Horse or Pony?

[goodhors]

I would go for the small horse over a smaller animal. I can do more things with it, riding and driving. Do you plan to mostly show, or more a “little bit of everything” using this animal?

Maybe when I get quite old, a pony will do, 12h range, Welsh or Welsh cross. Sturdy, with substantial body and big gaits to do distances with. I had such a pony as a kid, I did everything with her rIding and driving. Rode her 6 miles to the shows, competed, rode her 6 miles home in a day.

For now though, 14h to even 14.2h is a great size animal. And you can get substantial without being bulky. I always think of having to cool equines fast doing CDE things with limited cooling times. Those very deep bodied animals have a harder time cooling their body core. If you plan to ship this animal to Hawaii, it needs to be able to cool easily in the warm temps. The big pony, small horse can manage a rider easily, as well as you adding a passenger to your vehicle fo a long drive. Minis will work hard, yet they just can’t go fast or handle loads the weigh more than they do except for short bursts, maybe in the ring. The cuteness factor is huge, but I want an animal who can do distance in shorter times.

And what is this reaching over the pony to harness? New to me!! Does not sound safe, you are not able to view his entire side to know you got things attached correctly on the offside. Do you walk around him before or after hitching to see how things look? This before getting in to drive? I have made mistakes, missed a crucial strap even working on both sides of a horse!! Caught it before getting on the carriage with the final walk, visual check, around horse.

Lots of nice animals around that drive well. Perhaps more common here in the Midwest, where we have a lot of equines of all kinds. With driving animals being in demand for show and recreation, so trainers keep producing them. Small Morgans could be just the ticket, they can be large pony to small horse, already trained to drive. They love a job, being busy. I would stay away from the hair breeds, lot of upkeep and skin issues in warm, wet climates.

[Twisting]

@goodhors

I would go for the small horse over a smaller animal. I can do more things with it, riding and driving. Do you plan to mostly show, or more a “little bit of everything” using this animal?

It would be more of a pleasure ride/drive sort of thing. There will be no showing opportunities once I am in Hawaii, though I would like to try my hand at it while still in Maryland. CDEs look like fun.

I suppose I should clarify, there will be no driving showing opportunities, and the hunter or dressage shows here don’t interest me much. I haven’t shown undersaddle in 5 years and I can’t say I miss it much.

I’m leaning towards a small/med pony. Big enough to bring a friend along, but small enough to be easy to handle. A nice welsh pony look to be both an affordable and a plentiful option. I do kind of wish the section D’s were as affordable as the Section B’s appear to be.

I do plan on waiting until I have a few months of driving under my belt to make any real choices. Maybe I will miss riding, maybe I won’t. I guess it kind of depends how important going on a trail ride is to me, as that is likely the extent of the riding I would do is. Am I willing to double or triple the costs in order to maintain flexibility.

Isn’t there an Amish community in Maryland? I would imagine that might make it both a smidge easier to find a well trained ride/drive horse as well as being something not easily researched via the internet. That might impact my decision.

I’d like to thank everyone for their advice and experiences. It’s been helpful in giving me different perspectives, and helped pass the time. I hate waiting until I can start something new.

Edit to add, because it seems like several folks have some misconceptions about Hawaii weather: Hawaii is fairly temperate, all that ocean does a pretty good job of keeping things mild. The Southeast, Southwest, and Northeast of the mainland all get much hotter than Hawaii does in the summer. The East coast just much more humid too. The Hawaii humidity is not oppressive the way it is on the mainland. Yeah, the summers can get a little too hot on the summer afternoons to make activity pleasant, but doesn’t it do that just about everywhere.

Maryland in the summer is going to be much much worse than Hawaii.

[DMK]

Hah, Hawaii sounds perfect (from the land of humidity).

It’s true the heavier bodied ponies are harder to cool, but at least from a CDE perspective, it can be managed if you pay a lot of attention to fitness (at least one advanced pony has proven that, although I noticed her stack of ice coolers at the finish was more impressive than mine, but then again, she was doing a lot more than I was).

For me the sturdy pony (I would include a Section D Cob in this group) just seems a bit kinder on trail riding in the mountains as well, plus I admit, I like the “horse like” barrel. But I’m not short or petite, above average height and normal weigh for my height and I have over the years sat on smaller ponies and it wasn’t something I would want to do regularly (I used to joke all they had to do was sidestep to tip me off balance). So I think a lot of that decision depends on your size if you are looking for double duty. But if you are not worried about competing, then a hony opens up a lot of doors in your part of the world. 14’2 is worth a fortune. 14’3? notsomuch (except for fjords, where people are always looking for a 15h fjord, because people are not terribly clever about this sort of thing).

[RMJacobs]

@goodhors

And what is this reaching over the pony to harness? New to me!! Does not sound safe, you are not able to view his entire side to know you got things attached correctly on the offside. Do you walk around him before or after hitching to see how things look? This before getting in to drive? I have made mistakes, missed a crucial strap even working on both sides of a horse!! Caught it before getting on the carriage with the final walk, visual check, around horse.

When I was talking about reaching over the pony during harnessing, I was talking only about placing the shafts in the tugs. One less time walking around the pony was helpful, especially for someone like me who has limited mobility.

All the rest of the harnessing operation was done on each side. I don’t see how you could do the rest except by being on the appropriate side. And of course I always did a final walk around to make sure everything was correct.

Rebecca

[Twisting]

@TwinCity

Sorry to the OP…I"m trying to sell you mini’s from my motorhome…lol. But it really was nice to have the small equipment…and yet both me and hubby can compete together. One factor is I don’t ride anymore due to back issues, but even if I did…I think I would still do the minis! We’re starting to convert people!

lol! It’s not a hard sell. I have ankle and knee pain that makes riding harder and harder. It gets better the more fitter I get, but these days staying fit isn’t as easy as it was when I was 20, or even 30. When I’m not so fit I can only ride with my feet in the stirrups for about 20 minutes before I am in too much pain to keep going. (By ride I mean w/t/c arena work. I can tool around on a trail ride for longer, as it doesn’t stress my joints.)

To answer DMK. I’m 5’9" and while I can still pass my military fitness test with flying colors, I’m at the top end of what is considered healthy weight wise. I have ridden a 14.0 hand fjord and felt good. He took up my leg and handled me just fine. I’ve also ridden a 14.2 Mustang who was a little lighter than the fjord but still sturdy. Felt okay on her. There is no way I would ever dream of putting a leg over my friend’s 14.0 hand welsh/QH cross gelding. He’s a light boned little thing.

The lighter smaller pony looks like it might be a bit more lively than a thicker, taller pony might. Though I guess that would depend on the horse.

[2DogsFarm]

@goodhors Like @RMJacobs I only do tugs/shaftloops from above.
All wraps & holdbacks are done from each side & a final walk-through double-checks it all.
Although, I once headed for the showring with one holdback undone, but I blame shownerves & a fellow competitor called my attention to the lapse & headed for me while I corrected it.
Still, any steps I can save are well-banked & thanked by my arthritic knees.

@Twisting I do 90% of my driving on trails & creaky knees never complain.
But then, riding is not a problem either, save for the dismount. That can be a bit ungraceful, same for stepping out of the cart after a couple hours.
But so is getting up from a chair or sofa :rolleyes:”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹

[cayuse]

About reaching over the horse. Just last weekend I did this very thing, reached over to place the shaft in the shaft carrier. I caught my belt loop on the water hook :eek:. Now I don’t do that anymore :lol:.

[RMJacobs]

@cayuse

About reaching over the horse. Just last weekend I did this very thing, reached over to place the shaft in the shaft carrier. I caught my belt loop on the water hook :eek:. Now I don’t do that anymore :lol:.

With a pony instead of a mini, that gives the opportunity to catch a belt loop on the shaft instead. I was lucky that my ponies were endlessly patient while I unhooked myself.

Rebecca

[jonem004]

There are a lot of really fancy good deals in the 14.3hh to 15.2hh range. You can find some pretty nice little warmbloods that won’t measure to do the A shows but could pack you around no problem. That’s the category I shop for good deals.
YMMV, but I would have to buy a REALLY fancy small pony to enjoy it as much as something I could ride. I’m saving that for my future self.

[goodhors]

Thanks for telling me you reachers are ALSO doing a final walk-around inspection before getting in the vehicle!! You had me very worried for your safety.

[skydy]

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[skydy]

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[CERT]

We have both a 13.2 Haflinger and 14.1 Fjord. The Haflinger was never broke to drive (got her at 15 years old) but the Fjord does both. I also work with several Haflingers between 13.2 and 14.3, the 14.3 guy feels pretty substantial and is great riding and driving. I’ve had people as tall as 6’ on our Fjord and they don’t look terrible.

Other breeds in the “Hony” middle ground: Welsh, Vanners, Morgans, American Draft Pony (yes, it’s a thing, americandraftpony.org), Fell, Dale, Connemera, and I’m sure I’m missing some, but they aren’t as common (not that most are especially common except maybe Haflingers). And of course crosses with any of the above.

If they are broke to drive they are often pretty easy to get riding at least, some take a little to get used to leg aids, a dressage whip can help.

The “cob” size vehicles are pretty easy to maneuver around. I do it by myself a lot. You can get carts that break down quite a ways to make shipping easier as well as trailering.

Minis are fun, but riding is out and I do get a little tired of bending over to do things up, clean out their feet, etc.

Some two wheeled carts can be quite good off road. There are some that make pretty impressive suspension systems including, but not limited to torsion axels, independent suspention, airbag suspension, etc.

Good luck in your search!

[Wanderosa]

I’m not a mini fan just because they tend to be less mellow than big horses. Shouldn’t be that hard to find a farm chonk in MD. Check Drafts4Sale and the Rural Heritage sale page.

[eightpondfarm]

i’ve had two Morgan horses that i trained to drive. One was a Gov’t bred, big boned strong girl., Pic above …15 hands high. Her rump was a thing of beauty to ride behind! My other driving Morgan was smaller, tidier, dark and and quite fancy. He was maybe 14.3 and he was also very strong. Morgans are versatile and it doesn’t hurt that they are also quite beautiful. Both of my driving horses were ride/drive. I have a high wooden wheel Houghton cart and a farm cart with road wheels. At the time i had those driving horses i lived along a gravel road…and even the high wheel Houghton had no trouble on the rock road, washboardy and potholes were not a challenge.

[CarlosR]

I know, many of the costs of minis are the same as the costs of large horses. Board, farrier, vet, none of those are likely to give me a break due to size, but there is in Hawaii is $ 45 per 50 # bale of timothy

I do not expect cheap for any horse that is safely broke to ride and drive and not staring at retirement
For my children the best is the pony, but for an adult like you or me a normal horse is better

[BasqueMom]

I’ve had the opportunity to drive two gypsy vanners, smaller ones, 13.3 and 14.0, both studs. The taller one swears he’s
16.0 hands and always stands up big and tall. Recently had the chance to drive a couple of minis–what a hoot! Lot more fun than I thought. Both were larger ones.

Found a driving one at local kill pen but haven’t talked hubby into it. They also have a lovely saddlebred who has been driven most of his life in his early teens. Am in the unusual position of having a cart and no horse of my own. Instructor had horse and sulky so I started with that. Needed a cart…there is stuff that having instructor next to you is necessary. So got cart, a meadowbrook from e-bay, no less.

Have a two horse slant so we struggle with loading cart in pickup bed for now. A winch would be nice but hasn’t happened yet. Get tired of hitching and unhitching and hitching and unhitching, etc. Search the internet for something
bigger but not a fortune (pre-owned) but he hasn’t gotten tired enough of the drill. For some reason, he wants to get a cargo trailer big enough for the cart. We have two trucks, but why a caravan? Sigh! Male thing?

Thought he might jump on the mini thing seeing as how I could handle both critter and cart by myself (am ancient) or
pretty much so. It does seem to take a village to go to events with horse, cart and horse’s hormones (still a stud) vs throwing horse and saddle in trailer and butt in truck and head down the road.

[CERT]

Ouch, $45 a bale definitely makes a mini look like a very good option! Of course the drafty ponies tend to be fairly thrifty as well. Our 14.1 Fjord eats a lot less than our 14.3 Arab despite outweighing him almost 300lbs!

[Tamsin]

Haflingers are great little driving and riding horses. And so, so pretty. They are study enough to carry large adults and have the girth to take up a lot of leg. They do have opinions, especially the mares.

[Tamsin]

I should add, Haflingers are easy keepers. They get plump just looking at hay.