Shetland Power

[Joshua Kingsley]

Hi all, After working with the large drafts for years a back problem has side lined the big horses in my life. That brings me to the topic at hand, does anyone have any experiance working with shetland ponies? I have currently got a few and am looking for equipment that would be proper size. It seems in New England that these little guys are under utilized. The ones I have range form 3 years up to about 30 with the oldest being an older brood mare. These ponies are the stout stocky old fashioned draft style not the “Modern ” shetland. Any advice on training 10 year olds would be apreciated. Thank you

Joshua Kingsley

[simon lenihan]

pound for pound the shetland is the strongest equine in the world and will do an honest days work in the right enviroment, the right enviroment being small conifer thinnings, steep bankings and other work related to their size. Its hard to say without knowing what schooling the 10 year old has had, but it should be no different to training a youngster.
simon lenihan

[dominiquer60]

Back in my college days I was friends with some draft pony people. Wondeful folks, they let me hang out and help with chores. Sometimes this would involve taking a wagon load of manure and spreading it by hand with a team of Clyde pony stallions. They would work off voice command as we forked manure off the back end of the wagon, those were good nights on the hillside farm. Anyway they crossed all sorts of ponies and horses to get little pony sized draft show/work animals, shetlands, hackneys, welsh, percherons and clydes. These were always tough as nails ponies and if it weren’t for the shear volume of them they would have earned their keep.

Central and Western NY have a good deal of draft pony people, they still have a division for them at the state fair. There is an association that you could try to use to get in contact with more draft pony people, they may know where to get small scale equipment or give you a good idea of how to scale something down. Western New York Draft Horse & Pony Club, Inc. wnydhpc@yahoo.com I know that there are still some pony people out there.

[Joshua Kingsley]

Thank you, I know there are a few pony people around here as well and I am trying to network with them. out of the 12 shetlans I have 1 has ever been driven or saddled so it is a bit of an up hill battle. Some seem to take the bit but act like they may have had bad experiances in the past…. time to go back to basics again with everyone and start from the ground up… I am currently trying to sart one team at a time so the progress will likely be slow going. The 5 year old mare I am starting is really getting the ground driving and bitting down. I will probably try to pair her up with my largest stallion, 11 hands and 450 pound range. as they match pretty well.

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