About
Farnley Farm, located in White Post, Virginia, breeds Welsh Section A and B ponies, Dartmoors, and Crossbreds. Offered are pony hunter-jumper prospects, green ponies, as well as show and companion ponies. Breeding stock and young stock to show in-hand are also available and ten stallions stand at stud.
OUR STORY
Joan H. Dunning (pictured left) began Farnley Farm over 75 years ago by importing and breeding Welsh Mountain ponies and Dartmoor ponies. In the late 1940s, her daughter Hetty M-S Abeles (right) started breeding ponies at Farnley with the "Shenandoah" prefix. Hetty Abeles continues the breeding program today with both prefixes.
JOAN H. DUNNING
"In Early 1936, my husband and I went to England to look at various ponies with a view to raising them...
Our contacts in England gave us somewhere to start, and we saw many equines. We made our choices, starting off with three Dartmoor mares and a stallion. We also chose three Welsh mares from three old studs: Bowdler, Criban and Coed Coch. They followed us over the ocean on later boats.
In 1938, we had our first foal, Farnley Sirius, a wonderful stallion. Unfortunately there were very few Welsh mares in this country (and no other Dartmoors except on the Prince of Wales Ranch in Canada), so we had no opportunity to breed Sirius at that time.
I have never been any good at publicity and the Dartmoors never got the push from me that they should have had. They are now making their own way. The Welsh have done well, and I am pleased that our mares may have played a part in their popularity."