Kimberlake Farm - Missouri, USA

Date Established: Fall 2004

My name is Kimber Bishop and with my husband Paul we raise a herd of 15-20 Fell Ponies on the rolling hills of the Missouri River Valley. Our farm is located in central Missouri north of the Missouri River at Boonville. We began our Fell Pony breeding program with the purchase of a young coming two year old stallion named "Stonecreek Magic Minstrel" in the Fall of 2004. We started growing our herd by importing additional Fells with the purchase of two young fillies and two bred mature mares with the assistance of Gina Feakins a Fell Breeder in the United Kingdom (UK). The first of the girls arrived at the farm New Year's Day 2005. We chose the Fell Pony for its temperament, beauty, and compact size. We find the ponies are perfect for every member of the family and don’t have to worry about anyone out growing their pony.

We were very fortunate in those early years to have been able to meet Bert Morland in Devon Pennsylvania in 2005. He was the judge that year at one of the few shows in North America that hosted Mountain and Moorland classes, including Fell Ponies. We made the the 1000 mile journey with our newly imported Fell Pony filly, Thornbeck Jade. We did this to help gauge how proper she would be as a future broodmare and get a chance to learn directly from the "horse's mouth". I can't say enough about the advice we received that week and seeing other Fells all together was a lasting experience.

Our breeding program philosophy was and still is, to establish, retain, and maintain our broodmare bands by holding back fillies until breeding age, selecting new stallions to bring in fresh genetics and only after mares have produced at least one foal, evaluating their future as a broodmare or training them for sale to the public. Very rarely do any of our foals leave the farm before age 3. Even the young geldings spend their days growing, developing, and learning out in the open pastures and on the hills before being trained at the ages of 3, 4, and some as late as age 5 depending on maturity.

As there are very few Fell Pony shows or classes in North America we show our ponies in open division in Combined Driving, Trail, and Eventing. Many of our ponies have gone on to compete and win at the National Level in combined driving and finishing in the 10 ten in regional division championships for eventing. In 2022, we added additional rare breeds with the Dartmoor and Caspian. We are looking forward to what the next 20 years brings for our farm with the ponies.