Willow Creek Stables

07/02/2024

And so it begins! 6 weeks of fun and learning with ponies in our children, youth and adult pony camps.
We want to take the opportunity to thank those that have signed their children or themselves up for our camps. Proceeds of our camps go towards helping care for our rescue ponies. Vet, farrier, feed, hay and parasite control are just some of the many ways camp fees help us provide the best possible care for the ponies.
We also love that our senior ponies are still active participants in camp in so many unmounted activities. Proof positive that seniors equines are a huge asset to any farm and the best thing you can do for your horse is care for them throughout their entire life.
Happy Tuesday, Happy July 2nd and here’s to Happy Campers!

07/01/2024

07/01/2024

Mid afternoon nap on a Holiday Monday. Whatever you are doing this July 1st we hope it’s an enjoyable one.

07/01/2024

Devlin just had another hoof trim. Elf slippers are starting to go away. 😊

07/01/2024

🇨🇦 Happy Canada Day 🇨🇦
Newfoundland Pony 🇨🇦 Heritage Breed🇨🇦 Critically Endangered🇨🇦
🇨🇦The little horse that built Newfoundland. 🇨🇦
“The Newfoundland Pony is known for its strength, courage, intelligence, obedience, and common sense. Newfoundland Ponies are hard workers and easy keepers and are a breed unique to this province”.

The Newfoundland Pony Society

06/30/2024

So much of our time spent together is working on events, fundraisers and creating awareness for the Newfoundland Pony. Today the barn family enjoyed a pot luck picnic and a chance to visit, catch up and socialize. We are so grateful for this group. Each one brings something special to the farm. We have met some truly amazing people because of ponies. These folks have big hearts.

06/30/2024

This amazing human is ours for the summer! Our co op student Dayna who has been with us for three terms will be working our summer camps over the summer as well as offering riding lessons. We are thrilled to have her stay on for the summer and wish we could keep her permanently. Summer camps are a major fundraiser for our rescue program needs such a vet care, feed and supplements. Dayna has years of experience to offer those that attend our camps. We are so grateful for all she has brought to Willow Creek and the amazing care and support she has offered the ponies.

06/30/2024

“The Newfoundland Pony is an important heritage breed which developed in Newfoundland and Labrador over the centuries. When settlers arrived from the British Isles, they brought their hardworking ponies with them, including Exmoor, Dartmoor, New Forest and other ponies. The pony developed its own unique characteristics through natural selection and adaptation, surviving harsh winters and interbreeding on the common lands surrounding communities – creating a new breed.”

The future of the Newfoundland Pony is uncertain. It is listed as Critically Endangered by Rare Breeds Canada and The Livestock Conservancy.

The Newfoundland Pony Society

06/29/2024

All tuckered out from chores so a boot mat seems like the perfect spot for a nap.
Goose❤️

06/29/2024

5 years ago today our amazing barn hand Lilly was hit by a vehicle on her way home from the farm. The driver failed to stop! Lilly was left on the side of the road. Lilly is so lucky as the outcome could have been much worse. Summertime means the roads are busy with kids on bikes and horses, both can be a bit unpredictable. Please slow down and exercise caution on our country roads and if you have been drinking stay where you are, call a cab or a friend, plan ahead and Please do not drink and drive!
🇨🇦🇨🇦Wishing everyone safe and Happy Canada Day celebrations!🇨🇦🇨🇦

06/29/2024

Beauty says “please stop raining!!!!!” The ground and fields are saturated and we need to get the hay cut. Praying for a week of sunshine and low humidity with drying winds but this is Ontario, hot, humid, muggy, sticky is what we will likely receive. Farmers rely on good weather to grow our food- too much rain can lead to rotting plants, and insufficient rainfall makes it difficult to grow crops and feed animals. Weather conditions have a huge impact on hay prices and people’s abilities to feed their animals. High hay prices inevitably lead to more animals surrendered to rescues or sent to auction.

06/28/2024

We think these two smell birthday cake! 🎈🧁🍰

06/28/2024

Sweetie is wishing her favourite person Wayne a 🎈Happy Birthday! 🎈 Our Willow Creek horse whisperer knows that horse whispering, as they often refer to it as, is more about listening than whispering. His quiet gentle approach has worked wonders on some of the most timid rescues. If Sweetie had a birthday wish, we are sure she wished for Wayne. Sweetie hopes Wayne’s birthday wishes comes true too. 🎈🎈🎈

06/27/2024

“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”
The beautiful Pallas Athene aka Polly

06/27/2024

Always proud to display our flags!
Flags to honour our ponies and their heritage.

06/27/2024

Life comes with its ups and downs, and everybody experiences these situations. Yellow reminds us that life is worth living as it communicates its messages of hope and optimism to us. Happy Thursday!

06/26/2024

Breakfast is serious business!

06/26/2024

Post like this are not helping the pony. They cast blame and create division within the Newfoundland Pony community when realistically pony owners and breeders need to more than ever work together if we expect this breed to survive and thrive both in Newfoundland and on the mainland.
The article is not shared in the post but one can only assume the authors intend was to share the fact that there exists 2 equine breeds developed in what is now Canada which the province of Newfoundland has been part of for 75 years. I would like to see the quote in the article that claims the Newfoundland Pony was not a breed prior to 1949. This article was in fact an interview with Newfoundland Pony Society President Jack Harris.
This post also casts blame on mainlanders for the demise of the pony.
From the Newfoundland Pony Society website this is the explanation for the decline of the pony. “From an estimated population of 12,000 in the 1970s, pony numbers dropped to fewer than 100 in the 1980s. The population declined rapidly due to a number of factors:
machinery took over the jobs once performed by the ponies;
municipal by-laws were enacted limiting breeding and the eliminating open pasturing through no-roaming animal laws;
owners were encouraged to have stallions gelded; and
Thousands of Newfoundland Ponies were sold to meat processing plants in Quebec, which then sold the meat to Belgium and France for human consumption.”
In fact many of the ponies were saved by Mainlanders and rescued off the meat trucks once they arrived in Nova Scotia.
As a municipal council member I assure you that anti roaming laws in Newfoundland were not written, passed or imposed by mainlanders.
If you visit our farm in Ontario we will happily share was a crucial role the ponies played in Newfoundland. We will share how much Newfoundlanders love their ponies and how these exceptional animals are a product of their land and people. So yes the breed developed in Newfoundland prior to the province joining Canada they are still part of our countries history and while they are the official heritage animals of Newfoundland and Labrador they are a national treasure in our eyes. The goal at Willow Creek is to get everyone in every province and every country to fall in love with this breed.
We also recognize the amazing, dedicated pony owners and breeders working together from coast to coast in Canada and the USA to ensure a future for the Newfoundland Pony.
For the record the Newfoundland Pony Conservancy Centre is based in New Hampshire in the United States. They have no affiliation with the Newfoundland Pony Society who holds the official registry for the pony. Not really sure what gives them the authority to decide what is a Canadian heritage breed and what is not.

06/26/2024

Our beautiful little Momma Jiggs received a wonderful training session with Dayna today. We are so happy with how well she responded. Not only does she make beautiful foals she is a very smart pony. We are also pleased with how well she has bounced back after Firefly was weened. Pregnancy and nursing puts high demands on breeding mares. We have been focusing on Jiggs’ nutritional needs and body condition. This little beauty is looking good.

06/25/2024

Our Leah is moving on to high school next year but one thing is for certain, no matter how much things change her best friend will be by her side.

06/24/2024

Devlin says” don’t worry about making me breakfast, I helped myself.”

06/24/2024

Camp starts Tuesday July 2nd! What to bring:
- lunch, snacks and a refillable water bottle
- closed toed shoes or boots
- swimsuit and towel
- riding helmet ( we have lots here to borrow)
- sunscreen & bug spray
- change of clothes is always a good idea.
Prepare for a week of fun with ponies! 🤠

06/24/2024

Near Extinction
“The later part of the twentieth century has not been kind to the Newfoundland Pony. While once a necessity for rural and outport families, increased modernization has made the traditional role of the Newfoundland pony obsolete.
From an estimated population of 12,000 in the 1970s, pony numbers dropped to fewer than 100 in the 1980s. The population declined rapidly due to a number of factors:
machinery took over the jobs once performed by the ponies;
municipal by-laws were enacted limiting breeding and the eliminating open pasturing through no-roaming animal laws;
owners were encouraged to have stallions gelded; and
Thousands of Newfoundland Ponies were sold to meat processing plants in Quebec, which then sold the meat to Belgium and France for human consumption.
This exceptional animal, that for over 400 years had helped Newfoundlanders secure a place in the New World, almost disappeared. Had it not been for a number of dedicated individual breeders and pony protection groups, the Newfoundland Pony would have become extinct.
In 1997, the provincial government of Newfoundland, in recognition of the potential extinction of Newfoundland’s unique pony, passed the Heritage Animals Act of Newfoundland and Labrador. This Act provided legal protections to the Newfoundland Pony by making it illegal to transport Newfoundland Ponies off the Island without export permits. This ensured that ponies leaving the island were headed only to breeders and pony lovers – not meat packing plants. The Act also designated the Newfoundland Pony Society as the public group responsible for registering, promoting and protecting the Newfoundland Pony.
Of the Newfoundland Ponies that remain, many are geldings and aged mares. The number of ponies able to carry on the breed is relatively small – approximately 250. The population is spread across Canada, with the majority of the ponies located in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Ontario. An ongoing effort on the part of concerned individuals has stabilized the Newfoundland Pony population. However, the Newfoundland Pony continues to be classified as critically endangered.”
The Newfoundland Pony Society

Newfoundland Pony Take a Gander at Me #783

06/23/2024

The lazy hazy days of summer are here. At least when Wilson is napping all is calm around the farm.

06/21/2024

We do our best to control the fly population in the summer months by cleaning the barn several times during the day, scooping paddocks, washing out feed buckets and scraping the pony field. With the help of bleach and pinesol the barn stays fly free. The only barn fly we love to see is Firefly aka “the fly” and what a sweet little fly she is.

06/21/2024

The reality of rescuing and caring for senior ponies is that you don’t get to love them always for very long. You fall in love quick and hard only to lose them. Moonie has left a hole in our hearts that will never heal. We still mourn our sweet Maggie and I often catch myself saying “Moonie and Maggie” or “Maggie’s stall”. Rusty is another one of those ponies that we still talk about all the time.

Where to Bury a Horse
“If you bury him in this spot, the secret of which you must already have, he will come to you when you call; come to you over the far, dim pastures of death. And though you ride other living horses through life they shall not shy at him, nor resent his coming. For he is yours, and he belongs there.
People may scoff at you, who see no lightest blade of grass bent by his footfall, who hear no nicker pitched too fine for insensitive ears. People who may never really love a horse.
Smile at them then, for you shall know something that is hidden from them and which is well worth knowing...
The one place to bury a horse is in the heart of his master."
-Author Unknown

06/20/2024

“What we see depends mainly on what we look for.”

06/20/2024

Summer sky, let’s hope this turns into a cool down.

06/20/2024

The 2024 breeding season has come to a close and the bridle suite has been cleaned up and remains empty until our next rescue intake. The bridle suite doubles as our quarantine area. Rescue season for us typically begins late summer, early fall but we are ready for the next one in need. This is one of our favourite spots on the farm. New life and renewed hope for the Newfoundland pony with every breeding season and new life and better days ahead for the amazing rescue ponies that come through our doors.