December 31, 2024
Dear Newfoundland Pony Community,
This is our year-end message to bring Season’s Greetings and thank you for your membership and your support in 2024, bring best wishes for the New Year, and bring you up to date on happenings this year. Members who renewed or joined for the first time since October 1st have valid membership until December 31st, 2025. We ask others to renew or join for the first time as early as possible in the new year. Your support and contribution is important to the future
We’ve had a good year with the help of many people and are working hard to carry out our mandate to promote, preserve and protect this important heritage breed.
Building on our milestone registration of #1000 – Driftwood’s True North we are now at Registration #1046 – Ryia’s Comfort Lightning with more soon to be added. We are very keen to have all registerable Newfoundland Ponies in the Registry and part of our interactive Online Lineage Report, so that owners and breeders and those wishing to breed their pony have access to information about the pedigree of Newfoundland Ponies. Anything you can do to help is appreciated. The Registry is key to the survival of the breed.
You will notice that we are continuing to add photos of ponies to the Lineage Report, and we encourage all Pony owners to contact us to see how to have yours included. This will help showcase your pony and the Newfoundland Pony Breed and will also be a big help in promoting breeding. If you haven’t seen this feature have a look at the website!
This year we again participated in the Annual Downhome Expo at the Mount Pearl Glacier held for the first time since the pandemic, with Sou’wes Nancy and Dawson’s Rhonda of Avalon and for the second year in a row at the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival at Bannerman Park in St John’s with Belle and Jam Jam. These events are very popular and well attended, and people love to see the Ponies up close and personal and learn from our volunteers about this special breed.
We continue to operate the Swansea Pasture in Victoria, NL, providing pasture to Newfoundland Ponies and other equines on a large pasture in Conception Bay North. And our Newfoundland Pony Heritage Park and Pasture, near Hopeall and New Harbour in Trinity Bay, celebrated its third season with a successful summer from July 10th to October 25th. Visitor numbers were up by 50% over last year as we get better known. We also had more activities this year with game days for children and a Farm Day with goats, sheep and hems, which was a big hit. Thanks to our fundraising and support this year we were able to make improvements to our facilities at the Heritage Park, doubling the size of the small hay barn to allow for more programming and better visitors’ experience. We are actively planning for use of the Heritage Park property to assist in a breeding program.
We had a successful AGM at the Rainbow Riders Therapeutic Riding Center in St. John’s on November 1717th and welcomed Kelesha Crewe of Campbellton, NL, elected in this year’s Council election as the new At-Large Member. She replaces Libby Carew on the NPS Council, who did not seek reelection. All other Council Members were elected either by acclamation or in the at-large ballot. Big thanks to Libby for all her work in communications and fundraising. Libby will still be actively involved in support and fundraising but not on the Council. Kelesha starts in the New Year – tomorrow!
Speaking of fundraising we just completed a very successful 50/50 raising $3500.00 in support of DNA testing, very important to our registration process and the integrity of the Newfoundland Pony Breed. The winner was Catherine Dwyer of Ottawa. Thank you to everyone who participated in buying or selling tickets.
And of course anyone who would like to make tax deductible donations can do so through Canada Helps: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/the-newfoundland-pony-society/ or here on our website.
Thank you to everyone for your support of the cause of the Newfoundland Pony and all the Very Best Wishes for 2025. May it be a good you and for the Newfoundland Pony, as we continue the important work of ensuring its future survival.
Jack Harris
President, The Newfoundland Pony Society