Feature Showing strength


We find out more about Eleanor Crate, a breeder and show producer of Welsh ponies, who is battling a serious illness in order to return to the ring.


A


s far as Eleanor Crate can remember, she has always had ponies in her life. During her


childhood she was an active member of the Eglinton Pony Club eventing teams. Her daughter Evelyn came up through the showing and WHP ranks and is now a lawyer in Skye. Eleanor’s close friend and showing partner Susan Hoggans bought her the Welsh section A Dorgan Valissa as a Christmas present in 2005 and this mare was covered by their own stallion Skellorn Graffiti. Following an exceptional in-hand career, Graffiti, while out on ridden lease, unfortunately died of equine grass sickness.


Susan started breeding ponies 30 years ago using the Penmaric prefix. When Eleanor started breeding ponies, she and her husband William, who live in Hollybush, Ayrshire, agreed to use the prefix Dunaskin.


Dunaskin was the name of an old colliery only a few miles away, which had been in business for over 200 years and had recently closed for good after being used as a museum for 20 years. When Eleanor and Susan breed jointly, they use the prefix ‘Banksy’, named after the famous anonymous graffiti artist.


Eleanor is known for spending countless hours over the winter months nurturing the ponies, and loves nothing more than seeing the fruits of her labour pay off in the show ring. All her ponies get turned out daily in the summer and the winter regardless of the weather, as she believes youngsters need their playtime and refuses to keep them shut in. She makes sure the ponies are prepared well in advance so that they are fit enough to travel the long journeys to shows.


Section B stallions standing at public stud in Scotland are few and far between, so Eleanor was delighted when Kevin Walker offered her Brynoffa Jazz, who was shown extensively over two years and also won home produced supreme championship at the NPS championships. Jazz was twice put to Eleanor’s favourite mare Corkhill Skylark, a gold medal winning pony who was bought from Linda Davis as a foal. Her first Jazz foal was Penmaric Boogie Woogie and the second was called Banksy Jasmine.


In 2015, a year after Skylark was covered by Jazz for the second time, Eleanor took the mare on the 20 hour round trip to East Sussex to be covered by Jo Filmer’s stallion Lemonshill Falcon. This resulted in Dunaskin Dau Aderyn, a palomino filly foal who had an outstanding year while being shown as a foal at


Greenbarrow Picture Perfect


6 | The Native Pony | ISSUE 113 MAY 2017 | Telephone 01380 734374 Corkhill Skylark


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