Appaloosa pony foal

[smoothmule]

Just wanted to share a photo of this years pony foal. Anyone in the group have ponies?

 

[big brown horse]

I love ponies!!! How cute!

When I was a little girl, I had a line back dun shetland pony for 10 years. He came from an old, out of business circus.


I loved that pony! I think he lived until he was 35 years old.

 

[smoothmule]

Aww, I'm the same. My first pony was a black silver dapple (what a lot of people call chocolate) His name was Coco and he was the bestest most ornery pony ever and I loved him so much.

 

[ducks4you]

SOO SWEET!!! ( We only get to see the babies at the TB farm that's on our way to and from work.)

Are they POA's?

 

[smoothmule]

Thanks so much, they are not POA though. My stallion is Amber Champagne Appaloosa and he is out of registered miniature horses but was sold without papers because he grew too tall for the registry. He's 10.2 hands. My mare is 11.2 hands and she's from a herd that was imported to the US from Mexico and Argentina, South America about 60 years ago. That herd was originally all (200 of them) registered ApHC ( I confirmed that fact with the registry) then the papers were all lost in a fire and they were never replaced. That herd is down to about 40 now, after 60 years. They did selective breeding, keeping a stallion or two out every couple years for breeding so they could keep the type and they had less than 5% solid colored foals. They ranged from 11 hands to 15 hands. There were about 100 of them until more than half were killed when they got a bad batch of feed. My mare is from that herd and no other outside horses were ever used in that herd so she is "pure" something but I don't know what to call her. I just know she has nothing in common with the POA's but the color.

 

[Countrymom]

I realize this is an old thread, but I figured I would post and bring it up. I think Ponies don't get a nice enough rap. If people would realize that they need the same training as a big horse then it would be better.

We have four ponies at the moment. Two I will post here. Both are show ponies in our little non rated local pony clubs. Both have won Championships multiple times. They are also lesson ponies when I need them. We recently took them both with some students to a big horse show. The Mare placed 3rd in a rather large class. The gelding placed 5th. I thought that was pretty good considering they were the ONLY ponies agains full grown halter horses! And then they went on to pack kids in all sorts of western pleasure and trail classes placing them well.

Here is our POA/Shetland cross mare. Her name is Princess. She is super stocky for her build and does also work the electric flag like a cutting horse. She has a major handle to say the least. This is her with my oldest at the Open Breed Show a couple months ago.

And here is a pic from when I had my kiddos do a chicken wrangle for me. They used one of our old cutting horses and Princess.

And this is Desi with my middle daughter. He is a Shetland and is a red roan pinto. He looks VERY faded here because I had just clipped him. Again at the Open Breed Show. I seriously don't think that the judge understood that we 'stretch out' a pony for show stance. In the pony shows we have them set like this all the time. Desi is a really good lead line pony as well as a riding pony. We use him for the really little kiddos in lead line.

edited cuz i can't spell today

 

[ducks4you]

You're right about the bad rap for ponies, but I think it's because non-riding adults have bought ponies for their horse-crazy kids (over decades, now) and aggressive-tempered ponies have pushed the kids around. I think driving training should be mandatory for ponies. Then, adults would have a use for them, and maintain their training. Love the show pics!

 

[smoothmule]

What cute ponies! There are a lot more adults riding small horses and large ponies now days. I just bought a cart for my MFT Pony, Lil Sister and will be training her this summer and I can hardly wait. Sis foxtrots and she looks so much like a foxtrotter in conformation it's really cool, she's 2 and a half years old now and still just 12 hands.

 

[Stauffer]

LOVE ponies!!! I've got a Haflinger mare (13.1hh) and a Spotted Saddle Horse mare (13.3hh) that I adore

 

[LauraM]

Gypsy's face just cracks me up. What a saucy little minx!