One of my assignments this semester is to put together a breed improvement scheme for a specific breed or type. I think this is going to be quite a fun assignment, although quite hard when it comes to talking about all the heritability bits and finding journal papers for references… however, let’s not focus on that yet, lets focus on my idea.
I am thinking of ‘improving’ Shetland ponies to make them more versatile and desirable ponies. Everyone loves Shetlands. They are cheeky, smart and often make very good teachers for children. I want to basically give them a bit more ability and potential while keeping them as much to type as possible. Things I am thinking are:
~ increase height range up to 14hands
~ increase dressage ability
~ increase jumping ability
~ make them competitive ponies for eventing, hunting and pony club activities.
~ pony racing? ~ we already have the shetland races…
Credit Peter Facey
I haven’t quite worked out all the details yet, but I am thinking along the same sort of line as the connie ponies. They are now very desirable as pony club and competition ponies, but at the same time, you still get the traditional type with the jumping and dressage ability.
What do you think of my Shetland Sports Ponies idea?
Last Updated on 07/08/2018
Sounds like a cool project! You could look into Shetland ponies being used as sport horses in events like Combined Driving – they’re pretty popular there and it shows their versatility and athletic ability.
Just as long as your plan keeps them adorable!
Just too fun. 🙂
Glad you all like the idea! It’s all very trait and genetic based. So it will be very “long necks are linked with jumping ability. Long neck is x% heritable” ect. So lots of sciency rubbish in it! But I’ll try and make it available for you once its done!