Apaloosa Ponies

Appaloosas are a breed of horse and not just a color pattern.
There is so much more to an Appaloosa than just it's colors because they have some fine and good quality characteristics.

The Appaloosas were first bred by Nez Perce Indians, Inland from the northwest of America after they were introduced by the Spanish.
The Nez Perce Indians practiced selective breeding hundreds of years ago.
They would geld any appaloosa stallions that they thought were inferior to the others and would only breed their stallions with their very best mares.
They produced a great combination of traits they needed for everyday uses. They had war horses, hunting horses, endurance horses and fast horses all in one beautiful all rounding horse. Amazing right?
Today they are popular, and I am glad people took a liking to them and realized their importance. They then created The ApHC in order to preserve the unique breed.

Colors of an Appaloosa:
Appaloosa base coats come in every color from black to palomino.

• Solid - Some Appaloosas are solid in color and do not have any color coat pattern.
• Leopard - Big dark spots cover a whole body over a white coat color.
• Marble - Small dark spots like freckles over a light coat color.
• Snowflake - Light spots over a dark body.
• Blanket- White markings on hips and/or loins of horse with darker spots over the white sometimes occurring.
• Frost- Small light freckles over a dark body.

According to the American Appaloosa Association, their height is usually between 14 to 16 hands high. They have an average weight of 500 Kilograms, which will vary depending on their height and build.
They have amazing endurance and character which makes them a versatile breed. They can be called stubborn or cheeky by people who don't know them, but it is because they are intelligent enough to have an opinion.
Being a light breed of horse, Appaloosas can be used for children's riding, in the circus, showing, rodeo, show jumping, pony horses at the track and even trial riding. The list is endless what an appaloosa can do!

This versatile breed has common physical characteristics: mottled skin, white sclera, striped hooves, strong sturdy legs, strong hooves and generally very sure footed.
Appaloosas can change color as they begin to age, usually they are born a solid color. Markings on the head and legs will stay the same and usually help to identify an appaloosa horse.

Appaloosas have a higher risk than any other breed of horses to develop a health issue called Equine Recurrent Uveitis where there is only a small amount of pigmentation around the eyelids and not a lot of hair in the mane and tail for protection from the sun.

Another health issue linked to Appaloosas is if they that are homozygous for the leopard complex gene, they are at risk for congenital stationary Night Blindness.

Appaloosa horses are undoubtably something special.
They should be treated with respect like all other animals.
Just because they look different, it does not make them any less of a horse.
Tell me you don't think these horses are special?
At the moment there are over 600,000 Appaloosa horses registered with the ApHC. Thats a lot of spots!

They are extremely dependable and love to be loved!

 

http://www.happy-horse-riding.com/appaloosa-horse.html

Fun with Philly!

Whilst recuperating from a car accident on Smokey we were lent another - a mad Apaloosa who would rear up at the drop of a hat and would stop if you let go of the reins, but wo betide if you tried pulling on the reins to stop!!  We were renowned in the local area for our speed at gymkhana races and the comments of "oh no, the girl on thespotty bottom pony is here again"!

www.equine-world.co.uk
 

And the next

Fortune kept smiling on us....both my brother and I were turning out to be keen and able jockeys, my little sister to a lesser degree.  Soon after joining the Cottesmore Pony Club in about 1978 we were offered another, slightly bigger, Welsh Mountain pony called Crusader.  Cru, as we called him, was a beautiful snowy white, with high whithers and an abhorence of breaking into a canter and a love of young grass which led to a propensity for suffering with laminitis!  Golly could he trot fast!  Cru stayed with us for several years until we had all outgrown him...Alison had a few nasty falls and managed to break her collarbone badly in one.

Welsh Mountain Ponies

The Welsh Mountain Pony

(Section A not exceeding 12 h.h.)

The Welsh Mountain Pony is a breed of great antiquity, believed to be descended from the Celtic pony. They have roamed the Welsh Hills for a thousand years and more.

Throughout the centuries they have survived countless hardships and dangers resulting in their developing a hardness of constitution and an intelligence that has made them one of the finest foundations for horse breeding in the world.

The early history of our island tells us that when Julius Caesar and his armies invaded our shores, he was so impressed by the good quality of the ponies that drew the chariots that opposed him that he took many of them back to Rome. This appears to be the first recorded export of British ponies!!!

Laws made at various times have affected horse breeding in many different ways and the Mountain Pony in the sixteenth century faced extinction when King Henry VIII, thinking to improve the breeds of horses, ordered the destruction of all stallions under 15 hands, and all mares under 13 hands. Fortunately the ponies in the wild and inaccessible mountains of Wales escaped this jurisdiction.

This was not the only persecution that the Mountain Pony had to contend with. The lowland farmers frequently hunted them and drove them back to the high ground when they tried to come down in search of better grazing. It took nearly 200 years before these farmers began to realise that ponies could be an asset when grazed with sheep and cattle. Since that time a market gradually developed for the Mountain pony.

It was not long before the demand for them was on the increase and hundreds changed hands singly or in droves in the big autumn Fairs. Buyers came from far and wide in search of them. Due to this trade many people began to take an interest in the breeding of these ponies, and stallions were more carefully selected.

In 1902 a number of landowners, farmers and pony breeding enthusiasts formed the Welsh Pony and Cob Society, and the first volume of the stud book was published in the following year.

Among the eminent men who became Presidents and Vice-President in those early years were :- The Duke of Beaufort, the Earl of Powis, Viscount Tredegar, Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, Lord Kenyon, Mr Gwynne Holford and Mr Coltman Rogers. These men were already well-known names in the breeding of horses and other livestock. They realised that here was a breed of pony centuries old, and of such value that it must be preserved.

Due chiefly to the hard work of the Society’s early members and the Council they appointed, the Welsh Mountain Pony soon became world famous

They would be well rewarded if they knew how many of our best ponies of the present time are descended from those they selected for registration in the first Stud Book sixty years ago.

Those of us who have been given the opportunity to breed Mountain Ponies on the hills of Wales have a responsibility handed down to us by our forefathers. We have inherited a wonderful pony that has stood the test of time. Let us look after it and preserve its type and hardiness. As a child’s pony it has no equal, and many of our finest horsemen first learnt to ride on a Welsh Mountain Pony.

H. LLEWELLYN RICHARDS. February 1962. [Reprinted with permission of the WPCS from their 1962 Journal]

http://www.gleiniant.co.uk/history_of_the_welsh_mountain_pony.htm

My second pony

In 1975 the Vincent family moved to Madeira and we had to say good-bye to Darkie and Jason :(
Then in 1977, back in the UK, my parents popped out for the afternoon...little did we know that they would be coming home with a Welsh Mountain pony - to be honest, I don't think they knew they would be buying a pony either!  Smokey Joe, as he was named by us, was being sold for meat at the local cattle market when my parents stepped in and bought him for the princely sum of £50!  Smokey was about 3 years old and unbroken, but gelded.  He was a little monkey and it took my mother mounting him, to get him broken!
He was such a fun little pony and we had hours of entertainment grooming and riding him.  We were never to have a dull moment and won a fair few rosettes at the local gymkhanas and pony club events.

http://mobile.horsesrus.co.uk/index.php?&s_breed=45&pg=2

Exmoor Ponies

The Exmoor Pony

The Exmoor pony has inhabited the Exmoor moorland since ancient times and is the oldest British pony. The moor pony is the foundation stock of this unique breed from which outside breeders replenish stock.

Pure bred Exmoor ponies still find their own living "in the wild" all year round. In the Autumn the mares and foals are gathered and driven down to the farms then the pure-bred "suckers" as they are called, are individually examined by the Society`s Inspectors.

The Exmoor National Park Authority have established two herds on Exmoor to ensure that the Exmoor pony remains in its natural environment for the visitor to enjoy.

Exmoors are a rare breed with less than 1000 worldwide. Of these there are 300 breeding mares producing 130 foals annually. 150 of the mares are still "free living" on Exmoor, the remainder throughout Britain. Exmoors are "endangered" on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust list and few bloodlines remain therefore little genetic diversity.

The "free living" Exmoor ponies are wild in the sense that they have to live on the moor throughout the year, find their own food, care for their young and wander free over moorland.

The Exmoor pony is quite literally the "child of the moor", the food, climate and living conditions producing the pony as he is today.

Height of the Exmoor Pony

The Exmoor pony stands up to 12.3 hh. Colour of the Exmoor Pony The Exmoor pony is brown, bay or dun with black points and easily distinguishable from its mealy muzzle.

Characteristics of the Exmoor Pony

The Exmoor Pony has a wide forehead with large toad eyes,thick neck deep chest, well laid back shoulders, broad back with short legs. Of definite pony appearance, the Exmoor is hard and strong with a symmetrical outline and alert presence. Known to withstand harsh climates has a weatherproof coat and a snow chute on the tail. These primitive features suggest very little change since the Old Stone Age. Other characteristics include good stamina with straight and smooth action. Every Exmoor is branded with its individual and herd numbers and a 4-point star.

Temperament of the Exmoor Pony

The Exmoor pony is alert, intelligent and kind.

Uses of the Exmoor Pony

The Exmoor pony is an ideal childrens pony, and are also strong enough to carry a smaller adult. They are used in harness and, when crossed with Thoroughbreds. make excellent hunters.

Other Interesting Facts

The purebred Exmoor Pony remain relatively wild, although they are herded and brought in for inspection and branding once a year. Attempts to breed the Exmoor outside of its natural state have met with little success, causing breeders to constantly return to the wild herds for feral blood. Two types of Exmoor exist: the Acland type (a family in which a larged portion of the Exmoor herd was left in the 1800s) and the Withypool type, a slightly larger, darker pony with a straighter profile.

The Exmoor Pony is a rare, unique, survivor. For many centuries it existed on the moor with little human interference, except for the annual "harvest" of young animals. In the last 200 years, changes, such as enclosure of much of the moor, intensification of agriculture, "improvement" of our native ponies by cross-breeding, and the spread of motor transport, led to a decline.

 

http://www.devonponies.co.uk/exmoor-ponies.html

Dartmoor Ponies

The native pony breed of the county of Devon in the South West of England. The ponies have been recorded living on the wild and unhospitable moors of Dartmoor since the Middle Ages. The ponies have the metabolism to prosper in the tough and uncompromising conditions they have to contend with. The ponies have an exceptional temperament and breeders have long realized their potential as children's ponies with the ability to make wonderful companions, give endless fun, and if required compete and succeed in all spheres of competition.

The Dartmoor Pony Society

The primary role of the Society is to maintain the Stud Book which holds records tracing back the pedigrees of the registered Dartmoor Pony for over 100 years. The original records were held in the Polo Pony Stud Book, and then in the stud books of the National Pony Society. Finally thirty years ago the Dartmoor Pony Society took over maintaining the Stud Book and issues in hard copy form all the foal registrations, transfers and re-entries into the Stallion and gelding sections each year. A very interesting publication for all those interested in the Dartmoor Pony.

The Society has approximately 600 members and is run by a Council comprising of 12 members elected by the membership. Day to day matters are handled by the Chairman and administered by the Secretary and Treasurer, both honorary posts.

The office run by the Hon. Secretary handles all membership and registration matters. In addition the Office runs the sales list, publishes the stud book, and prints and circulates to members news letters etc. It also administers grants very generously given by the Horse Race Betting Levy Board to the Society's members.

Launched at the 2008 Breed Show was The Dartmoor Society Supporters Group, for further information see "Latest News" or "Contacts Page"

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The Pedigree Dartmoor Pony

The Dartmoor Pony Society represents the Pedigree Dartmoor Pony. There are many ponies living on Dartmoor, all sizes and colours, most of unknown breeding. The true to type Dartmoor Pony with known breeding is recognized as a rare breed by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust and is typical of the ponies seen in the show ring at County Shows throughout the United Kingdom. If you require a pony for your children to ride or you wish to show it at whatever level you aspire to, be it your local show, County Show or to qualify for The Year of Horse Show or Olympia, it is the Pedigree Dartmoor Pony that you require.

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The Breed Standard of the Dartmoor Pony

Height:

Not Exceeding 127 cm. (12.2hh.)

Colour:

Bay, brown, black, grey, chestnut, roan. Piebalds and Skewbalds are not allowed. Excessive white markings should be discouraged*.

Neck & Head:

The head should be small with large kindly eyes and small alert ears. It should be well set on a good neck of medium length. The throat and jaws should be fine and showing no signs of coarseness or throatiness. Stallions to have a moderate crest.

Shoulders:

Good shoulders are most important. They should be well laid back and sloping, but not too fine at the withers.

Body:

Of medium length and strong, well ribbed up with a good depth of girth giving plenty of heart room.

Loin & Hindquarters:

Strong and well covered with muscle. The hind quarters should be of medium length and neither level nor steeply sloping. The tail is well set up.

Limbs:

The hocks should be well let down with plenty of length from hip to hock, clean cut and with plenty of bone below the hock. They should have a strong second thigh. They should not be 'sickled' or 'cow-hocked'.

The forelegs should not be tied in at the knee. The fore-arm should be muscular and relatively long and the knee fairly large and flat at the front.

The cannons should be short with ample good, flat, flinty bone. The pasterns should be sloping but not too long. The feet should be hard and well shaped.

Movement:

Low and straight coming from the shoulder with good hock action but without exaggeration.

General:

The mane and tail should be full and flowing. The Dartmoor is a very good looking riding pony, sturdily built yet with quality.

* Italics show amendment Updated 06.04.2008.

http://www.dartmoorponysociety.com/aboutthebreed.html