A Long, Long Way From Wales



June, the Shetland Pony that started it all.

     When I was quite young in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and became obsessed with ponies (largely because my best friend Toni got a Shetland for Christmas while all I had was a $25 horse) I was also obsessed with reading. I read encyclopedias, dictionaries and every book that mentioned a horse or pony in the Public Library. It seemed to me (and this was important!) that I should set my sights on something BETTER than Toni's Shetland. Welsh ponies struck me as being just the thing!
    I was eight or nine when this revelation came to me and when my father, at the first hint that I actually expected to own a Welsh pony, told me (when he had finished laughing at the idea) that the Evans family CAME from Wales I knew this was my goal. The more Toni talked Shetlands the more I talked Welsh, but I didn't actually SEE one until I was 24 years old, married to Joe Morris with a four-year-old daughter and another on the way.

    Meanwhile, "Lucky", my barrel horse (Toni had one of those, too), and I were content with racing down the hill in front of our house. Although he literally WAS a "Barrel horse" he had a problem cutting the barrels so we soon gave up the cloverleaf races which HAD to be on the slope to "motivate" Lucky to full speed.


Lucky and I practicing trick-riding.

    Once Joe Morris and I were married I set about convincing him that I would never be happy without Welsh ponies, although I still had not actually seen one. We were only "window-shopping" on our first pony farm visit because we had decided to move to Florida where Joe was to manage a ranch near Tampa. Once there I managed to convince the owner that Saran ranch needed some ponies and sought out a lovely little son of Coed Coch Glyndwr (WS Cuepglynd). The stallion's dam, Cui Chorus Girl (CWM Cream of Eppynt x Criban Leading Lady) had been imported with "Samson" in utero...a wonderful start for a Sec. A herd!
    "Samson", as I called him because of his very long forelock, was about 11.2hh and had both the most beautiful movement and the most beautiful head anyone could ever hope to see. Although his previous and subsequent barn name was "Buster", I just couldn't bring myself to call him something so common. With four new mares, we had our first breeding season in 1964.
Meanwhile, the closest Welsh Pony breeder hired Scott Lansing, formerly the trainer at Brays Island Plantation and other assorted horse and pony places, to help train and sell some of their ponies. Scott's specialty was driving and since I haunted the training ring I was allowed at first to muck stalls and cool ponies and later taught to ground drive and ultimately to drive their Hackney Fine Harness mare, Yankee Doodle Sweet Amber, in an occasional Ladies class on the "Sunshine Circuit".

  

Scott Lansing at 93
Photo Jim and Betty Funk
All of this was "volunteer" labor on my part and it was tricky for me to do ANYTHING with two small children who watched from "baby prison"...a playpen...while mama worked, watched and tried to learn. I have never seen anyone handle longlines or running W's with such ease and effect as I saw Scott do every day.

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