North American Registry and Daughter Studbook
of the New Forest Pony Breeding and Cattle Society of England

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!!

Priscilla Hawkyard
Cheval De Bois Ranch
957 Sleeping Child Road
Hamilton, MT 59840
406.363.7669
new4est@aol.com

A 36-year-old eventer, Dallas started breeding NFPs after the loss of her esteemed Thoroughbred stallion. She enjoys riding the ponies as an adult as it brings her back to her own Pony Club days. In addition to raising four active children aged 7, 4, 3 and 1, Dallas teaches Pony Club and coaches and competes in three-day eventing. Her Pferde Traum Farm stands two stallions, Manoravon Master Majestic and Fox Hollow Holly’s Legacy; Forest Hill Martian also stood at stud there until his passing in 2010. For most people, all that work with ponies and children would be enough, but Dallas also has graciously offered to be the webmaster for the NFPSNA website.

Drawn to ponies from what must have been day one, Barbara considers herself lucky to have had horses and ponies throughout of her life. Some of her fondest early memories center on keeping watch over her napping foals, galloping on ponies bareback through the woods, and training half-wild ponies in the back paddock (don’t tell her parents!). Now, as the owner of a small breeding and training farm in NC, Barbara is committed to increasing awareness of New Forest Ponies, promoting their talent, versatility, and, of course, great sense of humor. With experience gained from years at various stables—many of them breeding farms—and a focus on dressage training, Barbara strives for the continual improvement of both the breeding and performance of her ponies.

A native Montanan, Jean grew up on a ranch in south central Montana. From the time she was a child she knew she wanted to be a veterinarian, and she did just that, graduating from Washington SU in 1974 with a degree in veterinary medicine. After a few years in Arizona, Jean found herself back in Montana, where she owned a small animal vet practice from 1986-2007. Not stopping there, Jean earned an MBA in 1993. Subsequently she was elected to the MVMA board, where she went on to serve as president in 1999. She was also on the Montana Board of Veterinarians from 2002-2007.
Jean has always loved horses and has had them most of her life. She first became aware of New Forest Ponies after seeing an article about Forrest Flame (Jacodi’s Anja’s Amoz) in Dressage Today. A few years later, when her sister was looking at for a pony for her grandchildren, Jean suggested they look at NFPs. She purchased her first NFP, Cheval De Bois St. Genvieve (Gen) from Priscilla Hawkyard. When she arrived at Cheval De Bois to pick up Gen, Jean met and fell in love with Forest Hill Jemima (Abbey), but she felt she already had too many horses to take her as well. Then she bought another NFP mare, Silverlea Marie Noele, who had a colt. Later Jean told Priscilla she would take Abbey and work with her in exchange for breeding Marie to Forest Hill Martian. But after working with Abbey for about 8 months, and winning her confidence, Jean decided she couldn’t send her back. She now has Abbey, Marie and Marie’s two foals, Gabriel Creek Wrangler and Little Levi and a NFP/QH foal by Wrangler.

Since selling her veterinary practice, Jean began moving in the direction of holistic medicine, working more with horses. She has taken an equine osteopathic course in San Marcos, Texas, and, earlier, Jean went off to a 3-day seminar on the Biomechanics of Movement with an English osteopath, Gavin Scoffield. She only wishes she were 20 years younger so she could put her new skills to use longer. Unfortunately, instruction in these holistic techniques wasn’t available 20 years ago!!

Leigh Ann confesses that she has been horse crazy her whole life. When she was nine years old, she received her first pony and since then she has owned many wonderful ponies and horses. Over the years she has competed in horse shows, events, and carriage driving competitions. Leigh Ann earned her BS in Equine Studies from Centenary College and an Assistant Instructors certificate from the British Horse Society, spending a semester of college at Moat House in England. Later she worked at a few different horse farms, riding hunt seat and dressage, fox hunting, training Standardbreds, and competing in combined driving. She now lives on a 30-acre farm in the middle of New Jersey with her husband and her 13-year-old daughter, one horse and six ponies—one is a New Forest, Forrest Flair. She purchased him from Lesley Feakins, and, because he has the traditional NFP personality, Leigh Ann realizes his potential is excited about him. Although trail riding and carriage driving for pleasure interest her now, some competitions may be in the future for Leigh Ann.

Virginia Cardenas
hawkwingfarm@embarqmail.com

Like so many young girls, Virginia says she grew up as a horse crazy kid; or, to put it in her words, “obsessed is more like it”.  Growing up, she lived just across the Hudson River from NYC. With regular riding lessons not in the family budget, and owning a horse out of the picture, Virginia got creative and spent her elementary and high school years mucking stalls at the local training barns after school and on weekends in exchange for lessons. 
She then went on to college at the University of Maryland, majoring in Animal Science. While in college, Virginia rode with the equestrian team there and taught riding to other students. She also worked at a couple of horse farms, giving lessons and caring for the horses. In 1983, Virginia got her first job underwriting horse insurance and has made her living in that profession ever since. Happily for her, it enabled the purchase of her first horse in 1987, and then brought her to Florida in 1989. In the last 20 years, she has bred, bought, rehabbed and sold a number of performance horses, all while working a full-time job. In 2001, while researching pony breeds for her daughter, Virginia came across the New Forest Pony. Shortly thereafter, she found Priscilla Hawkyard and was well on her way to starting her own New Forest herd. In 2002, she purchased her first NFP, a weanling, Cheval De Bois Mousse (aka Jacob's Hawk), later to be her foundation sire. Her vision is for the New Forest Ponies to become a staple in American backyard farms and show rings across multiple disciplines. We're already seeing it!