The little ponies that built Newfoundland

Nearly 450km from Newfoundland’s capital of St John’s, the remote Change Islands sit between Notre Dame Bay and the Labrador Sea and are accessible only by ferry.

In a province full of peculiar town names, like Heart’s Content and Cupids, it makes sense that the origins of Change Islands are also shrouded in folklore. Locals believe that the moniker came about when settlers on nearby Fogo Island decided to resettle on Change Islands – meaning they effectively changed islands. The name is a small but suitable little window into the community’s quirky and beautiful spirit.

While the area is technically made up of three small islands joined by a narrow strait of water (a ‘tickle’, in Newfoundland English), the 300-strong community mostly occupies the south and middle islands.

But it’s Change Islands’ other inhabitants – not the 300 locals – who arguably steal all the glory: the dozen or so critically endangered Newfoundland ponies.

The Newfoundland pony has been around since the early 1600s, when the island’s earliest settlers arrived from England. They’re descendants of Exmoor, Dartmoor and New Forest ponies – animals accustomed to the rugged landscape and harsh climate of the North Atlantic. Thanks to Newfoundland’s seclusion, the ponies intermingled for hundreds of years and eventually created their own special, sturdy breed.

The ponies are characterised by their hardy and strong but gentle nature. They’re short – no more than 14 hands high – and typically their legs tend to be darker than the rest of their body.

Like most places in Newfoundland, the ponies on Change Islands were used for manual labour; ploughing fields for crops, pulling wood for homes and hauling gravel to build roads. They even worked the mines. During the winter months, people would let their ponies roam freely until spring. The islands’ boundaries were their fences.

Eventually, due to new technology, the need for ponies in manual labour started decreasing. Ponies were left to wander the island, forgotten. Their numbers started dwindling gradually. And, when times were rough, they were butchered for meat and sold overseas.

In 1997, Newfoundland’s provincial government passed the Heritage Animals Act of Newfoundland and Labrador, providing legal protections around the Newfoundland pony. It became illegal to transport any pony off the island without having a special export permit, and ensured that the animals were only going to breeders and pony lovers – not meat packing plants. The Newfoundland Pony Society was set up to promote, register and protect the ponies.

The population has since grown, with an estimated 250 ponies now able to carry on the breed. Most are in Newfoundland, but there are also small populations in Nova Scotia and Ontario.

So it’s impressive that isolated Change Islands is able to sustain so many – and mostly at the Newfoundland Pony Sanctu-ary, a breeding and protection operation run almost entirely by just one woman.

Netta LeDrew grew up in Change Islands and has always had a love for the ponies. She’s the kind of Newfoundlander that makes the province so famous for its hospitality, and her gift for storytelling is only enhanced by her lilting Newfoundland dialect.

LeDrew spends up to 10 hours a day mucking out the stalls, cleaning the stables and letting the ponies out to graze. Any potential buyers are screened and vetted; LeDrew needs to know her ponies are going to good homes. During summer, she shows people around the sanctuary and offers pony rides. During winter, getting grain for feed can be difficult when the storms blow in and the ferry is unable to make its journey.

It’s an incredibly expensive undertaking. The sanctuary lives entirely on donations, all of which go towards things like feed and hoof maintenance. LeDrew does not receive a penny for her efforts, but her relationship with the ponies is worth it for her.

BBC