Kim Watson is sitting astride a Highland pony on a hillside overlooking Balmoral estate, the castle at its heart.
“In those moments, I think: ‘Pinch me,’” she says of the job she’s had since 2018, when she spotted an advert to look after the late Queen’s ponies.
She first encountered the rare breed as a child, when her family moved to an estate on the west coast.
Whenever the children were away, Kim and her twin sister learned to look after the pony.
Today, Kim helps to look after Balmoral’s 18 Highland ponies, all of which are currently in training for the upcoming stag season. Their job is to carry deer off the hill once directed by a stalker or keeper. As a ghillie, Kim’s job is to make sure they are fit and ready.
“The ponies are just coming back to work after their winter holiday,” she said. “They work hard through the season, so we give them a couple of months of downtime when they get to be ponies, enjoying the field and eating hay.
“We are just starting to introduce them back into work and getting them ready for the season, which begins in July — riding them out and doing a little bit of training with the youngsters who will hopefully walk the hill or carry a hind.
“We do a lot of work desensitising them and doing routines to simulate what they will be doing when they carry a load.”
Kim has gone from the bar to Balmoral, having worked in a pub when she saw the job advert. It was Christmas, and she could only find time off on Boxing Day, but the stud manager agreed to interview her during the festivities and offered her the job on the spot after Kim explained her childhood passion for the breed.
She loves the role, and part of the reason is how varied it is. She’ll check ponies are happy and healthy in the morning, and by the afternoon she’s mending fences, cleaning tack and harrowing fields. One thing she doesn’t love, however, is doing these tasks in whatever weather the Scottish climate inflicts on her.
“It would be lovely to be able to lie in bed when it’s wet and windy, but we are out every day,” she said.
“I think it was the winter of 2020, it got down to -24°C. None of the vehicles would start because everything was frozen, the snow was up to our knees, the water troughs iced over.
“Life goes on and you have to keep going to make sure these horses are happy and healthy.”
Each year, foals are named based on a new theme — last year it was birds, and previous years have included alcohol and rivers.
Kim said: “You get to know their personalities, which helps you pick their names. I love them all and I do definitely have soft spots for certain ones, but I couldn’t pick a favourite, that would be like picking a favourite child. It depends who has been best behaved on the day.”
Highland ponies are no longer bred at Balmoral — breeding has been returned to Hampton Court Palace near London — but they have kept a few Highland mares who worked there. That means she and her team make sure foals are trained and properly handled.
“I think my favourite part of the job is when a young one has carriers for the first time,” she said.
“I am very lucky to have watched them since they were born and done a lot of their firsts with them. When you take them back to their training and see them doing it for the first time, it’s heartwarming watching them take to a job they were pretty much bred to do. You’re overwhelmed and super-proud.”
Kim can see royal family members and their guests around the estate, and says it is a “privilege” to call it her workplace, but her focus is on the job. She explained why Highland ponies are a favoured breed at Balmoral and other estates.
She said: “It’s tradition, and the ponies are a super bit of kit for keepers, though they are also animals and we love them.
“They can get across ground that certain machines can’t and they don’t turn up the ground the way a quad would — it’s a great way of doing the job, and then you can take them anywhere.”
Though renowned for their strength, Highland ponies are on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust’s vulnerable list, with fewer than 270 foals born worldwide each year. This year, they will be a main attraction at the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Scottish Game Fair, with talks and demonstrations highlighting how important it is to protect the breed.
“Events like the Scottish Game Fair are great because they showcase what the countryside has to offer,” said Kim, who won her first pony with a deer saddle on at the Black Isle Show when she was a young girl, sparking her interest.
“Estate work is like a lifestyle,” she revealed, and is clearly passionate about preserving her rare breed. You get to see the incredible coming out of the countryside, including ponies people can come together to support and protect.”
As for her Highland ponies, Kim believes the future looks bright.
“They’re like hens’ teeth now, with more and more people keen to get these ponies back into the gene pool and have them remembered.
“Hopefully we will soon be able to see an increase in numbers.”
The Scottish Game Fair is at Scone Palace from July 4 to 6. Visit scottishfair.com
By Lauren Robertson
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