Re: Re: Petite Mount

["Tracey" <tracey@tbt.co.za>]

I suscribe to a site called classical dressage, and a number of people have
posted recently on new trends in Dressage in Europe.  Until recently,
everyone went for big Warmblood types with extravagant paces but recently
there has been a trend away from that back to the smaller breeds :
Andalusians, Lipizzaners, etc.  The reason : the stay sound !

Similar research was conducted (I forget who by, but if anyone wants to give
me a hard time about this, I guess I could try and find out) amongst wild
horses - Camargues, native ponies, etc - and it was found that, over time,
the horses bred smaller - because smaller horses need less food, stay sound
longer, take up less room on pasture, etc.  In France, every now and again
they have to introduce a larger Stallion into the herd to keep the size
above 15h.


Perhaps nature is trying to tell us something?  Me, I like my little 15.2 hh
bundle of energy.  You can keep your 17 hh things which need more leg than I
want to use just to keep 'em walking.


-----Original Message-----
From: Sue Brown <sbrown@wamedes.com>
To: ridecamp@endurance.net <ridecamp@endurance.net>
Cc: greymare@jps.net <greymare@jps.net>; SjthePhoto@aol.com
<SjthePhoto@aol.com>
Date: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 6:36 AM
Subject: RC: Re: Petite Mount


>>My friend had one one these 13.3 hand ponies-part Arab/poa or app.  Had
the
>>best feet the farrier ever saw and had no trouble keeping up with the big
>>horses.  Surefooted as anything-did some 50 mile rides with no shoes and
got
>>a best condition.  In my opinion. some of these little horse/ponies are
>>tougher than the bigger horses
>>
>
>I've got an Arab/Welsh cross mare that stands 13.3 1/2h.  Darby has been
>doing arena work (dressage basics) for the last year and a half and just
>did her first LD ride a week ago after only having been out on the trails
>about 6-8 times.  She's got better strides than a lot of horses, plows
>right thru or over anything, takes up your leg so you don't look too large
>(full sized adults ride her), has good sized bone (even tho it isn't
>delicate pony bone, we're still taking every bit of caution on
>strengthening her bone), and great feet...and a very competitive, "let's
>GO" personality.  We're constantly impressed with her abilities.  She
>should be doing 50s by next season...needs a bit more condition and is
>still a bit too fat so we're taking it slowly...but we have no doubt that
>she will be one *very* tough little horse and can't wait to see what she'll
>accomplish in the future...here's to PONY POWER!!
>
>Sue
>
>sbrown@wamedes.com
>Tyee Farm
>Marysville, Wa.
>
>
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