HOW TO SAVE A BREED

Spend some time on Facebook groups and you will soon see that there are not only many challenges but many differences of opinion on how to save a breed. This makes becoming involved with a rare breed confusing and can be frustrating, not knowing what is the right way and what is the wrong way.  
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Add to that not all breed societies are mindful of conservation. Not all rare breed advocates are either, especially when it comes to equines.  What is different about conserving equines versus other livestock species is that other species produce product - meat, milk, wool, eggs for example.  Outcome of those breeding programs is measurable, and there is a more defined market for that product than there is for equines. Gestation is also shorter than with equines, whose average pregnancy is roughly 1 year minus 2 weeks, give or take a month either way. Foals are nursed by their mothers for 6 months to a year.
Essentially that mare can only produce one offspring every other year.

​Pigs, for example, can have 2 litters a year, producing roughly 20 piglets annually. Those piglets, if raised for meat, can be ready for slaughter in 6 months time.  Foals are not ready for most any usage until at least 3 years old, or preferably a year or 2 older.  Compared to other livestock, that's a long time, and a slow process when it comes to increasing numbers. 

This is why rare breed conservation of equines does not compare with rare breed conservation principles of product-based livestock - not at all. 

There are some simple principles, however, that owners and breeders can utilize that will make a difference.

• Ensure the welfare of each and every Newfoundland pony. Every single one matters and every single one counts. Ponies are not just a blood line. Ponies are not just a stallion or just a breeding mare. On the other hand, Ponies are not just a pet, not just a show jumper, not just a trail pony. They are living breathing beings.  All of them are special. All of them matter. All of them play an important role in saving the breed.
• Registering and keeping tabs on each pony is essential. Have a pony that isn't important to your breeding program anymore?  Or one who doesn't jump high enough, or isn't forward enough for the shows? Or perhaps your child outgrew the pony or lost interest.  You then decide to re-home/sell.  However, your responsibility for considering the future of the breed isn't over - where that pony ends up is on you to be the best place for a critically endangered animal. 
• Newfoundland Ponies belong in conservation-minded homes with breed knowledgable owners. Don't know of any?  Then Cultivate them. Teach. Mentor. Work hard to ensure your pony has at least been bred once to replace itself on this planet, and has been bred again to add one more registered Pony to the overall herd. 
• Remember that saving the breed is not simply about increasing numbers, it is about slow, steady, strong growth. Preservation is the goal.
• Rekindle, promote and keep alive traditional usage of the pony, preserve their traits, and all their abilities.  Avoid developing the breed for just a specific purpose. Why? When you narrow down their use, you weaken their ability to do it all. The Newfoundland Pony is an allrounder, capable of any discipline. To turn the breeding focus to one certain purpose changes them. 
• Embrace and promote their differences, their natural uniqueness. Insist that others do as well,  at fairs, competitions, shows, etc... Take the opportunity to teach others about those differences whenever you can.  Is the breed's conformation not to someone's liking?  Well nature made them that way, and these ponies can do anything any modern breed pony can do, perhaps even better, just the way they are. ​The Newfoundland Pony is  not cookie cutter, nor do we want them to be.  
• Genetic diversity aids keeping species healthy. Have a stallion whose blood lines dominate the breed and is also inbred?  Continuing to breed that stallion puts the entire breed at risk of introducing genetic problems, and pushes the breed towards  a genetic bottleneck, the loss of healthy diversity. Knowingly doing this is bad judgement.  Breed for diversity, breed to extend the lesser used lines, breed for the healthy, survivable future of the Newfoundland Pony.