Radio 4 ‘On Your Farm’
Dave Howard meets Sylvia and Dochy Ormiston, the husband and wife team who for the last 14 years have bred Highland Ponies and Highland Cattle at the Balmoral Estate in Scotland. Dave asks what they have to do to get the farm ready for a Royal visit, and what they remember from their first meeting with the Queen, who interviewed them for the job. Who makes the final decisions on the farm? In the fields of the estate Dochy discusses the challenges of rearing, showing and selling this sought-after cattle breed. At the stables Sylvia explains the training the ponies go through to become working animals and the work she’s doing to combat the potentially fatal Equine Grass Sickness.
At the Equine Grass Sickness Fund (EGSF), we are dedicated to one goal: finding the cause of Equine Grass Sickness and helping to protect future generations of horses, ponies and […]
Tickets are available for the upcoming Equine Grass Sickness Conference, held at the Moredun Institute on 25th March 2026. The link to buy tickets can be found here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/equinegrasssicknessfund1/2026000 In-person […]
The EGSF office will be closed on Christmas Eve, inclusively until we return to office on 5th Jan 2026. The email inbox will not be monitored during this time, and […]