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Think pony, and a few words probably come to mind. Cute. Short. Shaggy. Now think sport horse. What images do you get? Tall. Stylish. Athletic.
For the serious young rider or adult amateur who wants a stylish athlete, but in a smaller package, the sport pony offers some exciting oppotunites. In the following, three sport pony breeders discuss what sport ponies are, where they’re headed in the future, and why you might want one in your barn.
Sport Ponies, Defined.
Sport ponies are just as the name describes – ponies bred for the traditional sports of dressage, eventing, hunter/jumper and combined driving. In appearance, the modern sport pony ranges from 13 to 14.2 hands, with conformation and movement that are clearly horse-like. Along with those horse-like traits, the pony heritage lends a sensible temperament and easy-keeping tendencies. Decades of focusing on these attributes have resulted in a combination that is tough to beat.
Louise Rascoe of Bahama, North Carolina, is a sport pony advocate. Her Longview Farm stands the 14.2 –hand German Riding Pony stallion *Stibby-Me (Show name, Sweet Rock Solid). He has enjoyed what she says is “a very good reception here in the States.” Rascoe says that, typical of his breed, Sweet Rock Solid balances a competitive dressage career with his breeding career. This demands a superb temperament. She says, “At a show or at home, he can be cross-tied near mares and never gives any problems. It’s just not in his nature. He’s all business.” Rascoe says that sport ponies are creating a real following in her area, and Sweet Rock Solid is crossing well with Welsh, Welsh Cob, Thoroughbred and warmblood mares. “I get quite a few people calling and looking for German Riding Ponies and crosses,” she notes.
Of course, the German Riding Pony is just one of many pony breeds that are ideally suited to sport. Another is the Connemara, says long time Connermara breeder, Kathy Lucas. She points to Lendon Gray’s Connemara cross Seldom Seen and Carol Kozlowski’s purebred Hideaway’s Erin Go Bragh as ambassadors for the breed. Seldom I could breed horses that would offer the same quality- if not better – than the horses I had to hunt all over Europe to find. And I thought that I could do it more cheaply and turn a small profit. By using my own stallions and raising my young stock in a feedlot system similar to the European method, this is indeed possible.”
Even when discussing how stallions contribute to breed types, the veterinarian emphasizes how mare-lines shape the breed. He says, “both the mare and stallion sides of my breeding program are built around top-producing mother-lines. Not just a few good grandmothers, but mares who have themselves produced top performers. American breeders have certainly begun to realize the importance of using good mares…but many breeders still talk about what their dam-lines did two or three generations ago.
“Breeders should really concentrate on using top mares who have themselves produced top breeding stock and exceptional athletes. Catiago’s mother, G-Catania, is a good example. In six successive foal crops, she produced two States Premium mares, two Verband Premium mares, Catiago, and one young stallion that was approved by the Holsteiner Verband and sold to Zangersheide for 260,000 Euro’s.
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