Welcome to Ellister Islay Highland Ponies, Ellister Farm and Ellister Icelandic Sheep. |
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 Above: Mares in the field known as Louira - which gets salt spray and plenty of sea breezes ! My aim is to produce quiet but forward-going ponies which will make good all-round riding ponies that are healthy and hardy. Whitefield King Duncan's progeny are highly suitable for dressage, being free-moving and well balanced, but equally should do well in any field. Duncan had super cadence and was long striding for a Highland pony. Our grazing at Easter Ellister has never been fertilized since we bought it in 1971; before that it was tenanted by a retired seaman for many years. Thus the grazing is herb rich with an abundance of wild flowers like eyebright, forget-me-nots, speedwell and lots of sedges - with wild sage, meadowsweet and bluebells in the hedgerows of hawthorn, and multitudes of other plants too numerous to mention. Louira - the field on the right, is one of the least herb rich - possibly because it slopes gently down to the shore and gets a lot of salt spray.
Below: youngsters in Louira  Below: Kim, Tiegan, Willow and foals Sky and Fleet.  Below: Aunty Spider meets her new charges - the Class of 2007  There is a forum for anyone interested in Highland Ponies (free to join) which can be found at: Highland Pony Talk Last updated 26th January 2011 The www.janeislay.co.uk website is gradually being merged with this one, as I no longer have access to the jane.islay site - so cannot update it. |
Email: jane.islay@btinternet.comThe Isle of Islay lies some two hours by ferry off the west coast of Scotland, UK., due west of Glasgow. Here we breed Highland Ponies in as natural an environment as possible, using no chemicals on the permanent or rough grazings. Although foals are wormed twice with chemical, in feed wormers, all other stock is more usually wormed with cloves of garlic and at the same time, cross-grazed with sheep. We very rarely feed processed feeds - in fact we only give tiny feeds occasionally as a reward, or to mares during the last few weeks of pregnancy. Mares are fed oats soaked overnight, oat straw chop and carrots, and just occasionally, sugar beet pulp soaked for 24 hours. Young foals will stay with their dams until February/March of the following year; those mares will then go back to the stallion in May/June, only foaling every second year. Youngsters are usually run on in small groups with an aunty or uncle to teach them manners and steady them in a scary situation - like heavy traffic passing by - and have plenty of room for exercise, while learning to cross ditches or fords, hills and rocky terrain . 
Below left to right: Forester, Fiona and Peggy of Combebank.  Below, left Kim and Skydance with Willow.  Below: Andy the farrier and pony handler with the Class of 2007 growing up !  |
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