Pony world mourns the passing of top expert Margaret Runcie

The Rosslyn Stud she founded in 1958 produced a stream of champion riding ponies, including a record 18 championships at the Royal Highland Show. She was also in constant demand as a judge, lecturer and administrator, helping to raise standards and quality in native ponies across Scotland.

Margaret Mary Power was born on October 19, 1925 in Hertfordshire. After finishing school in the Second World War she joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service and was posted as to HMS Jackdaw based at Crail in Fife. Demobbed in December 1946, Margaret went to Reading University to study Dairy Animal Science.

After working with the National Agricultural Advisory Service she won a scholarship in 1953 to study at the prestigious University of Cornell in the USA. Travelling over on the Queen Mary liner, among the other students was future husband Ken.

They married in 1956 and moved to Langhill Farm near Roslin, which Ken managed for Edinburgh University. Margaret had always been interested in pony breeding, and Elizabeth Arden was one she was familiar with from England. When she was for sale she bought her over the phone, the start of the Rosslyn Stud and four decades of successful breeding and showing.

She was dedicated to breeding ponies of the highest quality, movement and temperament. They had to have clean lines, fine limbs and a good shoulder, and be well-behaved to suit a life around children.

They moved in 1967 to Garvald Grange in East Lothian, and soon the stud acquired stallions whose genes perfectly fitted Margaret’s mares to provide excellent offspring. She also attended autumn foal sales in Wales, buying newly weaned foals off the Welsh hills to eventually mature as children’s ponies aged four.

As well as success in the ring she became influential outside it. In 1961 she helped set up a Scottish Committee of the National Pony Society, with several prominent Borders equestrian figures on it.

The aim was to promote better standards among native pony owners. The committee worked tirelessly, persuading major agricultural shows like the Border Union at Kelso to put on more native breed classes, setting up a transport pool to share long-distance costs from Scotland to the south, and even coordinating a Scotland-wide dried milk and colostrum scheme for orphan foals.

By the 1990s the Rosslyn Stud had established itself as one of the leading pony breeding studs in Britain, and the fourth generation of Elizabeth Arden’s offspring was picking up rosettes at major shows, in particular Rosslyn Sweet Repose. Never beaten in a show class, many consider Sweet Repose the finest best pony Margaret ever bred.

In 1995 the Royal Highland Agricultural Society gave their top honour to Margaret, the Sir William Young Award for agricultural excellence. The citation read “Her success is in large part due to her diligence in all aspects of equine management. She has that intangible asset – flair – which separates her from her peers".

She was the first equestrian figure and the first woman to be awarded this. Retirement in 1997 did not stop her work, using her experience and knowledge to help many horse and pony owners over the phone or by visiting their farms.

Ken Runcie, himself to become a noted figure in Scottish agriculture and awarded the OBE, predeceased her in 2011. Margaret is survived by sons Charles and Ian, and grandchildren Isobel, Charlotte and Grace.

Her funeral will be held on Wednesday, January 11 at Mortonhall Crematorium in Edinburgh starting at 11am, with a reception to follow. All welcome.