about half an hour to track down EU decision 96/78, it's ramifications and the realisation that our breed society, either by design, inefficiency or other had failed to implement it at the time when as 'mother stud-book' we were obliged to  and to inform daughter stud books of the change of rules for entry into the stud book. This 'level playing field' would in effect, remove the constraint on trade which existed because of the various inspections for each country meant UK stallions were subjected to their inspections. Outrageous.
I won't labour the point, but had the nettle been grasped at that time by the UK Society, the subsequent bru-haha with EU daughter stud books probably would not have occurred. It seems to me that certain stud books liked their system, which gave the impression to many of us that it favoured the few and denied the many.  However, where continental Europe  were aware of the EU directive, our inaction gave them a false sense of security protecting their system of licensing.  When on a ticket of 'sorting it out' Sue Bowling was voted on to Council with a huge vote, then it really hit the fan.
Sue Bowling on a mission does not do 'fluffy', she deals in facts. Not guesswork, or wish lists. Neither will she ignore the root cause of a problem. Boil? Lance it. With Guy Hurst assuming the Presidency for 3 years and Sue as President for two after that, the nettle was truly grasped and our Society put on track for the 21st century.  NO ONE would have put in the work those two put in on behalf of the Society. Every dissenting voice against the necessary changes, based on a 'wish list' was greeted by paper evidence quelling the dissent, from a file so huge and a mind like a steel trap that could have sorted Watergate!
Both Sue and Guy Hurst have not sought nor achieved any personal advantage where their efforts were concerned. Guy no longer breeds ponies and the few that Sue breeds are for her pleasure not self aggrandisement. They have been motivated only to secure the future of the Stud book society which has brought us all such pleasure through our ponies. Yes there have been expensive legal costs, we were in a minefield, but nothing to the costs we would have incurred had we had to pay for the research and changes imposed as required. The office has been sorted, no power mad secretary empire building for themselves and their friends. The office is quick and efficient. Grassroots has put the stud book on-line and transactions with the office imminent.  Council is now a size more conducive to a breed society. The constitution brought up to date including entry into the stud book and overwhelmingly voted in by the members.
Truth is, our breed society costs what it costs, and we have charitable status, there is no motive to make profit, merely that we have sufficient funds to operate  and cover contingencies.
We welcome Joan Lambert as President and Lady De La Warr as her Vice-President from 1st January 2012. Joan has been on Council and for the last two years as Vice President and is confident that as a result of all the work and changes made, we are now and will continue to be sailing in calmer waters. From those who know what personal sacrifices have been made we should thank Sue and Guy for what has been a Herculean task completed. GH